MOT (katsastus)

[gavin]

Can it be true that ther is no equivalent of the MOT/Katsastus in the US?

I've seen some pretty ropey looking cars on the road there...

Cheers
Gavin

[Hank W.]

I think it depends on the state. They have the emissions control there in few parts that is a bit of a hassle.

[Macca]

If you bought a new car or one less than two years old.
After the first test you have two years before the second one then every year.

Actually, you need to test the car till it's 3 years old, then 5 years old and every year after that.

BTW, Hello everyone!

[nalkainen]

So what about my problem??????
I am going to finland from england this summer and my english car is mot,d till september ,will enter finland end of july. so can i drive it with my english mot till september then get a finnish one??????. since i am staying in finland it will be silly for me to go back to england to get this done.
Another thing is. I get to finland on 29th july but my tax runs out 31st july. ? do get finnish tax or can i use the car as a tourist car tax free for 6 months. im insured by english insurance, who told me its ok to use the policy third party for finland and the car is road worthy but i really am at a dead end. does anyone know anything about either of the 2 issues. im in the dark
pleeeeease help. kiitos.
.can you drive without a tax disc as a tourist from england ? i read somewhere that your allowed to drive without tax for 6 months but it didnt say -must have tax for country of registration. it would be a waste of money for me to buy 6 months tax when i wont be in england to use it...????? please help.

[DMC]

Will you eventually be taking the car back to the UK or will you be keeping it in Finland?
If you will take it back to the UK within a year I suggest renewing your road tax, MOT and insurance before you come over, even if it does seem like a waste of money. I once brought a car over here and everything ran out before I took it back. I then had a real problem of what to do with it when I drove off the ferry in the UK. Not having any tax, MOT or insurance meant I couldn't legally drive it anywhere, which made it difficult to get it legal again. I rang the police to ask and they couldn't suggest any way around it except putting it on a car trailer. That can easily get expensive, much more than the cost of renewing everything early before you come over. There are also practical problems getting it on a trailer when you can't drive out of the harbour and the trailer can't drive in.

[AldenG]

I think it depends on the state. They have the emissions control there in few parts that is a bit of a hassle.

Yes, it's all over the place.

Some states have no inspection at all. Some states have state-run inspections. (Those tend to be the most honest and competent, but nothing like the meticulousness or nit-pickiness of the old Finnish system.) Some have inspections run by local garages. (Those tend to be the most lackadaisical or corrupt one way or corrupt another -- as in, they'll ignore anything for the right money, OR the "hey buddy, your headlight's broken" scenario you mentioned.)

The emission inspections tend to be run by centrally-programmed machines and so in theory should be hard to cheat. But American culture is fiendishly clever at inventing new ways to cheat and to rip off consumers or the government, and sure enough, emissions-inspection is no exception. I have a friend who works for a state department in charge of emission inspections, and he tells me stories about all the different ways they find inspection stations cheating. It's a constant battle. And this isn't even one of the industrial states like Indiana (around Chicago) or New York or New Jersey where you'd expect that kind of thing.

[Bubba Elvis XIV]

I think it depends on the state. They have the emissions control there in few parts that is a bit of a hassle.

Yes, it's all over the place.

Some states have no inspection at all.

I heard that rumour and wondered if it was true. Someone said that's why the cars are such wrecks on Pimp My Ride...I wondered how people could even legally drive some of those buckets. It's quite a contrast to Pimp My Ride UK where the cars are quite road worthy....just rubbish.

[AldenG]

It's quite a contrast to Pimp My Ride UK where the cars are quite road worthy....just rubbish.

Indeed.

My state has rather strict emissions inspections around the capital, but no road worthiness inspection at all. Of course, if you think some of the vehicles are lumbering, smoking, rickety, muffler-dragging menaces, you should get a load of some of the drivers. I'm not sure which are more dangerous.

I would guess that snow states are more likely to inspect for safety. I think it's more the exception than the rule south of that region. The notion violates our sacred cowboy ethos.

[DMC]

Of course, if you think some of the vehicles are lumbering, smoking, rickety, muffler-dragging menaces, you should get a load of some of the drivers. I'm not sure which are more dangerous.

I would bet it is the drivers that are more dangerous. In the UK in the year before the MOT (roadworthiness) test was introduced, 2% of accidents were attributed to mechanical failure. Driver error causes far more accidents than mechanical failure. It has always struck me as strange that the country spends millions per year checking vehicles and nothing on checking drivers. Spending the same amount of money on regular driving tests instead of vehicle inspections would achieve far more.

[nalkainen]

thanks for a speedy reply , actually im not intending on coming back to the uk , i will be keeping it in finland for as long as i own it. I am permenantly residing in finland from july. once my car is registered in finland !!!( not sure how im gonna sort that out ) I will be able to visit uk on 6 months free tourist road tax, I hope ! if rules havnt changed by then. the whole tax thing seems so confusing with no explanations anywhere on the interenet for people emmigrating from england to finland.
back to the m.o.t though, how will that work???? the car will be registered as a tourist car (uk) running out of mot midway through the 6 month free tax.
maybe if I took it off road untill its registered as finnish THEN mot it and use it. because they dont charge you for having a car. only if you use it .
so I can only see one solution that being just not to use it when mot runs out!!!!.
Its really confusing and needs to be explained somehow .
do you or anyone else have any suggestions. I' ve ran out of leads

[DMC]

You will need to tell the UK authorities (DVLC in Swansea?) that you have exported the car, or they will expect you to SORN it or pay road tax. I don't know exactly how you do that; I would just send them a letter, recorded delivery, and explain the situation.

You will need to take the car to the Finnish customs and say you want to import it. You can then get a Finnish registration document and plate. I'm not sure exactly how it works. They may give you a temporary plate until the tax due has been decided and paid, which could take a little while. I know you can drive it around whilst they assess the tax due. Anyway, the customs will eventually decide how much tax you have to pay, and after you pay it the car is legally registered in Finland. You can get it inspected here, and the old UK tax and MOT is no longer important. You will be able to drive it in the UK as if it were any other Finnish-registered car. Just because it was once registered in the UK doesn't mean you would have to pay road tax.

I'm sure all this has been covered before so another search might be useful. One the other hand the situation re paying tax on imported cars may have changed within the last few weeks. At least someone told me that it had; I don't know the details but bear in mind that old posts may no longer be accurate.

[AldenG]

I spent quite a while yesterday looking for an appropriate photo of one of the private inspection stations like you can see in New York State or Pennsylvania, if I'm recalling correctly, but without success. So let me try to describe one.

Imagine a de-commissioned gas station from the 1950's or 60's or 70's, back when they used to be a small cinderblock building with one or two service bays and a small glass-walled office with only a cash register and some maps -- no walk-in refrigerator and no food sales. It sits on a postage-stamp-sized lot hacked out of the rock mountainside, a lot that trees and vines are slowly but surely reclaiming. Now imagine that one of the service bays is filled with junk. Most of the identifying marks like Esso or Sinclair or Gulf have long since been removed or simply broken out with rocks. There may still be a couple of gas pumps out front, but they are thoroughly rusted out. Not quaint but well-maintained, simply decrepit. Part of the plate-glass window has been replaced with plywood or cardboard. Scattered around the small parking lot there's an assortment of rusted-out junkers. Probably there were too many parts left over after the guy put them back together, and so they wouldn't start. The asphalt has crumbled so that it's half pavement, half weeds. In the one usable service bay, you can only drive part way in, but that's enough for the resident geezer's needs. There's only one hydraulic lift and it hasn't worked for decades. Out front there's a little square metal state-inspection emblem, itself also partially rusted.

This is where you get your car inspected for road worthiness.

They're not ALL like that, of course. In fact, this is the worst case, but not exactly rare, either. The point is that you DO see places like that and the state doesn't seem to mind. In fact, the state has probably never inspected or even visited the premises. The owner just keeps sending in the paperwork every year. The main thing is that the state gets its annual fee from the resident geezer mechanic, who likes to tell customers, "Boy, they sure don't build 'em simple like they used to." And pretty much his entire income, which is barely enough to keep body and soul together, comes from doing these inspections. But a lot of this guy's customers look like him and work in places that look like his, and they feel more comfortable with him than they do with one of those fancy new places.

[nalkainen]

wow thanks for your help. well I have decided to tax the car incase i get any problems . i will take it back to the uk if i have to mot it. however i have just read a recent post saying that you cant be taxed anymore on vehichles bought into finland for personal use If it has already payed tax when originaly purchased. So the original Owner payed tax obviosly. the only tax to pay is road tax Current, wich takes a while to calculate per vehicle whilst it is being registered with new finnish plates. charge of 9 euros! not a lot. very cheap. so therefore the mot will be done in finland after all. I was worried about nothing :S .
still ,Im not sure how much tax i will be paying once its settled. I may just keep the car as a tourist car for as long as i can first.
Is the finnish equivillant of an MOT more strict or more laid back?????????????????? very interested to know . ???? anyone know this? comparing to english mots.

[DMC]

Is the finnish equivillant of an MOT more strict or more laid back?????????????????? very interested to know . ???? anyone know this? comparing to english mots.

My impression is that it is less strict.

[Pursuivant]

If you are "resident"! in Finland you cannot driuve a foreign-registered car. Can't have the pulla and pick out the raisins.