RAC reacts to Government's proposal to allow new vehicles to undergo an MOT after four years, not three

Following the announcement that the Department for Transport has launched a consultation into extending the MOT test for new vehicles from three years to four, RAC chief engineer David Bizley said: “We are generally supportive of the idea of changing the requirement for a vehicle’s first MOT from three years to four, but we do have some concerns about high mileage vehicles.

“For example, it is perfectly possible for a high mileage vehicle at three years old to have done in the region of 100,000 miles which would make an MOT entirely appropriate. However, the situation with an average mileage vehicle would be very different as, at four years old, it may only have around 40,000 miles on the clock. The high mileage vehicle, on the other hand, may have added another 30,000 miles which in our opinion would be far too many before its first MOT.

“It is worth noting that Northern Ireland already successfully operates a four-year first MOT system so if the rest of the UK was to do so, it would simply be following suit. In an ideal would, however, we should like to see a two-tier system which states that an MOT must be carried out at four years or as soon as it reaches a threshold mileage of maybe 50,000 or 60,000.”