Two years have passed really quickly and it’s time for my car to be tested again as part of the National Car Test (NCT). Registration was simple through their website and hopefully the test will be as uneventful.
My car has been serviced recently but there’s still that nagging doubt in the back of my head. Conventional wisdom says that it’s easier to have the car fail the test, get the car fixed and then retake the test but I’ve heard stories about people whose cars failed the test for different reasons on the second go! Oh the stress!
Things to watch out for are listed on the NCT inspection checklist and include brakes, exhaust and tyres. They’re fairly thorough.
Do you have any NCT horror stories? I don’t want to hear them until after 3pm today!
Bad news! The front left tire is too worn to pass, but as Mel said in a comment below, the visual retest is free. Must ring the local garage and bring the car down to them tomorrow.
I did the NCT a few weeks ago, and I carried it down to the main dealer before the NCT. Luckily there wasn’t too much to be done and they told that if it didn’t pass bring it back down and they’ll fix whatever they missed at no charge.
It passed no problem first time.
Don’t worry too much about it, get a mechanic you trust to give it a quick once over, and hope for the best. Most of the retests I’ve heard about have been visual inspections which cost nothing anyway.
Change Car,is better! 😀
Good luck with the test. Don’t worry about the retest though, they can only test what failed in the initial test provided you retest within 3 weeks. If you fail to retest within this time, then it’s a full test all over again.
Got my fingers crossed. I’ll head to a local garage to test tyre pressure later, clean out the car and make sure that seat belts are visible. I’ll update after the test!
In Italy whit money no make test!
Mafia
Got my own test in January and yeah, I’m just going to pop down to a mechanic and have it given the once-over. There’s condensation in one of my headlights… apparently, that’s an immediate fail right there – I need to get that cleaned out and have the lamp sealed properly…
By the way I was going to comment on your C64 nostalgia post, but I couldn’t get into it… some weird 404 error…
Thought you’d like this : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YImddVSVUI
That’s weird! What happens when you click on http://ocaoimh.ie/2006/12/11/youtube-feeds-my-c64-nostalgia/ ?
Youtube isn’t playing nicely for me, my browser is still loading but I’mm check out your link in a few minutes again!
I’m heading to a local garage to have the tires replaced this morning so hopefully I can get another appointment with the NCT soon!
That’s a great video Niall!
I’m tempted not to bother with my test, due in January. The consensus on the motoring forum on Boards seems to be that it’s not policed; and if it’s not, I’d prefer not to give my money to a state-sponsored private monopoly.
adam
It may not be policed but I wouldn’t like to be in an accident and have to claim on my insurance if I didn’t have the NCT.
After a quick Google, it appears that you don’t currently need an NCT disk to get your car taxed, but that may change in the future.
Anyway, it’s only 49 Euro, your car will run better if well maintained (my tyres were under inflated, and the spare would have been useless!) and it’s a kick up the backside to me at least get my car serviced.
I got 2 new tyres today. Steering has never been better. I’ll ring the test center tomorrow and arrange the free visual retest.
Adam – aren’t you self employed? It’s another business expense then..
Insurance shouldn’t be affected, although we all know what weaselly ***** the insurance companies are. No, you don’t need an NCT cert for a tax disc; in typical Oirish fashion they got rid of the necessity because the civil servants were swamped, and it was never reimplemented. My car is very well maintained; NCT != maintenance. And yes, I am self-employed: you do realise that the money still has to come out of my pocket, yes? 🙂
What test? Change car often. Lease is better 🙂
wots the price difference between buying and leasing?