Now here is how it should be done!

[John R Walters]

I decided to put one of our cars for in for the Spanish equivalent of our UK MOT. It is in my case, a voluntary one, because it is still a UK plated car.

What an eye opener.
The test centres are official Government places, and you can book an appointment or turn up on spec and wait for a place.
They are modern, clean, have glass screened paperwork/reception areas where you can watch the cars being tested, with seating, and decent vending machines, and are heated or ACd according to the season.

They have two testing lines, one for light vehicles and one for HGVs. And all on one level! No lifts etc.

After completing the computerised paperwork, when your number is called, you the driver, take the car through the line and the test.

It starts of with emission tests, with the government tester running the engine controls and passing the results along to a central computer office at the end.
You then take the car through the rest of the usual rolling road brakes, lights, and blah, blah until you get to the end of the line where they have a machine which physically shakes the car from side to side with the tester looking at the suspension and underside from a pit.

Total testing time about 10 mins. And if you pass you get a sticker to display, or if you fail, a full report.

That’s the way to do it.

No dodgy MOT stations or garages on the fiddle, with some pucker mouthed AH who grudgingly puts down page 3 of The Sun or whatever, intimidating and ripping off women and/or the ignorant.

All these centres do is test. They are in no way connected to any garage.

And we think the UK way is always the best!!!!

[Ken Malone]

And we think the UK way is always the best!!!!

I stopped thinking that 15 years ago - about most things here.

[Dick Winchester]

I absolutely agree with you on that Ken. This country is all process and no progress nowadays.

[Stuart Falshaw]

It's the same here in France with dedicated test centres. Likewise you can opt to have a voluntary test as the official test period is two years as laid down in the European legislation, however the UK decided that every year was better, they need the money for new roads or what ever they spend it on. The voluntary test is cheaper and is often done when selling a car to prove its roadworthy

[Lisa Balsom]

I wasn't aware of all these different tests that other EU countries employ.

I think an annual test is a good idea, but a government run network of test stations is definitely a very good idea to help avoid what John mentioned.

How much do they cost in other Countries?

[Stuart Falshaw]

In France it's about 52 euros £36/37 for the obligatory and 40 euros for the voluntary test.
This compares with the UK at £42 (full price) with discounted tests available but you are never confident that they will not just find something to put the cost up. My Cappo is L reg and never had a fail but it has always been to a local garage in the village and he has tested the car for the 12 tests. The only problem is trying to explain why the car has only done 500 miles between tests

[Ken Malone]

I absolutely agree with you on that Ken. This country is all process and no progress nowadays.

Right on Dick!

Hey I was watching Eurosport's coverage of Le Tour and they'd had an email from a North Sea based saturation diver who was watching le Tour in the decompression chamber and had been for the past 6 days. Someone else mailed in to say they'd also been a SD and used to do the same - but for up to 28 days - and seeing the sunshine during the Tour used to drive him mad as he waited for the pressure to equalize etc.

I fancied having a model railway construction kit in the chamber - nice to be paid mega bucks for days on end - doing railway modelling

[Dick Winchester]

The most evil thing we ever did to a couple of sat divers was to pay a stripper to strut her stuff so they could watch through one of the portholes in the chamber.

Railway modelling would be difficult. You'd have to work out how to pressurise the glue tube without flattening it and spreading the contents all over the inside of the chamber

I knew one guy who used to knit .... We were always a little worried about him

[Ken Malone]

the knitting diver - what was he knitting?

[Dick Winchester]

All sorts of things I think.... I remember him doing a mult-coloured scarf..

My wife reminded me of another trick we played on one diver. When he came out of saturation he proceeded to re-saturate himself with alcohol ..

So we put him back in the chamber and blew it down a couple of feet which was enough to seal the doors... Then we reset the depth guages to 100 feet... When he woke up the next morning we convinced him he'd an attack of the bends.. It took him 24 hours to realise he'd been had

[Ken Malone]

How HAVE you managed to live so long you ole jokerman you

I loved the stripper story!