Cars will fail MOT if maker hasn’t fixed a flaw

CAr makers have been warned their vehicles will be taken off the road if they fail to repair known safety problems.

A database for garages which carry out MOT tests will identify vehicles where the manufacturer has admitted to a safety flaw and the need for a repair.

If the fault is serious enough and hasn’t been fixed, the car will automatically fail the MOT.

Garages will stop them being driven away even if they pass the normal checks on roadworthiness.

The system will put pressure on manufacturers to carry out repairs as soon as problems are identified, but it could also give the car owner a nasty shock.

The new rules come in response to a scandal involving Vauxhall. The company first became aware of a problem of fires in the heating and ventilation system of the Zafira B model in September 2014.

However it failed to warn the public and watchdog the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency for more than a year.

Yesterday the Government said the DVSA is working with the Department for Transport ‘to investigate the possibility of automatic fails, at MOT stage, for the severest unremediated defects’.