Almost every vehicle type can now have a MOT even if exempt, and that includes a vehicle that is exempt because it is not yet 3 years old, or is foreign. Even your finally finished restoration of your barn find that has not been tested for 30 years can have a MOT. The MOT manual even states that a 1905 car does not require a handbrake!!! It is also an offence under the MOT scheme to refuse to test a vehicle other than for a small number of legitimate reasons.

The letter in EMG ... incorrectly suggested that there is a national scheme available for £25 or so and people should use it. There is a national scheme, it is called the MOT and prices vary from £0 - £55, you chose the one you want. There is no such other national scheme.

Re Pauls post about timings, this is a subject that I hate and is my biggest challenge. Another myth (created by MOT testers and the many millions of 'wannabe' testers) is that it takes X amount of time to test or they will be locked up. This is simply not true and those testers should concentrate on quality testing and not being tea break lawyers. The test takes as long as it takes using all of the mandatory equipment required for that type of vehicle. So, unless a car is a complete basket case that requires in depth scrutiny, then an emissions exempt classic may only need half an hour. One that needs a gas check may need more time, one that needs a decelerometer brake test will take longer again. Again, leaving a car logged on whilst it being outside is an offence. Plus, if it is common place, it makes me look harder at their data ... which sometimes shows up a bingo win result. They are using the longer test times to skew their average test time, i.e. hiding the 2 min tests for their mates. Doesn't work any more though chaps.

Major - It may affect the vehicle's safety, put other road users at risk or have an impact on the environment. Repair it immediately. Fail

You can take your vehicle away if:

• your current MOT certificate is still valid
• no ‘dangerous' problems were listed in the MOT

If you can take your vehicle away, it must still meet the minimum standards of roadworthiness at all times.

"MOTs are a test - the tester may not adjust anything other than Headlamp aim during the test [if you suspect headlamp aim is off then drive to the test centre having removed the headlamp rings yourself, I suggest!]. Certain minor items - such as blown bulbs - can be replaced at the end of the test before the car is passed. Garages may well charge for fitting an item, especially if it is discounting the test [VERY silly to go for a test with blown bulbs ...]. (Currently £54 max but available for £39.95 etc.) So it pays to avoid this if possible. Certain failure items must be retested for no fee. Partial re-tests may or may not incur a fee. Details are shown on a poster that MOT stations must display and on the VT30 fail certificate.

"All the usual caveats apply. Your investment can go down as well as up. Your home is at risk etc. etc. This information is not governed by the Financial Services Authority......

"Hazard lights, (if fitted) must work , ignition on, ignition off

"Horn must work. Fuel cap must seal [visible rubber seal, not loose and rattling about, actually sealing is not checked]. Door mirrors to be secure. You must have a driver's door mirror and either a rear view or passenger side one [On vehicles first used before 1st August 1978 only one of interior, external offside, or external nearside mirror is required on passenger vehicles with fewer than eight seats, for those on or after 1st August 1978 there must be two one of which must be 'an exterior mirror or device that provides a view along the offside of the vehicle' according to MOT Manual Section 3.3]

"Wipers must work, with blades that clear the screen and are intact [clear an arc to give an 'adequate' view, not specified]. Washers +fluid. (push type washer is fine). Windscreen - chips bigger than 10mm in the area in front of the steering wheel will fail: as will bigger than 40mm in the rest of the area swept by the wiper blades.

"Indicators left & right. 60-120 flashes per minute is required.

"Side lights - front and back, dip beam, main beam, rear number plate lights. If fitted, rear fog light + tell-tale [if two are fitted the off-side lamp must work. If neither work but they are accessories added by an owner then you may get away with it!]. Brake lights. Indicate left then right and check stop/tail lights don't flash in time. (Reverse lights don't matter [not tested, although at one time if they were operated from a manual switch by the driver they must also have a tell-tale])

"Then put hazards on and all the above, (except indicators) to check that other lights are not "disco-ing" in time with the hazards.

"Seat belts must recoil (often slowly!), unless static type, and lock in place in the buckle. Belts must not be unduly frayed.

"Check the tyre tread depth - it needs to be 2mm (1.6mm is the legal min). Check the side walls for bulges or damage. You can't do much about the inside face without lying under the car!

"Handbrake - does the lever poke you in the eye when you pull it up? Turn the steering wheel - if it moves more than from 12 o'clock to 1 o'clock without turning the road wheels it will probably fail (depends on steering wheel diameter)

"Exhaust must be "supported" - waggle the tail pipe a bit (when cold...) - it shouldn't. Noise is subjective, as it is difficult to determine a "standard" car!

"Number plates - lots of regulations. Stick on ones on the bonnet should pass but don't always. 1/1/73 was the change year from metal black & silver to modern yellow/white. Take the V5C to prove date of first registration and/or ask first!

"Bits must not be obviously falling off!

"Play in bearings, suspension, or steering is beyond the scope of this. If you think headlamp aim may be wrong, remove the chrome bezel before the test to make adjustment easier. If you can see the front brake pads they must be a minimum 1.5mm thick (the thickness of a 5 pence piece).

"Corrosion within 300mm of a suspension mounting or seat belt anchorage or major structural item will fail

"Local classic car clubs/users can best advise on "sympathetic" MOT stations who understand older cars. High throughput / low price ones probably do not fall onto this category! If you are not sure about a particular thing , take the car in and ask BEFORE the test is due!

"If the car has no MOT you may legally drive it to a pre-booked MOT test - nowhere else. Insurance for this trip is a slightly murky area. [You can get insurance without having tax or an MOT. I'm pretty sure it is an offence to drive to an MOT station without insurance, regardless of whether it is a pre-booked test or not. It's not something you should ever put to the test, I suggest, or you may be personally liable for any damage or injury caused to third-parties as well as being prosecuted. Note that someone else may be able to drive your car on their insurance, which may be Third-party cover only.]

"Should the car fail, you can drive it home or to a garage to have it fixed [The MOT station may encourage you not to drive the car away on safety grounds, i.e. have it fixed there and then or arrange for it to be towed/trailered somewhere else, but they cannot legally prevent you driving it away].

"Should you have some days "left" on your current MOT but the car fails the test, you still have an MOT, but you are driving an "un-roadworthy" vehicle. The current MOT Pass certificate shows the earliest date at which the vehicle can be presented for test - just under a month before the certificate expires [But see here]. By having the car tested near this date, there should be ample time to fix items that fail. If the car passes, the new certificate is automatically dated for 12 months from the date of the expiry of the current certificate. However if it does fail, be aware that although you still have an MOT, you are driving an "unroadworthy vehicle" which restricts legal use. The penalties are pretty similar to not having an MOT and whilst technically covered by your insurance in legal terms, you are unlikely to have a claim settled.

[My son when living in London had no facilities to work on his car and regularly had it MOT'd twice a year].

"I've probably missed something, but it's a start! Good Luck!"

Often the question comes up regarding "What year is my MG?" with the early cars. Cars built in 1951, or even 1950 are titled as "1952" TDs, for example. Early MGBs built in 1962 or 3 may be listed as 1963 or 1964s. Owners of early cars are especially urged to know their VIN numbers in order to get the correct original equipment. Why?

My understanding of the situation is that the "model year" was an American, primarily GM, invention. In the 1930's GM's chairman, Alfred Sloan began the practice to showcase annual styling changes. Soon, every other US manufacturer followed suit, and the concept of a "model year" starting in the fall of the year started.

This system was alien to most European manufacturers, including MG. VW even used their rather stable product plan to their advantage with the Beetle's advertising in the States. The European manufacturers basically updated their cars when required for competitive reasons, and only loosely followed a "model year" concept. MG up until the late sixties was like this, hence the issue with when was it built, when was it sold, what year is it anyway, what do I put on the title? Early cars had model years "designated" by the dealer. It was a world where model years were ingrained into American paperwork registration, and titles (after all, who couldn't tell the difference between a '59 Chevy and a '60?), but with imports from Europe, well, it was a different story. The dealer typically filled out the paperwork so that a car sold in the model year (October to October) was of that model year, regardless of date of manufacture.

What changed that "system" was the safety and emissions regulations which phased in requirements by model years for cars sold in the US. Once that occurred, all the European manufacturers had to follow US procedures for VINs, and linking US-destined cars to specific model years and levels of safety and emissions equipment. Of course, old habits are hard to break, and while I'm sure MG put in all legally required equipment, I've heard how sometimes earlier parts sometimes ended up in the next model year's cars on occasion.

So - it's not unusual for cars exported to the States sold prior to 1967 (I think that's when the first safety/emissions laws became effective) to have wildly different dates of manufacture vs. model year on their title, and why after that a system was imposed on the VIN designation. Later cars, therefore, will have their model year "baked into" the VIN regardless of the date for manufacture. It's easy to imagine how MG would have had to have been building the next year's model in late spring or early summer in order to be in showrooms in the U.S. by the fall.

© John H. Zajac
reproduction permitted by author, provided authorship & copyright acknowledged

Clausager refers to 'model years' from 1969 on, which started production in November 1968. Thereafter the new model year could start production at any time from May 1978 (for the 1979 model year) to December 1974 (for the 1975 model year) but was typically August or September. 1974 saw another main change-point in September, for the '1974 1/2' model year cars and the full rubber bumpers. Small changes appeared constantly throughout production, however. The changeover points, listed by chassis/serial number, could be a little chaotic as 'old' parts were used up before 'new' parts were used. Therefore it was common for a car with a chassis/serial number before the change point to have some parts that should only have appeared after the change point, and vice-versa. The only thing that could be said for sure is that, as far as is known, matched items were fitted i.e. you wouldn't get a car with one 1976 headlight and one 1977!

Note that it dates the GLASS, so is only an indication of the cars age, assuming the glass is original.

If you are not quite sure of the year of your car, but the decade is known, just look for dots above and below the TRIPLEX TOUGHENED or LAMINATED logo on the glass. Unfortunately it is complicated by the code system changing in January 1969.

Before January 1969 one dot above T, R, E or X gives the quarter of the year the glass was manufactured:
T = Jan, Feb, March
R = April, May, June
E = July, Aug, Sept
X = Oct, Nov, Dec

From January 1969 the code indicated the month not the quarter, and although the same four letters were used there could be one, two or three dots used:

       .                                       :    .
Jan    TRIPLEX (dot over the T)        Jul     TRIPLEX
        .                                      :     .
Feb    TRIPLEX (dot over the R)        Aug     TRIPLEX
            .                                  .     :
Mar    TRIPLEX                         Sep     TRIPLEX
             .                                  .    :
Apr    TRIPLEX                         Oct     TRIPLEX
       :                                            .:
May    TRIPLEX (double dot over T)     Nov     TRIPLEX
       :.                                            :
Jun    TRIPLEX                         Dec     TRIPLEX

Say your car is a 1950's MG, then TRiplEX TOUGHENED, with one dot over the 'R' in Triplex, and the other under the last 'E' in Toughened, indicates 'April/May/June 1958'.

My 75 GT has Sicursiv side glass but a Triplex heated back-light with a dot over the E and one under the G, indicating March 74. The car has a build date of May 1975, so you can see that glass (and quite probably other components) could be hanging round for some time before being used - no Just In Time then!

My thanks to Pierre De Rijck of Belgium for questioning this information when he found multiple dots on his windows, as originally the information from Neil only indicated one dot. The additional info came from these Spitfire and Mini (NLA) sites. However it should be noted that these two differ for 1969 and later for the months of March and April. The former shows the dots over the I and P of TRIPLEX whereas the latter shows then over the E and X as previously. As both sites show only the E and X letters being used in all other cases, I'm tempted to think the Triumph site is in error and have assumed such. Pierre also mentioned his two side windows had different codes. This could have been due to breakage in the past, but in his case the two codes seem to be consecutive months in the same year and so are more likely to be from two production batches rather than one. If LHS and RHS glasses are made, packed and shipped separately rather than as pairs this is more then likely, especially given the apparent gap between manufacture and fitting. Less so if the glasses were shipped as pairs, but still possible if one were damaged or a defect found during the build of the car.

One source indicates that Sicursiv didn't start date coding until around 1990.

The following pages contain similar information in some cases for more modern cars, and there are many other pages found with Google: