Motorists will have to be more vigilant when it comes to the maintenance of their cars to avoid proposed MoT rules becoming a threat to public safety, according to BookMyGarage.

The online aftersales booking platform’s chief executive, Douglas Rotberg, said that motorists will have a responsibility to service their cars more regularly to ensure it is safe to drive if the gap between MoTs is extended.

Under proposed changes to MoT testing the government plans to increase the first MoT date from three to four years and is currently consulting on the issue.

It says the plans could save motorists more than £100 million a year.

But Rotberg said: “We’re starting to find that the mileage that many cars are doing is rising. This is a trend that we will see continue to grow over the next few years, and we expect that there will be fewer cars, doing more miles on UK roads.

“As such, it seems concerning that the time until the first MoT will rise by a whole year; we recommend that motorists have their car fully serviced yearly, but the reality is that many do not.

“If the time until an MoT takes place does indeed rise, drivers must become more vigilant when it comes to performing checks on their vehicles and also ensure that they service their car regularly.”

Rotberg said that the safety of tyres could become a key issue is cars are inspected less regularly by professional technicians. He said: “I see this as being a real safety issue around tyres. Most drivers simply do not check their tyres for tread depth and other issues such as cuts or bulges often enough, and of course many people aren’t sure exactly what it is they are looking for.

“A study conducted by BookMyGarage showed that for first MoT failures, tyres was second highest reason for failing, with 23.7% of fails being attributed to defective tyres.

“For every defective tyre, motorists can incur a fine of up to £2,500 fine and three penalty points. Each defective tyre is considered a separate offence so four defective tyres could land you with £10,000 fine.”