Denis,I completely agree with you about cars that are potentially putting drivers or occupants at risk. As i said earlier i think the concept of a national car test is right, but it's application is flawed. They plan to bring in yearly testing for cars over 10 years of age because of their failure rates yet cars over 30 years of age are exempt from a test. What is the reasoning behind this? I think we are all agreed on the opinion that it is the severity of the points which is the real issue. Vehicle factors, i.e-faults , account for less than 1/2 a percent of road deaths yet the government seems to think they are justified in issueing them more penalty points than speeding or careless driving. Also i'd be very weary of the 3 points for not remedying a fault indicated by a failed test. After what period will this apply? Technically, if we go over the current 28 days in which to fix a fault we are as good as driving without an nct cert again because you will have to undergo a full nct again after those 28 days, and therefore liable for the 5 point penalty. As i said earlier this is typical of this government to just roll out these legislations without informing the public on exactly how they will operate. The government didn't even inform the NCT body of its plans. They only found out when worried motorists bombarded their helplines and on-line services(which ended up crashing) to see exactly what this meant!!
