Most people think that if their car’s engine is running well, their car must automatically be roadworthy. This is actually not the case! For example, your annual MOT test (conducted on all cars over three years old) does not consider how well your engine turns over. Instead, it looks at a number of other features, all concerned with roadworthiness. Let us take a look at what this means in more detail.

What Does Roadworthy Mean?

Roadworthy, when considered in the light of the MOT test, comes down to being safe on the road, not only for yourself and your passengers, but also for other road users.

A few examples are:

• a big truck driving down the middle of the road, spewing thick black exhaust all over everyone behind it is not safe for the drivers of the cars behind,
• a driver who forgets to put their lights on during twilight who cannot easily be seen in the event of an emergency is a danger to their own vehicle (and life) as well as those following behind or driving towards them,
• a vehicle breaking down with the driver unable to safely steer the vehicle out of the path of oncoming traffic or alert oncoming traffic to their dilemma is almost certain to cause an accident.

So, we can see that ‘roadworthy’ means safe for operation on the roads, unlikely to cause obstruction, and always readily visible while on the public highways, even while suffering a breakdown of some sort.

Why Should You Take Steps to Have a Roadworthy Vehicle?

There are two main reasons for any driver to ensure that their vehicle is roadworthy at all times. The first is legality and the second can be purely selfish!

You are required by law to have a roadworthy vehicle when you are using public roads. Bear in mind that your MOT certificate is relevant only to the day that the test was undertaken: should your car subsequently suffer faults that render it unroadworthy and you are stopped by the police, you are likely to be fined for driving a vehicle in an unsafe condition, even if it has a valid MOT certificate. You could even, should the faults be severe enough, lose the right to drive your car from the stop, and even lose your vehicle should the police deem it so unsafe that it should be off the road entirely. If you live in or near London we would recommend our trusted garage; Elite Direct. Elite offers state of the art MOT testing services in London. You can book your appointment today with just a few easy steps.

The ‘selfish’ reason is easily explained. A roadworthy car protects you, just as much as it protects other road users, and your passengers. Given that your passengers are most likely to be the people that you care about the most in the world, roadworthiness suddenly doesn’t seem to be too much of an ask after all!