The MX5 does have a reputation as a rust bucket.
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My experience was a long time ago, and things might be different;
- The waiting lists were long, which means you canāt get a car tested before the service to find out what is wrong with it. The lack of MOT garages like GB mean fewer garages have brake testing equipment or emissions before a MOT
- The testers are fair but pedantic. Its often the case that little jobs like headlight adjustment are done in the MOT testing centre FOC, but impossible in Northern Ireland
- If you want an independant tester, then use a bus garage testing centre
Pass rates in the Province vary hugely by test centre, ranging from 77 to 85%. Iāve seen defenders of the NI system citing lower failure rates for 4 year old cars (when the first MOT is due in NI) compared to 3 year old cars in GB, citing this as evidence that NI MOTs are more honest, rather than the flipside, that NI MOT testers are incompetant jobsworths. 3 year old cars most commonly fail on the consumables; windscreen wipers, tyres. A lot of 4 year old dealer stock in NI comes from GB, brought at auction and stuck on main dealer forecourts. Well guess what, all of those cars will receive their 1000 point pre-sale check, and the things they would have failed on are all attended to. A main dealer in NI isnāt going to sell a 3 year old car with bad tyres and rotted wiper blades. So when that 4 year anniversary rolls around, there is nothing to attend to. I suspect MOT pass rates for 4 year old cars in GB and NI are basically the same.
It seems the average pass rate in GB is about 80%, bang in the middle of the low Cookstown pass rate and the high Belfast pass rate (which is probably explained by Belfast being a bit wealthier than Cookstown, with more younger cars and less clapped out farmers Land Rovers (Cookstown is a bit more rural)).
So there is no difference between the state run system in NI and the privatised system in GB. The NI system is a job creation system, the same fee as GB, but each test takes 3-4 testers sitting at their respective stations.
Iām living in Hillsborough (nearest test centre Lisburn) but taking my sons car for testing tomorrow in Downpatrickā¦ā¦
MOT cert expired mid Augustā¦ā¦ but earliest test date I could get was October. Booked service for October, pre- MOT test , but Road -tax expires end of Aug and no renewal possible without MOT test.
Managed to get an MOT test appointment (cancellation) tomorrow, ( by phone yesterday) , but no time for pre-test serviceā¦ā¦Car is fine, but Iād feel happier if I could have had the service done before the test.
Wow! Has that car lived on a beach?
Very interesting reading about rust protection. I have just bought a 9 month old ND3 which I intend to be a keeper so definitely going to have mine rust proofed. Does anyone know of an MX5 specialist for rust proofing in Gloucestershire or around Heathrow? As a side comment about rust on Japanese cars in general, Iām just about to sell my 2004 MR2 and it has hardly any rust at all on it. So, it can be done. Is it that Mazda just choose not to rust proof?
Not a recommendation, just when you said Gloucestershire this place popped into my head, which Iād read in the past about on an MX-5 forum.
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Anand Vaid is based near Heathrow. He runs a business specialising in MX5 rust protection. Heās obsessed, extremely thorough but accordingly quite costly. Canāt recall the name of the business, but heās easily found on instagram.