So, just put my Z3 in for its German TÜV (MOT in the UK). I always take the car to a main DEKRA testing station rather than a local garage that has the DEKRA testers doing the rounds.
It’s never busy even if you do not have an appointment and the testers I find really helpful. Anyway, it passed 100% so the car has another full ticket for the next 2 years. Not sure why the UK can’t stretch an MOT to 2 yearly intervals. Cars are manufactured so much better now.
In Germany, at least when I lived there, most testing is done at testing centres who are not connected to any workshop. They're also pretty strict. Can't just stick any old size tyres and wheels on. If you roll up for a test with tyres that are not in your logbook thing then you'll be walking home.
In the UK we can do anything we want to our cars - including making them unroadworthy - so they need checking by somebody who isn't an idiot more often.
Also, most testing is done by a workshop who have an employee who is authorised/qualified to test. But because of that there's an incentive for the workshop to be, lets say, a little more helpful in making sure our cars are roadworthy. Signs by the roadside offering very low cost MOT tests are there for a reason.
So maybe the government like to keep the the workshops busy.. er.. being helpful.
Having said all that my own local MOT place is totally busy all the time so I sometimes thinks he turns a blind eye to minor things and puts them down as an advisory because he just don't want the work - but not all will be like that I'm sure.
