The FBHVC ran an on-line survey at the end of last year in its attempt to canvas the public’s reaction to these proposals. The survey ended at the end of January 2012 and the full results of that survey are now available.

http://fbhvc.co.uk/files/2011/11/MoT-survey-report-v2.pdf

Looking at the survey, a number of things stand out.
74% of respondents believe that the MOT testing regime for historic vehicles should be relaxed in some way, while 26% believe the test should continue as it is.

53% of respondents said they would take their vehicles for test if this could be done on a voluntary basis; 33% said they would not seek a voluntary test.

Some of the respondents added comments to their survey responses.

Among these comments were the following.

• no risk of restriction on use (although two respondents thought this would be sensible);
• no risk of increased insurance premiums for untested vehicles;
• no risk of insurers demanding (expensive) engineer’s reports;
• some facility for a formal standardised test to demonstrate road-worthiness.

There is a degree of ‘Wishful thinking’ in these responses.
While dropping the MOT test for vehicles built prior to 1960 may not lead directly to restrictions on use, it would increase the ammunition available to the Anti ‘Old car’ lobby in that it could be seen as allowing untested ‘dangerous’ cars on the road.

It is easy to see a circumstance where insurers would consider an untested vehicle as a higher risk than one which has been certified and this would almost certainly see them increase premiums for such vehicles, in the same way that they load premiums for ‘High Risk’ motorist groups such as Young, Male drivers.

Without a ‘statutory’ test, it’s not impossible to see Insurers saying that they would offer reduced rates to vehicles that had been tested in some way, possibly by an organization approved by the Insurance Industry.

The final suggestion is interesting in that it calls for ‘some facility for a formal standardised test to demonstrate roadworthiness’, if that is what is requested, why scrap the MOT at all? Surely we already have this in place.

With 53% of the respondents to the FBHVC survey saying that they would submit their vehicles voluntarily for a test and others saying that without the MOT there should still be a ‘Standardised’ test, we can see no reason why the relaxation of testing is valid and hope that the FBHVC decide along the same lines.

Sometimes, what is given with one hand in legislation is taken back many fold with the other.