I had a distraught club member who phoned to say their car was deemed "unsafe to test or to drive from the test station and would need transported. Oh and the engine didnt work either is there an immobiliser?"

I turned up put a new condenser and coil on it - explained the knife edges showed him mine ...and promptly drove the dangerous car off to another test station who passed it, well after some work none of which the original garage had picked up on in their haste to condemn the "collapsed" suspension.

As I say, I like Just MoTs as they are sensible and literate. The MoT manual doesn't instruct people to examine the workings of the car, just fail it on specific things which are fairly explicit.

What Sean and Ken have outlines is beyond stupidity - how do these places operate?! Can't they READ or do they not have a modicome of COMMON SENSE?!

to be fair many of the testers have never seen anything like the tension suspension we have and its pretty unique. it does flap about quite alarmingly when all 4 wheels are on droop. if all you have ever worked on is ball jointed and McPherson strutted suspension they panic

Does the tow bar need 300mm of good body around where it mounts to the chassis at the back? My chassis to which the tow bar mounts is fine but the rear part of the body is profoundly crispy.

If the MOT requires the body to be fine will removing the ball be enough to avoid having the tow bar tested or do I need to take the whole thing off?

I've not yet had any comments about towbars fitted on 2CVs, so maybe they're old enough not to fall into the net for testing?

However, the testers at the MOT station I use would make a fuss about a very (c)rusty boot floor, since there are a couple of 'chassis to bodyshell mounting points' in there and any part of the bodyshell that's within 300mm of those should be in acceptable condition...

I've had a few MOTs without the tow bar but with the rusty rear end as its remarkably stable. The area below the numberplate has been pretty well gone for all of them but the boot floor itself is fine. I've only had fails on rust near seatbelt mounting points before.

Hopefully it will be MOT ready (though I really don't want to do the rear end for that, I've just done the floors and sills) in the next week or two so I can report back with what it fails on.

To anyone wondering there was no comment or intensive testing of the towing apparatus at all. Very nearly a pass all said and done, failed on two completely rogered headlight reflectors, two knackered wiper blades, a failed track rod end gaiter, and the fog light being zip tied to the left of the rear bumper rather than the right. All easy fixes hopefully.

The manual's pretty clear when it comes to towbar condition and security, and doesn't mention any age cutoff.

http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_660.htm

I think what our MOT tester was on about is the fact that the older 7 pin trailer sockets are only inspected visually, whereas the 13 pin sockets used on modern cars are tested with a plug-in device.

http://www.motuk.co.uk/manual_190.htm