Last week I brought my car for its annual NCT (it’s over ten years old) and the day before I had a small last minute panic about what I needed to do to prepare for it (even car bloggers panic over the NCT – we’re only human after all!).

But I quickly regained my composure, made a list, and started ticking things off. The car is serviced annually and is in good working order, but there are a few small things that I think everyone needs to do before they rock up at the test centre.

So I’ve made a list of six things I did to prepare for the NCT, some technical and some not. And for the record, my car passed. Yes!!

  1. I searched through all my junk for my vehicle registration certificate. This is one of the documents you need to bring with you to the test centre, along with your driving licence. Luckily I had a rough idea where it was. It’s in my ‘car junk’ folder. Where’s yours?
  2. Speaking of junk, I cleared out the car and removed any surplus ‘stuff’ from the boot.
  3. I checked the tyre pressures. For testing, they ask that your tyres are at the correct pressure.
  4. The alloy wheels have little covers over the wheel nuts so I took those off to expose the wheel nuts.
  5. I opened the bonnet and checked the oil and water levels. I topped up both.
  6. I checked that all the lights were working. I used the reflection of a window to check that they were working front and back. Clever, eh?

These are just small NCT tips, but if your car is in good working order, they might just do the trick.

Caroline Kidd