NCT - nearly half of the 1.5 million vehicles that did the test last year failed

aidanodr

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121572750#Comment_121572750

Thats assuming because a car is older it is always going to fail alot more. Not the case, me included and many others I know of. If a car is looked after it can last for a long long time. In many cases the older cars were over engineered ( esp older classics, some cars from the 80s ) when produced and compared to modern vehicles are actually built better.

gossamerfabric

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121572735#Comment_121572735

Did you not read my post where I linked to RSA accounts? There is probably profligacy there but it is the RSA, not company which tendered for the contract and then the people of Ireland get screwed over by the tendered company not being able to pay a living wage to Irish Mechanics to man the centres and abuse the visa system to bring over Asians to do the tests.

colm_mcm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121572909#Comment_121572909

I just had a read of it there, and there’s nothing surprising there. The contracted company (Applus) collect the money, pay the wages etc etc then hand over a huge chunk to the RSA.

Ref the foreign workers, in an unrelated industry - during and after Covid I took on a lot of new starts, all of them eventually left - some because they had unprecedented opportunities to get better jobs that they’d never have been considered for when jobs were harder to get, and others moved around similar jobs and tried out lots of different companies in a short space of time. I would expect this is what happened in the NCT too. They would have tendered for the NCT contract based on expected wage rates, so they can’t reasonably just increase everyone’s wages 20% just to keep people.

gossamerfabric

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121572993#Comment_121572993

Why should a would-be Irish Mechanic go through years of an Apprenticship just to have their earning power undermined by a Foreign Company who low-balled a contract and then blackmailed the Irish Government to release Visas where previously there were none.

That financial document shows the RSA don't care as they are well paid and pensioned and the Government abdicates its responsibility to the Citizens of Ireland to allow them to earn a living wage in the Country they were born in.

There is a case of privatising the profits and socialising the losses here and they'll do it again now that the Genie has been let out of the bottle with Visas being issued for a profession that FAS and the apprenticeship process would have been producing qualified staff for previously.

CalamariFritti

I always thought its because many people dont bother with maintenance, especially for cars they intend to 'drive into the ground'.

So they use NCT to tell them what is the bare minimum to fix?

Red Silurian

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121572874#Comment_121572874

In fairness the vast majority of people don't look after their cars with the degree of proficiency you speak of. I'd like to see the exact stats of pass/fail rates vs age but I'd suspect older cars do fail more

Lewis_Benson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121570971#Comment_121570971

It would be full of corruption if that was the case.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121573672#Comment_121573672

If Irish people looked after their cars and did the bare minimum in maintenance then it wouldn't be too different. Sadly that won't happen.

If the NCT changed their prices so the first test was cheap and a retest was expensive then the statistics would change overnight.

ozmo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121571952#Comment_121571952

My car failed - after passing for many years - because the side windows had a light tint on them (not applied by me - but I liked it). Aparently because of the possibility that someone would wear sun glassess in the car (not me) and that would be too much then. Now I have windows with mismatching tints front and back to suit them.

Also Failed next year because they noticed the front window top window tint came down too close to tips of wipers - technicality at this stage as visors cover much more of window.

Another car failed because I had some work done to body and they wanted to see the bare metal - as they said they couldnt see it was done right if it was painted - wanted me to remove paint + undercoat - get inspected - then repaint car. Asked for manager - he agreed with me it was madness that I would have to get paint removed from skirt and underside of car and drive cross city with no rust coat applied (it was raining a lot that week) - but said "he could not show up his lads".

Chancers - never going back to the M50 NCT near airport again.

L1011

Back and forth deleted. Drop it.

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121575848#Comment_121575848

Its only a fail if both reg plate lights are not working. Otherwise its just advisory. And I would think that not being able to identify someones registration number is a bit of a safety issue.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121576450#Comment_121576450

Low wattage, 5w compared to 55w for headlights often.

That said, I'm my third set of reg plate bulbs but I've only changed one other non headlight bulb (one brake light - other brake light, indicators, fogs, reverse, rear lights all ancient). The tungsten sputtered off the filament and coated the glass tube

oceanman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121573754#Comment_121573754

and you think the NCT is not? didnt RTE even do an under cover programme about the shenanigans going on in one test center..

User1998

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121576450#Comment_121576450

I’m thinking of a car fleeing from the scene of an accident, or not being picked up by CCTV, stuff like that.

Lewis_Benson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121576666#Comment_121576666

They did a while back alright.

The problem you wild have is each garage trying to make up their own rules, when they should be following the tester manuals.

reubenreuben

Some cars are failed on really silly things because the computer says so. The mechanic can do nothing about it.

For instance, failing by 1% on your handbrake balance , yet car can pass with faulty shock absorbers as each side is equally as bad so pass the percentage balance.

No commonsense.

mac167

Serviced my car last month, and sent my 2013 Nissan to NCT and it flew through it.