Council MOT depots. **graphic pineapple content**

[Partridge]

The Polo has its MOT test tomorrow bright and early tomorrow. The car belongs to Ma Partridge but I look after it, fuel it for her, etc etc.

 

I've got fed up with garages and main dealers seeking out faults which really aren't there. Last time it failed on a "discoloreredd" rear light, which frankly was bollocks, there was nothing wrong with it. They must assume I'm blind or retarded (or maybe both). But what's the point in arguing the toss with an MOT certificate? My guess is garages rub their hands together when they see a ten year old car roll up to the ramps and get pissed off when it's fault free. I know that's not the case with all MOT centers, but it seems to be the way with some.

 

It also got an advisory on tires which were at least twice about the legal minimum (which have since been replaced anyway).

 

Anyway, this time I've booked it into a council depot. Because they can't repair faults, only give it a pass or a fail, my guess is they won't look for what isn't there. My only worry is that its filthy dirty. I've not had a chance to wash it, and I hate submitting a dirty car for an MOT.

 

The test is costing £50 which seems a little steep, but lets hope it's worth it!

 

I will report back...wish me luck

[dollywobbler]

How are they managing that price? The maximum they're allowed to set at the moment is a smidge over £54.

[Partridge]

My mistake, I meant 50! Adjusted accordingly

[Squire_Dawson]

Best of luck, though I do recommend you clean it. They can refuse to test a dirty car.

[Pillock]

I used to use a mot-only place, not council but did no repairs. Couldn't fault them, never failed on spurious things. Not cheap but that's because they're not going to sting you like the £20 places are.

[Partridge]

Best of luck, though I do recommend you clean it. They can refuse to test a dirty car.

It's not rally dirty, just very dusty because it spends most of the on the drive not being driven "to keep the wear and tear down" and the front wheels are almost black. By my standards its filthy anyway. I may chuck a bucket of water over it now you've mentioned that.

[seacow]

I've used our local council place the last couple of times on the Beemer and the Montego and can't fault them at all

[richardmorris]

I've always taken my cars to specialist garages for servicing and they take it to the local MOT only place for the test. Always paid full price for the MOT but haven't had a failure in twenty years.

[DSdriver]

Your comment about tyres reminded me that I stopped using our local Volvo main dealer at a place that begins with H... (and ends in ildenborough) because they failed my car which had a tyre which had about 3000 miles of wear left on it "because it might need replacing before the next service"

They shot themselves in the foot because I took it to a local MOT centre where of course it passed and never went back to the Volvo dealer despite clocking up 225,000 in that car and over 100,000 each in the next two Volvos I owned.

[Dave_Q]

Don't know where you are but I used to use the Nottingham branch of this lot.

 

http://weonlymot.co.uk/

 

About £35 a throw but as the title suggests, they only MOT, so much like a council place aren't looking to fail it to generate work.

[dave21478]

I am constantly amazed that more people dont think this way.

An MOT is what...40 minutes? Thats 40 minutes where a garage bay and ramp is tied up. 40 minutes labour for the tester, at least 20 minutes labour for the assistant that sits in the car to press brakes etc.

I doubt there are many garages left that charge less than £30 per hour labour, yet they offer an MOT for £25?....the maths doesnt add up.

 

Its called a Loss Leader and its purely to get people in the door. They will then try their damnedest to make up their costs elsewhere...ie borderline or outright needless repairs or a service or some other kind of "offer" to go along with the test.

[PiperCub]

The key is finding a good place & sticking with it. I get mine done at a Vauxy dealers about a mile from home at £40 a go. They are very thorough but don't take the piss with either fails or advisories, both have been entirely justifed. In fact when I presented my good 5 which was all good except I had sealed the exhaust with five J-clips to cover pin holes (rust) - the tester didn't raise an eyebrow to this bodge, when I asked him he said

'It's gas-tight and perfectly safe so there's no problem, it looks a bit naff but I can't fail something because it's ugly'. A fair point, I did point out afterwards that I was planning to replace the exhaust to make him feel better.

 

If you want a rip-off, try bike MoT's, they charge about £35 for something that on most bikes takes way less than 15mins, seems to me it takes longer to faff about and do the bloody paperwork than the actual test.

[r.welfare]

If you can't find a council run centre nearby, try asking around as to who does a good job - regardless of price.

 

I've used the same independent garage and MOT centre for the last 17 years, ever since the local Proton dealer (who my mum had bought a succession of Ladas and a secondhand Metro from over the preceding 12 years) tried to rip me off on a repair to my Volvo 340. They charge full price for MOT's but I know it's done properly and I've done a quarter of a million miles in 30 sheds that they have MOT'd and maintained. Their MOT man is firm but fair, and is happy to show me stuff under and over the car, particularly where something is borderline. I always go and watch - in the waiting room which has a nice big window, only emerging when I am specifically beckoned - and I get as much coffee or tea as I can drink and sometimes a donut as well.

 

Seven years ago I bought back a Peugeot 405TD I'd previously sold to someone on the blue forum who had let the MOT run out. Rather than drive from the Herts/Essex border back to Berkshire for an MOT I used a place nearby at the recommendation of the seller. After returning an hour after I dropped the car off I was somewhat surprised that it had passed with no advisories. This surprise turned into amazement a few days later when I found that the rear subframe nearly fell off when I jacked it up (bushes were completely gone), the windscreen washer pump was entirely absent and I could move the car with the handbrake fully on while loosening the rear wheelnuts...

[r.welfare]

Also I'm sure that some main dealers are good (wherever Albert Ross works immediately springs to mind) but I'm not sure I'd necessarily take shite there. My wife's Avensis went in to Toyota for a fuel line related recall just after I bought it four years ago. When I returned I was presented with a list of all the things 'wrong' with it. They totalled £2500 which was quite comical because I'd paid a grand less than that for the car...while some stuff was semi-valid (like engine light on with P0420/P0430 fault code - that will be £1850 for a new manifold/double cat and ECU please - however that engine light with the same codes is still on 80,000 miles later), there was lots of guff about tyres and brake pads being 50% worn and OMG YU MUST REPLACE!

 

I would hope nothing like this would translate to an MOT fail from the same establishment.

[Lord Sterling]

The place where I used to work is where I take my cars. I take my cars there because they are fair. They also do repairs but if only ever needed. The tester/garage owner will take the customer and show them exactly why it's failed, how much it'll cost to fix and what is involved.

 

t's one of the reasons why the garage is rammed to rafters full of customers cars everyday and why people are always wanting to bring thier cars even though it's as busy as it can ever get.

 

He is as thorough as he can be but repairing cars can take a bit of time to get through which is a problem for customers as he often suffers customers who want a moon on a stick within the the alloted time they bestow. Doesn't work like that which led to me having arguements and disagreements with customers.

 

I still "work" there from time to time moving cars, dealing with *some* customers/bookings etc....

[beko1987]

My friend is firm but fair, I get worried when he can't do it and I have to start looking elsewhere, but he's always come through.

 

He's of the opinion that if its a pass its a pass, and has pointed things out to me in the past, and since its normally only me and him at lunchtime at the garage he is on the books in from a previous jilob I get to crawl over the underneath of the car whilst its on the ramps, and usually do the visual checks with him, pushing the buttons etc.

 

When the front fog light lens fell off the old zx whilst doing the brake test he didn't bat an eyelid! It made a hell of a clatter as it hit the metal frame of the roller

[PiperCub]

Also I'm sure that some main dealers are good (wherever Albert Ross works immediately springs to mind) but I'm not sure I'd necessarily take shite there. My wife's Avensis went in to Toyota for a fuel line related recall just after I bought it four years ago. When I returned I was presented with a list of all the things 'wrong' with it. They totalled £2500 which was quite comical because I'd paid a grand less than that for the car...while some stuff was semi-valid (like engine light on with P0420/P0430 fault code - that will be £1850 for a new manifold/double cat and ECU please - however that engine light with the same codes is still on 80,000 miles later), there was lots of guff about tyres and brake pads being 50% worn and OMG YU MUST REPLACE!

 

I would hope nothing like this would translate to an MOT fail from the same establishment.

 

OK, so what exactly were these idiots trying to achieve? Did they honestly think anyone with a car worth around the grand mark was ever - even in their dreams - going to stump up £2.5K repairs on it? I mean seriously?

[r.welfare]

They didn't know I had just bought it, in fairness. No doubt the scare tactics have a low take up rate, but one assumes that it is a take up rate nonetheless. Truth is, had I owned the car from new and had it main dealer serviced all it's life I probably would have been more pissed off...

[dave21478]

"your car is an uneconomical, heavily polluting death-trap sir. You can pay £2500 for the repairs. Or....maybe have a look at this lovely low mileage Yaris which could be yours for as little as £xyz per month."

 

...rubs hands with glee as the commission on the credit agreement and sale will be worth loads...

 

You would be amazed* by how many people fall for this sort of thing.

[Junkman]

I may chuck a bucket of water over it now you've mentioned that.

 

Drive it through a car wash before you take it to the test centre.

MoT testers love* to inspect the underside of cars still dripping soapy water.

[Vince70]

I've been in the same position as yourself with an advisory sheet as long as your arm for a lot of nonsense which has been made up so that a garage can get some work in the past..

 

Previously I didn't really worry about it as I always needed a car for work so I just paid out year in year out and if it came in with a ticket for under £400 on an old shed I didn't really worry about it.

 

It's only about the last 3 years since moving to a different area (and being skint lol) that I've questioned this and now I use Just MOTs http://www.justmots.eu

 

I can't recommend them enough and if anything like a bulb is out it just gets changed and I've never had an issue with a load of fairy tale advisories since going here.

 

so If you live in the South East it's really worth using this company.

[mercrocker]

Council MOTs?   That must be where all the bald-tyred, taped-up Mondeos on the estate next to ours get tested, then.....

[barefoot]

I have a slightly different take on this, I frequent an air-cooled VW specialist and a Porsche specialist, neither of which do mots. They both take my vehicles to another garage for the mot and they seldom fail because of garage to garage trust. If something is a bit borderline, it will pass because the introducing garage will investigate it properly and take appropriate action.

Thinking that this third garage were probably ok, I nipped in with the Scirocco and a slightly blowing exhaust centre pipe. 'We can get a centre pipe but it will be £156, but the good news is, if you have a complete system it will only be £196' Twats.

Bought one from ebay for £30, had it fitted by one of the specialists that I like and resloved never to set foot in the mot place on my own again.

[Partridge]

I can haz MoT with no advisories! And breath...

[overrun]

Also I'm sure that some main dealers are good (wherever Albert Ross works immediately springs to mind) but I'm not sure I'd necessarily take shite there. My wife's Avensis went in to Toyota for a fuel line related recall just after I bought it four years ago. When I returned I was presented with a list of all the things 'wrong' with it. They totalled £2500 which was quite comical because I'd paid a grand less than that for the car...while some stuff was semi-valid (like engine light on with P0420/P0430 fault code - that will be £1850 for a new manifold/double cat and ECU please - however that engine light with the same codes is still on 80,000 miles later), there was lots of guff about tyres and brake pads being 50% worn and OMG YU MUST REPLACE!

I would hope nothing like this would translate to an MOT fail from the same establishment.

This reminds me of my trip to Ford, Durham on Monday - for well priced oil.

The lassie on the service desk was on the phone to a customer who had their car in for work and the main OMG U WIL DYE item was the brake fluid was found to contain 2% moisture.

 

IT MUST BE CHANGED NOW

 

Also, the aircon required a regas. I know which I would prioritise.

[dugong]

I have a trusted indie place who charge the full DoT whack for the MoT but do a fair job. I remain deeply suspicious of the loss leader outfits who advertise tests for £25 because they're going to try like hell to make the difference back (and then some). 

Near to where PARENTS_DUGONG live, there's a council MoT station which Trafford denied existed. It then transpired that Higher Lane was a council MoT station run by a private company. 

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/council_run_mot_stations

Incidentally, the stupid-posh Audi garage that PARENTS_DUGONG take their A1 to claim they do MoTs, but it in fact outsources it to an under-the-arch place nearby (that gave the car five advisories for having factory-fitted undertrays). 

 

[cms206]

Just did a quick googleisation on council test stations and it appears that my nearest is approximately half a mile from my house. May give them a go.

[Partridge]

The Hampshire depot I used this morning were awesome. No hassle or BS, got straight to testing it and even made me a cuppa! I'll use them all the time from now on.

[PiperCub]

The Hampshire depot I used this morning were awesome. No hassle or BS, got straight to testing it and even made me a cuppa! I'll use them all the time from now on.

 

I'm in Hump-shire too, as a matter of interest & future reference, which depot did you use?

[Partridge]

I'm in Hump-shire too, as a matter of interest & future reference, which depot did you use?

The Bishops Waltham one. It's tucked away, blink and you'll miss it.