My car just passed its MOT - I'm not impressed.

ESP will not defy the laws of physics. It was possible to get around that corner that fast but you just didn't know it until that point!
Try spinning a car fitted with ESP (electronic stability program) deliberately to avoid an accident. An extreme example but my point is that ESP assumes that it knows what you're trying to do and stops what it assumes you weren't expecting happening. The only time that I nearly got involved in a motorway pile-up was because the ESP wouldn't let me go where I wanted to go resulting in me getting far closer to getting caught up in it than I would have liked.

 

They have saved lives, no doubt about it. They also allow talentless muppets to drive faster in the wrong situation than they would have driven if it was down to their abilities. So the kiddies are driving corners to the limits of the car rather than the limits of how far around the corner they can see and avoid unseen obstacles (be it a pedestrian, horse, cyclist etc).

 

I wish my dodgy car could fly through mots with such ease. A few years ago as i was driving to the mot appointment and smoke started to pour out my dash as the abs wiring melted and caught fire ! Fire extinguisher deploy and a hefty personalised wiring loom build and i was back in the fast lane. Broom Broom

 

I can see the point you are making, but given the choice of 'off' or 'on' which I think I have (button), personally I would still choose 'on'
I have had to pull the handbrake a few times on older cars to get myself out of trouble in snow/ice as I would rather spin than slide into a main road (T-junction).
The thing with ESP is that it controls loads more than we can ourselves as a driver, so it may not defy physics, but could do stuff we can't as a driver unless we had a way of braking all 4 wheels independantly. I was grateful for it on that right hand bend as a passenger
@fat controller , it wasn't in Angelina, it was in her own car

 

Yes, I think we are lucky because we have the experience of how cars handle without these new features

 

Good grief, what would you fellows do in a blizzard? I drove my mustang 120k each way through one of those in 2014 and before I got my first set of snow tires ever this last November. Rear wheel drive, light vehicle, just figured that now I'm in my 60's I need a handicap.... The accumulated snow was 18 inches and our road maintenance people must have been hiding at Timmies...

the carrier I bought a few months ago has ESP but it cannot duplicate positraction, it can try but...

 

Watching us Brits completely fail in an inch or two of snow is hilarious and if it happens in the south of the country the newsrooms go into meltdown with panicking weather girls and "live" outdoor broadcasts showing pictures of numpties spinning their wheels.

 

Speak for yourself To be fair I have many years of motorsport experience (as a driver until I broke the fourth vertebrae when I was 18 and then as a builder/race engineer) so I have an in depth knowledge of dynamic weight transfer and control.

Drive smoother and with the throttle more than the brakes. Fresh snow is easy, it's when it gets compacted and freezes that it gets nasty.

 

Sorry I didn't know that you get heavy snows like us. There have been a few days that I couldn't get out of my own driveway because the snow was above the top of the tyres and obviously if I tried I'd just sit on top of the snow like a stranded barge! They can be slow about clearing my street because it is a quiet side street.

 

Have to agree, having drove HGV's (38/44 ton's) for many years, but, i did like it when there wasn't any anti braking/ABS as the smoking when barking

 

Surely with an automatic you only need one leg ?

First time I drove one i pulled away, then had to stop at a junction, nearly went through the windscreen, my left foot instinctively went for the clutch, ie. left and right foot on the brake at the same time.
Got used to it after a while but only had it one day.

 

I've just received a reply from the DVSA - a quick and informative reply - so fair play.

The vehicle is only considered roadworthy at the time of the (successful) test - we're told what to test by Europe - a road test would add to the cost/time of test.

Yet, the police and insurers have a funny turn if you don't have an mot which tells them that for half an hour 11 months ago that the car passed a set of tests set by Brussels.

As the DVSA pointed out - it is for the driver to determine the roadworthyness of the vehicle - which is why I had a difference of opinion to the mot tester.

In a nutshell - mot good idea in theory - but useless in terms of ensuring the safety of vehicles on the road.

 

Bearing all that in mind.
I'd hate to think of some of the things people might be driving around in if there was no MOT.

 

Autos still have two pedals!

Far from it. On the whole it is a good test and saves a lot of lives every year. To be honest I don't really consider ABS that vital to roadworthiness except on a few French cars from the late 80s/early 90s where the brakes do not work at all if the ABS is faulty. It would be far better if drivers were retested every few years.