SVA yesterday in Glasgow, car is stored in Largs, a forty mile journey.

Test is at 8, so I'm up at 5. Car all ready, tools etc packed, so into car at 6. Giving two hours to get 40 miles.

The weatther was terrible - torrential rain, and hail.
Manage to drive about ten miles in the downpour, before i have to drive through a lake/huge puddle.
About this time i notice that all the electics have died. Everything apart from the engine has stopped working.

So drive back to the garage, to find that a main 20 A fuse has gone. spend twnety minutes trying in vain to find a problem, so new fuse in and off i go again.

I get to the first traffice jam, and sit for 30 minutes in a two inch puddle of water, getting rained on.

Eventually, i get to the test centre, and hour late. The tester agrees about the terrible weather, but refuses to look at the car. No test.

So I drive back to Largs in the rain.

Not the bext day Ive ever had.

Downsides- No SVA. Soaked to skin. Car manky - full of mud and grit (where does it all come from). Wasted a day off work

Upsides - drove a 100 mile round trip, and no major issues. Lost a couple of bolts on the cycle wing stays, but thats it.

weather was pretty grim yesterday... what way did you drive up?

[Edited on 27/3/09 by blakep82]

refused to test because the car was too soggy? How does that work with applying for retests etc?

Sorry to hear about that.

They don't refuse to test because the car is wet, rather because you were late.

I missed one SVA test due to a hangover / flat battery and a missing set of jump leads! (Where in the tin top, which I'd left outside the pub the night before).

Doh!

Good luck getting a new appointment. BTW I think, from memory, that you have to pay for a full new test, but that they refund you?

Mike

Easy to say after the event but maybe a quick phone call to centre to advise them you were stuck in traffic might have helped

tony

Phone? I was sitting in full bike waterproofs, with biking gloves, scarf, full face helmet etc.....

No chance of using a phone in that get up!!

I drove up through Greenock, had a mate follow me there from that point. Drove back the Kilbirnie way....

yep - that is a bit tough, the weather is something we cannot control ... but look on the bright side, you know the car will make the journey.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jumpy Guy
I was sitting in full bike waterproofs, with biking gloves, scarf, full face helmet etc.....

---

i like the drive from largs to gourock, i'd imagine it would be nice (in good weather obviously...) except that road often gets closed in grim weather, and you get sent up the old largs road, up through a single width road through the hills, which is also nice, but not when its terrible weather, and all the traffic's trying to get through, and some of the roads have a fairly big drop down the side

i've never understood how that 40ft lorry trailer got there either. have a look at 55°50'59.12"N 4°49'25.23"W on google earth. its been reversed in, and that S end is on a very steep bend too

[Edited on 27/3/09 by blakep82]

yep, that can be a hairy road

the road to Kilbirnie past the resevoir is deadly too- my dads neighbour died there last year

Not the first- wont be the last

Sorry to hear about that, a bitter-sweet day all round I guess.

I've chickened out of the option of driving to SVA and will be trailering my car there next Friday. I've not got quite as far to travel (Kilmarnock to Glasgow) but will be leaving at 6am to make sure I have some contingency time if required. Will be loading the car onto the trailer the night before.

I hope you get a new SVA data - keep us posted.

Cheers,
Craig.

Just got new date organised - 28th April!

this is the only available SVA date, and its on the last day of SVA.

So, that was lucky!

So, four weeks to fiddle and do bits n bobs

4 weeks to waterproof your electrics

I think a submarine would have been more appropriate yesterday!!

Truely gutted for you mate.
funny enough my examiner was 1hr late due to an accident on the M11
it's give and take.
i think he was very harsh with you

good luck with the new date

Finally sat the dreaded SVA today. Got there on time(ish) and met the tester, Alan Burns.

Started fairly badly- my speedo was wildly out, but probably the lack of testing before I got there.

Alan was pretty fair and helpful, far more chatty that I thought the tester would be ( and i suspect he posts here, too, so thanks again !)

Cut to the chase- Fail on the following points-
Various trims and nut covers (No problem to do)
Speedo inaccurate ( some R and D time)
Headlights not marked (shout at supplier)

And the big two-

No self centring
Emissions ( just failed)

So all in all a successful(ISH) day on the last day of SVA testing.