In Ireland, the NCT is a critical and legally-required component of getting your car on the road. While this test is rather straightforward, many people experience anxiety leading up to their scheduled date.
There are countless questions that surround this often maligned test. We’re going to tackle those questions one by one to ensure that you arrive at the exam with everything you need.
You’ll consider yourself an expert by the end of this piece. Let’s see what everyone should bring to their NCT test.
First things first, let’s explain what the NCT test actually is. NCT stands for National Car Test and is a requirement laid out by the Irish government for anyone who wants to legally drive a vehicle on public roads. Ever since 2000, people have been required to undergo this car examination to ensure that their vehicle is safe to drive.
The primary goals behind the program are to minimize harmful emissions and to boost road safety. This law is only applied to vehicles that have been released publicly for four years or more. There are 47 test centers available throughout Ireland where vehicle owners have to receive a test every two years. If their vehicle is older than 10 years, however, they’re required to receive this test each year.
Even though this is a compulsory test, it does cost drivers €55 for each test. Pre NCT, it’s important to make sure your car is in good condition and up-to-date with the prescribed standards. Anyone who fails the test has 21 days to take another one. After the failed exam, drivers are given NCT documents outlining everything wrong with the vehicle. You won’t be charged again during the second inspection if no mechanics are required.
However, you’ll have to pay another NCT cost of €28 if a visual inspection doesn’t suffice the second time around. It’s helpful to keep in mind that the only parts inspected in the NCT visual retest are those that failed in the original assessment. Your vehicle isn’t going to receive a full check again.
Don’t worry if you fail your initial NCT test. Stay calm and look over the documents explaining why your vehicle didn’t pass. This is essentially a cheat-sheet that guarantees your good results on the second assessment as long as you follow the directions clearly. Find a good mechanic, and bring your documents along.
They’ll be able to fix any problems that caused your vehicle a failing grade on the last test. Be sure to only book a second test after knowing when your car’s modifications will be completed. You don’t want to end up missing your second appointment because your vehicle is still in the shops.
For a full checklist see this
1. Sufficient Water and Oil Levels
Be sure to check your vehicle’s oil and water levels prior to the test. These tests are easy to do by yourself. You could even learn to replace these fluids with only a little bit of research. They might seem like small components, but they’re essential to passing the test.
2. Clean Up Your Car
The professional offering the inspection will need access to many parts of your car. If you’ve left trash and junk all over the inside of your car, these inspectors might outright refuse to offer the service. It’s important to clean up your car on the inside and outside before this exam to make it easier for the inspector.
3. Perfect the Tires
Don’t forget to take a look at your vehicle’s tires. Put the right amount of air pressure in each, and make sure the wheel nuts can be seen. You might have to take off the nut covers or hubcaps to accomplish this. Getting your tires rotated and aligned at a shop can make it easier to pass the test.
4. Test the Lights
You never want to give up a passing grade for something avoidable like a bad light bulb. Make sure to give your vehicle’s lights a quick once-over to make sure they’re working and bright. Light alignment is an important consideration as well. If there’s nobody to help you check these lights, some service stations offer mirrors that would work.
5. Take the Right Documents
Just like any official government test, you’re required to bring certain documentation to your NCT test. If you don’t have this proper paperwork, you won’t receive the certification even if your car is in perfect condition. Be sure to take your license, logbook, and booking confirmation for the test.
6. Registration Plates
Obviously, your vehicle will need to have valid and up-to-date registration plates in order to be considered for the NCT test. However, you might not know that it’s important to have these plates sparkingly clean for the assessment. Also, doublecheck to make sure they’re tightly secured to the vehicle.
Tighten the screws or even consider replacing them if they’re too old. You’ll also want to make sure that the lights around your registration plates are all working. This will make sure the inspector doesn’t make you fail the test for small reasons.
7. Operating Temperature
You don’t want to take an overheating vehicle in for an inspection. Not only does this ensure you’ll risk failing the assessment, but it could also be a sign that something is really wrong with the vehicle.
8. Working Horn
It might seem trivial, but NCT tests want to see that your horn is working correctly.
9. Locking System
It’s for your own safety, but it’s another important part of the NCT inspection.
10. Miscellaneous Parts
NCT inspections are thorough, so you should be sure to take a look at smaller, more miscellaneous parts of your vehicle. Everything from wipers and washers to wing-mirrors and exhausts should be secure, in working condition, and clean.
All of the above mentioned tips can be achieved without the help of a professional. While these aspects are important, there are countless more preparations that should be considered in order to pass your NCT test. It’s a good idea to visit a professional mechanic to get your breaks, emissions, and suspension checked.
If you conduct all of these inspections and see a professional but still fail your first test, don’t feel bad. You’re not alone as nearly half of vehicles have failed the first assessment from January to August of 2019. On the bright side, around 92% passed the second test. Furthermore, you don’t have to pay extra on the second assessment as long as no mechanics are required.
Don’t forget about the importance of car insurance when driving in Ireland. It’s not only an important part of securing your safety, but it’s also required by law. If you’re on the lookout for some competitive prices, feel free to contact us for a free online quote. We compare current premiums against the market’s best offers to find the best deals available.
We are a one stop shop for all you car paint jobs, restoration and crash repairs. Located in Rathcoole in Co. Dublin we are in an ideal location for customers in Saggart, South Dublin and the surrounding areas.
We are using cookies to give you the best experience you can learn more here settings .
Close GDPR Cookie SettingsThis Privacy Policy sets out how we, N7 Auto Repairs, collect, store and use information about you when you use or interact with our website, n7autorepairs.ie (our website) and where we otherwise obtain or collect information about you. This Privacy Policy is effective from 12 th May 2020.
This section summarises how we obtain, store and use information about you. It is intended to provide a very general overview only. It is not complete in and of itself and it must be read in conjunction with the corresponding full sections of this Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact the data controller. The data controller in respect of our website is N7 Auto Repairs. You can contact the data controller by using the details above or by sending an email to info@n7autorepairs.ie.
We collect and use information from website visitors in accordance with this section and the section entitled Disclosure and additional uses of your information.
We use a third party server to host our website called Digital Ocean, LLC the privacy policy of which is available here: https://www.digitalocean.com/legal/privacy-policy/
Our website server automatically logs the IP address you use to access our website as well as other information about your visit such as the pages accessed, information requested, the date and time of the request, the source of your access to our website (e.g. the website or URL (link) which referred you to our website), and your browser version and operating system.
We collect and store server logs to ensure network and IT security and so that the server and website remain uncompromised. This includes analysing log files to help identify and prevent unauthorised access to our network, the distribution of malicious code, denial of services attacks and other cyber-attacks, by detecting unusual or suspicious activity.
Unless we are investigating suspicious or potential criminal activity, we do not make, nor do we allow our hosting provider to make, any attempt to identify you from the information collected via server logs.
Legal basis for processing: compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject (Article 6(1)(c) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legal obligation: we have a legal obligation to implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk of our processing of information about individuals. Recording access to our website using server log files is such a measure.
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interests: we have a legitimate interest in using your information for the purposes of ensuring network and information security.
We use the information collected by our website server logs to analyse how our website users interact with our website and its features. For example, we analyse the number of visits and unique visitors we receive, the time and date of the visit, the location of the visit and the operating system and browser use.
We use the information gathered from the analysis of this information to improve our website. For example, we use the information gathered to change the information, content and structure of our website and individual pages based according to what users are engaging most with and the duration of time spent on particular pages on our website.
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest: improving our website for our website users and getting to know our website users’ preferences so our website can better meet their needs and desires.
Cookies are data files which are sent from a website to a browser to record information about users for various purposes.
We use cookies on our website, including essential, functional, analytical and targeting cookies.
For further information on how we use cookies, please see our cookies policy.
You can reject some or all of the cookies we use on or via our website by changing your browser settings or non-essential cookies by using a cookie control tool, but doing so can impair your ability to use our website or some or all of its features. For further information about cookies, including how to change your browser settings, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org or see our cookie policy.
We collect and use information from individuals who contact us in accordance with this section and the section entitled Disclosure and additional uses of your information.
When you send an email to the email address displayed on our website we collect your email address and any other information you provide in that email (such as your name, telephone number and the information contained in any signature block in your email).
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest(s): responding to enquiries and messages we receive and keeping records of correspondence.
Legal basis for processing: necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Reason why necessary to perform a contract: where your message relates to us providing you with goods or services or taking steps at your request prior to providing you with our goods and services (for example, providing you with information about such goods and services), we will process your information in order to do so).
When you contact us using an enquiry form, we collect your personal details and match this to any information we hold about you on record. Typical personal information collected will include your name and contact details. We will also record the time, date and the specific form you completed.
If you do not provide the mandatory information required by our contact form, you will not be able to submit the contact form and we will not receive your enquiry.
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest(s): responding to enquiries and messages we receive and keeping records of correspondence.
We will also use this information to tailor any follow up sales and marketing communications with you. For further information, see the section of this privacy policy titled ‘Marketing Communications’.
Messages you send to us via our contact form may be stored outside the European Economic Area on our contact form provider’s servers.
When you contact us by phone, we collect your phone number and any information provide to us during your conversation with us.
We record customer-facing phone calls for training and customer service purposes.
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation)
Legitimate interest(s): responding to enquiries and messages we receive and keeping records of correspondence.
Legal basis for processing: necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Reason why necessary to perform a contract: where your message relates to us providing you with goods or services or taking steps at your request prior to providing you with our goods and services (for example, providing you with information about such goods and services), we will process your information in order to do so).
If you contact us by post, we will collect any information you provide to us in any postal communications you send us.
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation)
Legitimate interest(s): responding to enquiries and messages we receive and keeping records of correspondence.
Legal basis for processing: necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Reason why necessary to perform a contract: where your message relates to us providing you with goods or services or taking steps at your request prior to providing you with our goods and services (for example, providing you with information about such goods and services), we will process your information in order to do so).
When signing up for content, registering on our website or making a payment, we will use the information you provide in order to contact you regarding related content, products and services.
We will continue to send you marketing communications in relation to similar goods and services if you do not opt out from receiving them.
You can opt-out from receiving marketing communications at any time by emailing info@n7autorepairs.ie
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interests: Sharing relevant, timely and industry-specific information on related business services, in order to assist your organisation, grow.
In addition to receiving information about our products and services, you can opt in to receiving marketing communications from us in relation third party goods and services by email by ticking a box indicating that you would like to receive such communications.
Legal basis for processing: consent (Article 6(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Consent: you give your consent to us sending you information about third party goods and services by signing up to receive such information in accordance with the steps described above.
Transfer and storage of your information
Information for marketing campaigns will be stored outside the European Economic Area on our third-party mailing list provider’s servers in the United States.
For further information about the safeguards used when your information is transferred outside the European Economic Area, see the section of this privacy policy below entitled Transfers of your information outside the European Economic Area.
Use of tracking in emails
We use technologies such as tracking pixels (small graphic files) and tracked links in the emails we send to allow us to assess the level of engagement our emails receive by measuring information such as the delivery rates, open rates, click through rates and content engagement that our emails achieve.
This section sets out how we obtain or collect information about you from third parties.
We can often receive information about you from third parties. The third parties from which we receive information about you can include partner events within the marketing industry and other organisations that we have a professional affiliation with.
It is also possible that third parties with whom we have had no prior contact may provide us with information about you.
Information we obtain from third parties will generally be your name and contact details but will include any additional information about you which they provide to us.
Legal basis for processing: necessary to perform a contract or to take steps at your request to enter into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Reason why necessary to perform a contract: where a third party has passed on information about you to us (such as your name and email address) in order for us to provide services to you, we will process your information in order to take steps at your request to enter into a contract with you and perform a contract with you (as the case may be).
Legal basis for processing: consent (Article 6(1)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Consent: where you have asked that a third party to share information about you with us and the purpose of sharing that information is not related to the performance of a contract or services by us to you, we will process your information on the basis of your consent, which you give by asking the third party in question to pass on your information to us.
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interests: where a third party has shared information about you with us and you have not consented to the sharing of that information, we will have a legitimate interest in processing that information in certain circumstances.
For example, we would have a legitimate interest in processing your information to perform our obligations under a sub-contract with the third party, where the third party has the main contract with you. Our legitimate interest is the performance of our obligations under our sub-contract.
Similarly, third parties may pass on information about you to us if you have infringed or potentially infringed any of our legal rights. In this case, we will have a legitimate interest in processing that information to investigate and pursue any such potential infringement.
In certain circumstances (for example, to verify the information we hold about you or obtain missing information we require to provide you with a service) we will obtain information about you from certain publicly accessible sources, both EU and non-EU, such as Companies House, online customer databases, business directories, media publications, social media, and websites (including your own website if you have one.
In certain circumstances will also obtain information about you from private sources, both EU and non-EU, such as marketing data services.
We will continue to send you marketing communications in relation to similar goods and services if you do not opt out from receiving them.
You can opt-out from receiving marketing communications at any time by emailing info@n7autorepairs.ie
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interests: Sharing relevant, timely and industry-specific information on related business services.
If we receive information about you from a third party in error and/or we do not have a legal basis for processing that information, we will delete your information.
This section sets out the circumstances in which will disclose information about you to third parties and any additional purposes for which we use your information.
We use a number of third parties to provide us with services which are necessary to run our business or to assist us with running our business
These include the following: Internet services, IT service providers and web developers.
Our third-party service providers are located both inside and outside of the European Economic Area.
Your information will be shared with these service providers where necessary to provide you with the service you have requested, whether that is accessing our website or ordering goods and services from us.
We do not display the identities of our service providers publicly by name for security and competitive reasons. If you would like further information about the identities of our service providers, however, please contact us directly by email and we will provide you with such information where you have a legitimate reason for requesting it (where we have shared your information with such service providers, for example).
Legal basis for processing: legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest relied on: where we share your information with these third parties in a context other than where is necessary to perform a contract (or take steps at your request to do so), we will share your information with such third parties in order to allow us to run and manage our business efficiently.
Legal basis for processing: necessary to perform a contract and/or to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract (Article 6(1)(b) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Reason why necessary to perform a contract: we may need to share information with our service providers to enable us to perform our obligations under that contract or to take the steps you have requested before we enter into a contract with you.
Indicating possible criminal acts or threats to public security to a competent authority
If we suspect that criminal or potential criminal conduct has been occurred, we will in certain circumstances need to contact an appropriate authority, such as the police. This could be the case, for instance, if we suspect that we fraud or a cyber-crime has been committed or if we receive threats or malicious communications towards us or third parties.
We will generally only need to process your information for this purpose if you were involved or affected by such an incident in some way.
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interests: preventing crime or suspected criminal activity (such as fraud).
We will use your information in connection with the enforcement or potential enforcement of our legal rights, including, for example, sharing information with debt collection agencies if you do not pay amounts owed to us when you are contractually obliged to do so. Our legal rights may be contractual (where we have entered into a contract with you) or non-contractual (such as legal rights that we have under copyright law or tort law).
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest: enforcing our legal rights and taking steps to enforce our legal rights.
We may need to use your information if we are involved in a dispute with you or a third party for example, either to resolve the dispute or as part of any mediation, arbitration or court resolution or similar process.
Legal basis for processing: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation).
Legitimate interest(s): resolving disputes and potential disputes.
This section sets out how long we retain your information. We have set out specific retention periods where possible. Where that has not been possible, we have set out the criteria we use to determine the retention period.
Server log information: we retain information on our server logs for 3 months.
Order information: when you place an order for goods and services, we retain that information for seven years following the end of the financial year in which you placed your order, in accordance with our legal obligation to keep records for tax purposes.
Correspondence and enquiries: when you make an enquiry or correspond with us for any reason, whether by email or via our contact form or by phone, we will retain your information for as long as it takes to respond to and resolve your enquiry, and for 36 further month(s), after which point we will archive your information.
Newsletter: we retain the information you used to sign up for our newsletter for as long as you remain subscribed (i.e. you do not unsubscribe).
In any other circumstances, we will retain your information for no longer than necessary, taking into account the following:
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to secure your information and to protect it against unauthorised or unlawful use and accidental loss or destruction, including:
Transmission of information to us by email Transmission of information over the internet is not entirely secure, and if you submit any information to us over the internet (whether by email, via our website or any other means), you do so entirely at your own risk. We cannot be responsible for any costs, expenses, loss of profits, harm to reputation, damages, liabilities or any other form of loss or damage suffered by you as a result of your decision to transmit information to us by such means.
Your information may be transferred and stored outside the European Economic Area (EEA) in the circumstances set out earlier in this policy. We will also transfer your information outside the EEA or to an international organisation in order to comply with legal obligations to which we are subject (compliance with a court order, for example). Where we are required to do so, we will ensure appropriate safeguards and protections are in place.
Subject to certain limitations on certain rights, you have the following rights in relation to your information, which you can exercise by writing to the data controller using the details provided at the top of this policy.
In accordance with Article 77 of the General Data Protection Regulation, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of your habitual residence, place of work or of an alleged infringement of the General Data Protection Regulation.
You can find out further information about your rights, as well as information on any limitations which apply to those rights, by reading the underlying legislation contained in Articles 12 to 22 and 34 of the General Data Protection Regulation, which is available here:http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/reform/files/regulation_oj_en.pdf
Where you request access to your information, we are required by law to use all reasonable measures to verify your identity before doing so. These measures are designed to protect your information and to reduce the risk of identity fraud, identity theft or general unauthorised access to your information.
Where we possess appropriate information about you on file, we will attempt to verify your identity using that information. If it is not possible to identity you from such information, or if we have insufficient information about you, we may require original or certified copies of certain documentation in order to be able to verify your identity before we are able to provide you with access to your information. We will be able to confirm the precise information we require to verify your identity in your specific circumstances if and when you make such a request.
You have the following rights in relation to your information, which you may exercise in the same way as you may exercise by writing to the data controller using the details provided at the top of this policy.
You may also exercise your right to object to us using or processing your information for direct marketing purposes by:
‘Sensitive personal information’ is information about an individual that reveals their racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, genetic information, biometric information for the purpose of uniquely identifying an individual, information concerning health or information concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation. Our website does not allow you to register any ‘Sensitive Information’, however if we ask for this, you will be considered to have explicitly consented to us processing that sensitive personal information under Article 9(2)(a) of the General Data Protection Regulation.
We update and amend our Privacy Policy from time to time.
Minor changes to our Privacy Policy
Where we make minor changes to our Privacy Policy, we will update our Privacy Policy with a new effective date stated at the beginning of it. Our processing of your information will be governed by the practices set out in that new version of the Privacy Policy from its effective date onwards.
Major changes to our Privacy Policy or the purposes for which we process your information
Where we make major changes to our Privacy Policy or intend to use your information for a new purpose or a different purpose than the purposes for which we originally collected it, we will notify you by email (where possible) or by posting a notice on our website.
We will provide you with the information about the change in question and the purpose and any other relevant information before we use your information for that new purpose. Wherever required, we will obtain your prior consent before using your information for a purpose that is different from the purposes for which we originally collected it.
Because we care about the safety and privacy of children online, we comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). COPPA and its accompanying regulations protect the privacy of children using the internet. We do not knowingly contact or collect information from persons under the age of 18. The website is not intended to solicit information of any kind from persons under the age of 18. It is possible that we could receive information pertaining to persons under the age of 18 by the fraud or deception of a third party. If we are notified of this, as soon as we verify the information, we will, where required by law to do so, immediately obtain the appropriate parental consent to use that information or, if we are unable to obtain such parental consent, we will delete the information from our servers. If you would like to notify us of our receipt of information about persons under the age of 18, please do so by contacting us by using the details at the top of this policy.
Strictly Necessary CookiesStrictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
Enable or Disable CookiesIf you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
Cookie PolicyHello! If you are reading this, then you care about privacy – and your privacy is very important to us. Cookies are an important part of almost all online companies these days, and this page describes what they are, how we use them, what data they collect, and most importantly, how you can change your browser settings to turn them off.
A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.
Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.
Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.
We use cookies for a number of different purposes. Some cookies are necessary for technical reasons; some enable a personalized experience for both visitors and registered users; and some allow the display of advertising from selected third party networks. Some of these cookies may be set when a page is loaded, or when a visitor takes a particular action (clicking the “like” or “follow” button on a post, for example).
We use cookies for the following purposes:
| Cookie name | Life span | Classification | Purpose |
| _ga | Persistent (2 years) | Performance | Used by Google Analytics to distinguish users |
| _gat |
Our service providers use cookies and those cookies may be stored on your computer when you visit our website.
Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics to analyse the use of our website. Google Analytics gathers information about website use by means of cookies. The information gathered relating to our website is used to create reports about the use of our website. Google’s privacy policy is available at https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/
DoubleClick/Google Adwords
We use Google Adwords which also owns DoubleClick for marketing and remarketing purposes. Cookies are placed on your PC to help us track our adverts performance, as well as to help tailor our marketing to your needs. You can view Googles Privacy policy here https://policies.google.com/privacy
Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. You can, however, obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via these links:
Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites. If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our website.
