Morris Minor Owners Club

Well this got the keyboards working. Its fair enough not making old cars go through a modern mot but i think they should have some sort of test just checking the basics on things we could miss or put off for to long. Some people will be buying old cars now cause they are exempt and risking it. With the miles i do in mine il probably test it every 2 years. Tho may feel differently once the mot has expired as its a cheap way to have it checked over.

Firedrake, et al.

Our representative Sandy Hamilton has been in close contact with the Federation and will formulate the MMOC response to the consultation document.

Sandy advised the MMOC committee that he will formulate the response following the Federation AGM in October and submit an article for future inclusion in Minor Matters via the OPEN Road feature which runs occasionally.

This is the course of action we are currently pursuing.

We are not responding to specific items until we have all the facts and have formulated our official response.

Cam Shaw
MMOC Webmaster & Committee Member.

I have been thinking about this and I think I will still take my daily driver for MoT every 12 months for a health check in case I have missed something as I do about 12,000 miles per year in her.

My modified 1380cc 4-door might well still have to have an MoT, so that's irrelevant currently.

Gill's Van will be MoT'd every 12 months at her request.

My two Series MMs which are currently MoT exempt anyway will be MoT'd every 2 years when they are on the road which they are not currently, so it doesn't affect me very much personally.

Besides which, I like the peace of mind of having it checked over in case I have missed something. I guess I'm lucky to use a garage that is very classic friendly and know what they are doing and are sensible.

Cam

As I understand it the consultation is closed! This is , according to the DOT website, the decision of the Ministry . The time for submission of views appears to have passed,

Thanks for info regarding mmoc response, however if this exemption becomes law, I would suggest the only response to us can be that of expressing a view, I can't imagine the nightmare scenario of the club insisting on an mot as condition of membership!! Oh dear hope I haven't given anyone ideas!

firedrake1942 wrote:Cam

As I understand it the consultation is closed! This is , according to the DOT website, the decision of the Ministry . The time for submission of views appears to have passed,

This comes into effect May 2018 so this is what is happening. The submissions, total 2217, were a while ago and were taken into consideration before this outcome was announced.

Missed the bus then. Wonder if the club would have been for or against the exemption.

Moot point now!

I have to question why the mmoc didnt know about the proposals either via its own environmental scanning or via the Federation of Historic Vehicles etc, didn't thereby inform the membership and seek its views and didn't respond either as an entity or feed such feedback into a joint submission. Whether for or against , this is an important change which our club should have been aware of and forced a club view on.

Bus well and truly missed! Never mind, as long as it was MOT'd!

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... hiness.pdf

Para 32...............Next Steps is still to be discussed with stake holders - so the final outcome is not all wrapped up.

philthehill wrote:https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... hiness.pdf

Para 32...............Next Steps is still to be discussed with stake holders - so the final outcome is not all wrapped up.

32.We will introduce secondary legislation to enact these changes as soon as possible.
The changes will come into effect from 20 May 2018. We will discuss with stakeholders
the precise formulation of the guidance on substantial change and this will be published
once the legislative phase is completed.

Only the definition of substantial change is to be discussed, the legislation will come in 20 May 2018.

The way I read this thread it is/was the uncertainty over the 'Substantial Changes' that was the concern and that will be addressed in line with Para 32.
If you have a standard (that is ex factory spec) Morris Minor there should be no concerns with the legislation as the owner of a standard Morris Minor will benefit - but if you have a modified Morris Minor then there is possibility of having to comply with the points system and having an examination at a period length which is/has to be defined.
To me the Substantial Changes issue (which has not been defined) is all up in the air and will be discussed with stake holders in due course after the Secondary Legislation was been enacted.
Phil

Whilst accepting that 'substantial change' is still to be defined, the whole process of exemption or further exemption (I am not sure I would call it entirely a benefit) is of concern. We all have our own posts on on this and it appears the majority will continue to test, largely as before but there was a consultation period on this which we, as members, did not know about and the MMOC did not respond to either as a discrete entity or as part of a larger body.

firedrake1942 wrote:Whilst accepting that 'substantial change' is still to be defined, the whole process of exemption or further exemption (I am not sure I would call it entirely a benefit) is of concern. We all have our own posts on on this and it appears the majority will continue to test, largely as before but there was a consultation period on this which we, as members, did not know about and the MMOC did not respond to either as a discrete entity or as part of a larger body.

The MMOC is listed as a member of the FBHVC who responded on behalf of it's member clubs, there is an excellent response by them which was no doubt considered during the final formulation of the policy by the Government. The FBHVC also included their response to the substantial changes which differed slightly from the Government document, I assume that the FBHVC will make further representation about this in due course.

The issue is, as you rightly state, did the MMOC respond to the initial consultation and what is it's position regarding the substantial changes?

The MMOC could make an important model specific contribution to the substantial change consultation by explaining that the installation of a 1275 or other larger A Series engine has been a very common upgrade for a very long time, and does not adversely affect safety. Not the same thing as putting in a 3.5 V6!

I won't be avoiding the MOT myself, but wouldn't want my car to be regarded as somehow dodgy if a time comes to sell it.

Mark

Fitting the 1275cc engine of whatever persuasion/source can only be considered as not having an adverse effect on the safety of a Minor if the brakes are upgraded and the suspension is in top class condition or upgraded and notwithstanding having a body with little corrosion.
The Minor was never designed for a engine larger than 1098cc without undertaking the above considerations.
Any fool can fit a 1275cc engine to a Minor and not do anything about the brakes, suspension and ensure that the body is up to scratch.

I've just let my newly purchased '55 Moggie MOT expire, for several reasons, not least being that I wanted to see what would happen on the DVLA website.

The 'Get vehicle information from DVLA' page automatically reverted to 'MOT Exempt' the following day, which is correct, but the 'Check MOT History' page now shows a big Red banner So I used the Smart Survey link at the top of the page to report this info as being technically correct, yet highly misleading; if they can get the status correct on one page, why not the other?
I pointed out to them that with this change coming up, an awful lot more entries on their site would be affected starting May.

I doubt that we'll do anywhere near 3,000 per annum in our Moggie which is what it's insured for and I might get it MOT's every couple of years, but I'll be spending so much time working on and under it, we'll be pretty intimate soon.

Quite honestly, I've had enough suspect standard MOTs in recent years that I have little confidence in many MOT places.
Form over zealous to tantamount criminal deception in some cases.

DVLA are absolutely hopeless for accuracy of data and public information, sad when you consider that's basically what they are there for. Two years ago I bought a project bike and have since been told that a sorn is required, not required, required again, done, asked for again, told that although I had done it they had not recorded it, and finally an actual letter apparently from a real person telling me in rather patronising terms that sorn is not required because the bike was already off the road when sorn was introduced. What a shower.

That dvla check can be rubbish. I couldn't sorn my minor. Rang them up they said id sorned it twice but the system wouldn't show this. So I wouldn't worry to much about it.

I haven't had an mot on mine since the pre 60 law came in, now I've rebuilt a lot of it I'm going to take it for one voluntarily.

Shouldn't ANY responsible classic car club strongly recommend and also even lobby for any classic car excempt from an MOT 'at least' that each time in future before it is put up sale to have an MOT (or a future equivalent classic industry agreed safety check more specifically suited to a classic car) ?