Book your MOT.

Check when yours is actually due

If you are not sure of the date, you do not have to guess or dig out the paperwork. GOV.UK's free MOT check tells you when a vehicle's MOT runs out from the registration alone.

Book it in the month before it expires and you lose nothing: test it up to a month minus a day early and the renewal date stays the same. That is the sensible way to give yourself room if anything needs putting right, rather than discovering it the day before.

Worth doing once and forgetting about: DVSA will send you a free MOT reminder a month before it is due, by text or email. It takes the registration and a phone number or email address, and it is run by DVSA rather than anyone trying to sell you something.

Five minutes before you come in

A fair few fails are things you could have spotted on the driveway. None of this needs tools:

• Walk round with the lights on — headlights, sidelights, brake lights, indicators, fog lights, number plate light. Get someone to watch the brake lights, or reverse up to a window
• Wipers, washers and screenwash — torn wiper blades and an empty washer bottle both fail
• The windscreen — a chip in the driver's line of sight is a fail
• Tyres, including the tread across the whole width, and the pressures
• Number plates — clean, secure, not cracked, and the correct spacing
• Mirrors, the horn, and that all the seat belts latch and retract properly
• Any warning light still showing on the dashboard when the engine is running
• A boot clear enough for us to lift the floor and get at the spare

Two things people do not think of: if it is a diesel, DVSA advises arriving with the engine fully warmed up — it smokes less and is safer to test — and whatever you drive, bring the fuel cap key if yours locks, because the cap has to be opened. The full list of what gets checked is in GOV.UK's car parts checked at an MOT.

On the day

Bring the vehicle and its registration. You do not need the V5C logbook or the old certificate — the record is held electronically.

Most MOTs take 45 to 60 minutes, so waiting is realistic. There is a waiting area, or you can drop the car off and we will ring you when it is ready.

If it passes, you are away. If it does not, we go through each item, explain what it means and quote before anything is done — there is no obligation to have the work done here. One thing to know: where a dangerous defect is recorded, the vehicle must not be driven away until it is repaired, so it is worth having a plan B if the car is already on borrowed time.

What this diary books

MOT slots for cars and vans — class 4 and class 7. It shows real availability, so what you can see is what is genuinely free.

Motorbikes, scooters and mopeds are not on the diary yet. We test, service and repair them — bike slots are just arranged by phone. See bikes and scooters, or ring 01382 690898.

Servicing, repairs, diagnostics, tyres and bodywork are not on it — those are quoted rather than slotted, so send us a message or ring 01382 690898 and we will sort a time. If you want an MOT and a service in the same visit, book the MOT here and mention the service when you do, or just ring and do both at once.