The operation of vehicles is prohibited if:

Explanation

If the tyres have local damage exposing the tyre's carcass (cord).

The cord is the tyre's skeleton; the layer that carries the inflation pressure and the vehicle's weight and holds the tyre's shape. When a cut or a local bulge exposes the cord, the tyre's structure is broken and what remains is only rubber. The law sets no tolerance for this defect — neither size nor location.

The safety reason lies in how it fails: such a tyre usually looks sound at low speed, but at high speed the rubber heats and softens and bursts suddenly at that very weak point. A sudden front tyre burst means the car pulling to one side in a fraction of a second, and on a motorway it means leaving the lane or entering the opposing carriageway.

The other two options are deliberately designed to "look like defects". Uneven engine running affects power, consumption and comfort but is not on the list of prohibiting defects. The interior lights of a passenger car are comfort equipment too, and their failure neither impairs control of the vehicle nor withholds information from others.

Apply this chapter's constant test: a fault is prohibiting if it either reduces the ability to control the vehicle or impairs the giving of information to other road users. Discomfort and loss of performance alone are not enough.

• Uneven engine running looks like a serious fault, but it is a performance issue and is not on the list of prohibiting defects. • Interior lights are comfort equipment; their failure affects neither control of the vehicle nor the safety of others. • "In all the listed cases" is invalidated by a single wrong item; here two of the three are not prohibiting defects at all.

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