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THE FEE CHARGED by the National Car Testing Service to inspect your car is about to get more expensive.
Currently an NCT costs €50 but that is set to rise by 10 per cent to €55 on 1 February
This will be the first price hike since 2009, the Department of Transport said in a statement to TheJournal.ie today.
The price hike will not be the start of a continuing trend, however, as Minister Leo Varadkar has committed to freezing the price for at least three years.
Varadkar said the increase is part of his strategy to make the RSA self-financing to reduce the burden of the mandatory testing to the Exchequer.
Failure rates
In 2011, about 50 per cent of the 985,306 vehicles that took the test passed.
Of the 50 per cent that failed, 420,114 were successful on their second attempt.
About 641 cars which failed their second tests were also deemed dangerous.
The €28 charge for retests will remain unchanged.
Separately, the NCT has advised that it will no longer accept cheques as a valid form of payment. Cash, laser cards and credit cards will be the only methods available.
It has been a rough few months for motorists as Budget 2012 saw price jumps in both motor tax and petrol.
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Just more stealth taxes !
Not really because Applus who run NCT is a private company so it’s worse again. They pocket the cash at our expense.
Very true. I heard the figure is like 20 million they take out of the country each year.
Yip Diego, a private Spanish company. Makes you wonder. It should be state run or operated by an Irish company.
It’s not even an Irish company? That’s crazy no? Surely it should be an Irish company telling us wether our cars are roadworthy in this country and charging us now €55 for it?
If it were an Irish company, people would be taking issue with the fact that the government didn’t look far enough to secure a good deal (It’d be nice if we could have both, but that’s unlikely to ever happen – economies of scale).
This is disgusting. Toll road increases. Road tax increases. Nct increases. Fuel increases. Where’s me bike
If everyone gets on there bike they’ll bring out a national bicycle test or if everyone refuse to drive or cycle and decides to walk I’m sure the bunch of morons that run this country would bring in a national shoe test
Or me horse!!
A licence to print money – maybe NCT testing should be opened up to competition.
The NCT is a joke by any standard.
Check this out:
Brought my car an Audi 1990 for test.
They failed it because the battery clamp was missing.
I replaced same and went back the following day.
Car passed.
A week later I brought my car for a full service to an Audi dealer.
The mechanic noticed that the car had passed the NCT and he asked me: how did you get this car passed?
I looked at him and asked. Why?
He said that the tires were fitted the wrong way around, one of the tires was worn way beyond the legal limit and the rear exhaust was full of holes.
Before you comment re this post….let me make it clear. I did not give the tester a backhander.LOL
We are taken for a ride.
And an expensive one at that.
What a bunch of Frigging clowns.
I agree – I was failed dangerous last year as he said my bonnet wouldn’t close correctly and could open at any moment when driving (Yet, I’m allowed take the car away and DRIVE home????? Mental). Anyway drove home, booked my re-test, it didn’t go through the centre so no charge for a few days later, different guy tested the bonnet said it was grand, nothing wrong. I didn’t do anything to the bonnet either.
In 2003 my 1996 Mazda 323F failed on headlights. One headlamp was out of focus and misaligned and the other had broken reflectors inside and needed to be replaced. I replaced the broken lamp and asked that the beams of the other be adjusted. The garage (a main dealer) said they had done their best with the lights but could not guarantee a pass as the NCT centres had equipment that they could not match. So, expecting to be failed, I took the car back to the same test centre and had it retested. It passed and has passed numerous NCT tests since. In 2007 the same car had the rear shock absorber burst by the NCT suspension test and failed as a result. I had to replace a component that the tester tested to failure and I had to pay for a retest. This happened again in 2009 to a family member who had the car.
In 2006 I took my 2000 Seat Leon for NCT and it failed on both headlights. I traded it in as I couldn’t face going through the above circus all over again and I’d fallen out of love with the car.
In 2007 I took my 2003 Fiat Stilo for NCT. This was *the most dangerous car* I’ve ever owned with the most incredible electrical gremlins I’ve ever seen. Daily warnings flashed on the instrument panel: ASR Failure, ABS Failure, Power Steering Failure, Engine STOP, etc. Intermittently the wipers would fail in the rain and once – at motorway speed – on the M7, at night, the headlights switched off. Yet, this car passed first time. I also discovered later that the sill panel below the driver’s side door was crushed by a misplaced arm for the hydraulic lift used at the test centre to lift the car.
In 2008 my 2002 Alfa 156 went in for NCT. It failed YET AGAIN due to a headlight – as one bulb was ‘too bright’. I was told if I corrected this it could be retested the same day. I had the bulb replaced across the street and returned minutes later where it passed with flying colours – but only after some arguments with the staff who, at the time, were bone idle otherwise.
In early 2010 my 2004 Alfa 156 which I was buying from a dealer in Dublin was sent for NCT, pre-sale, by the dealer. Tellingly, both front foglights were completely inoperative AFTER the NCT test had been ‘passed’ … implying for me that the test carried out was far from comprehensive in its scope.
In late 2010 I took my 2002 Alfa 156 Sportwagon for NCT. It passed. This was the only the third time out of seven NCT experiences where my car passed first time and the ONLY occasion of those three where it absolutely deserved to.
In each case where my cars failed on lights, the headlights on the car were deemed faulty by the NCT, but did in fact work. I could see and be seen. They just did not fall within the tolerances of intensity and field that the NCT deems appropriate for a test which, in my experience, garages are at a complete loss to replicate.
I.M.O. the NCT is a national joke.
The nct is a scam. It was introduced to take bangers off the roads & ensure motorists looked after & maintained their cars so as to reduce fatalities & serious accidents on our roads. How many of the cars involved in said accidents passed the nct since its introduction – id love to know. It’s a state sponsored scam – nothing more.
On TodayFM a while back Anton Savage was talking about the list of items tested against a RSA list of causes of Fatal/serious road traffic accidents. Items on the NCT where not even in top 20 or 30 from what I remember…
I remember hearing that Chris. The inconvenient truth!!!
National car scam gouging us again. Pretty soon only the super rich will be able to afford to drive.
That’s the plan Brian. Price the poor people out of the market and return to the good old days of the Victorian era were only the wealthy could afford travel, or decent food, and the poor worked all day for a morsel and a place to sleep. Oh if only Maggie was sane enough to enjoy it. Her dream made reality.
Another straw
And how do they justify this increase at a time when wages and inflation are increasing at nowhere near 10%?
ffs
More chicken actions from a weak government. They are the masters of spin but they are the slaves of greed. Enda Kenny and his government are not working for Ireland and where is Labour? Instead of being upfront with people with the truth of tax increases they are back to putting tax on children shoes. SPINELESS
The biggest scam ever…I’m all for making cars road worthy but the NCT tales the total piss.
Another shower of corrupt wa$kers increasing prices in a recession due to having no competition.
Another hike fantastic whats next?This country is sinking and sinking fast this is just a total scam
I failed an NCT once, they told me go around the corner get gaffer tape for a crack in the bumper. I did so and they passed me. A week later the engine blew up!
Gaffer tape stayed in place though!
The burden of mandatory testing ??????
So, they have basically made it more expensive to travel by car and public transport (raising bus/rail/Luas fares). Soon, it won’t be worth it to go to work by car or public transport as the cost of doing so will leave you with less disposable income than if you stayed at home and on the dole.
Ireland is a sinking ship and soon there will be no one left to pick up the pieces!
The biggest scam in the country, bar none.
It’s an out n out scam…! The test means that the car was roadworthy at the time of the test. Wonder what backs were patted and shoulders rubbed when this NCT contract started..
Nct can do whatever they like, they have a monopol on car testing and I believe that this is in itself against eu law. Bring in competition and you see a drastic change.
If you’re ever kept more than an hour beyond your appointment time before your car goes in for testing, make sure you complain under the one hour rule and you’ll get the fee back.
This is reply to Paul Dempseys comment!
Paul you really sumed our the Fiat Stilo! The most dangerous car on the road! I would get into my car, the ABS failure light would flash. Then you’d be driving along the road and the “airbag failure” light would flash. Then the power steering light!
My wipers stopped working many a time!
My old Stilo once konked out on the M50 motorway!
I was driving to work once day and the engine literally Landed on the front!(yes it is possible)
And to top it all, I was going to work one morning and the central locking stopped working! It was a frosty morning and the key wouldn’t go into the whole so a friend had to piss on the lock! (sick I know)
We called him “STEVE THE STILO!”
RIP Steve! I sold him for €800! A pure bargain!
This is a joke they are increasing the taxes here as well, first on the petrol, then on motor tax and now on the NCT when will the motorist win?
Also they are going to gain more revenue this year as from this year on every car that is over 10 years old will have to be tested once a year even MORE money for them an absolute JOKE.
c*Mrs
i wonder when i am due the set of wings on my car because it sure feels i am paying for that kind of model
I’m n.c.t positive ….
How old is your car when it has it’s first nct test
It’s changed to a YEARLY test now too!!! :(
It’s a yearly test for cars 10 years or older, still 2 years for cars under 10 years old. Mine is next week, so I’ll miss the price increase!! Fingers crossed I pass!
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