More than two hundred people made formal complaints about their NCT last year including their brakes failing immediately after a test, “spurious” results, and a wheel that broke off just two weeks after going in for a roadworthiness check.
The Road Safety Authority said there had been an average of around seventeen official complaints each month in 2022 with frustration also growing about recent delays in scheduling a test.
In one case, a motorist said their car had gone through its NCT – yet two weeks later “the wheel broke off my car while driving”.
In another, a person said they had taken their wife’s car for a test and immediately after they left the centre, the brakes of the car would not work.
They wrote: “We travelled 400 metres up the road to a crossroads and when I tried to stop the car, the brakes failed.
“Fortunately, I managed to bring the car to a halt without hitting anyone. I returned to the NCT centre where the car was inspected. The technician was baffled and could only offer the explanation that the emergency brake test had broken the brake calliper.”