SHOCK LEGISLATION FOR SPLIT SCREENS OWNERS

[John Naylor]

An official report from the Ministry of Transport, Driving & Vision Section, has emphasised the requirement for making sure that visibility must be maintained through the windscreens of all vehicles.
New items on the MOT test from the first of next month will hit owners and drivers of split screen cars hard, by decreeing that the centre pillar of the windscreen: "constitutes an obstruction and must therefore be removed." Quoted directly from Minor Matters Vol XV No.5 Mar/Apr 1994.
They go on to discuss the use of perspex centre pillars.
In Minor Matters Vol XV No.6 May/ Jun 1994 they remind readers of the No.5 April 1st publish date but apparently many splitty owners were not amused!
I have been wading through a pile of ancient Minor Matters and there are some pretty good articles. Will pass the lot on when I have finished reading them. Perhaps room for a regular '25 years ago' piece in future Minor Matters?
(Hope no splitty owners choked on their corn flakes reading this).
John

[amgrave]

Does this mean we might have to fit transparent windscreen wipers and arms in the future????????????????

[martin418]

just simply remove the screen plus cheap air con and saving money on wiper blades !!!!!!

[simmitc]

Great article. The worrying thing is that it sounds so absolutely right, and exactly what the dreaded Eurocrats might do

[MarkyB]

Will they ban fluffy dice and air fresheners too?

[mike.perry]

As split screens do not need an MOT - no problem

[Matt]

Apparently neither will any other (non modified) minor from 2017

[simmitc]

More detail please...

[mike.perry]

Save this one for April 1st

[meh]

http://www.motester.co.uk/mot-news/mot- ... -from-2017

[panky]

It has been on the cards for a while but with more draconian stipulations rather than 'substantially changed', basically a car had to be absolutely bog standard - no modification at all (including tyres and lights) to qualify as historic. This sounds like a watering down of the requirements but I dread it coming in, hopefully it wont. Might sway my vote if there is a referendum on staying in the EU.

[SteveClem]

Funny this EU thing. Supposed to be about standardising things across Europe but obviously every country continues to do it's own thing regardless.

[TvdWerf]

The EU thing for the MOT is maybe better as in the link.
The new rules for us is going 50 years and younger, and a difference is there between old car from 30+ and real old-timers from 40+
The actual is older as 1-1-1960 is MOT free and tax free.
Even where they are running on: the very cheap rebuilt for Liquid Gas says you have to pay taxes, while the standard Moggy fuel is Tax free ;)
The problem was here for a while, a lot of old VW golf Diesels, and old Mercedes diesels were in use as daily transport, when they were 25+, so old smoking cars, who are not a real old-timer, were filling the old-timer shows.
People with older cars did not come any more, why park your MM between 2 1980 VW golf's?
Now this is over, only the really old-timer user is taking care for his old car ;)

[les]

It has been on the cards for a while but with more draconian stipulations rather than 'substantially changed', basically a car had to be absolutely bog standard - no modification at all (including tyres and lights) to qualify as historic. This sounds like a watering down of the requirements but I dread it coming in, hopefully it wont. Might sway my vote if there is a referendum on staying in the EU.

I read it as --not-'substantially modified'

[panky]

The actual phrase is 'unless it has undergone “substantial change” from how it was when manufactured' but 'not substantially modified' is the same thing I guess.

[martin418]

do you think my m10 bolts holding my front panel on are a substantial modification

[panky]

It's a dead give away if they're stainless

[martin418]

don't worry i have hidden the car in the garage in case vosa are monitoring this site and send a drone over to investigate

[Matt]

VOSA no longer exist...

Now DVSA

I wonder where all our taxes go?

[Autobahn]

Will they ban fluffy dice and air fresheners too?

They are banned already, many MOT stations will remove these to carry out the test or vehicle would fail.

Technically Sat Navs stuck to the windscreen also impede vision and are not legal.