£10 mot

[Mr A Lawrence]

Starting in the current bun tomorrow.

 

Only drawback is its at halfrauds, eek

 

I'd rather have my car tested by a blind, one armed arthritic baboon.

[Lacquer Peel]

I've sent a few cars to Halfords for MOT tests, they're fine.

[trigger]

My mates misses had a £10 Halfords Autocentre MOT last year, her Peugeot 208 failed on nearly £600 of work including headlight, tyres and windscreen.

 

They rang me up asking what I thought and i told them to try their normal MOT centre, which they did, it went straight through with no advisorys...

 

Turned out the tyres were above 1.3mm, the headlights just needed an adjustment and the stone chip on the screen was outside the area.

[Eddie Honda]

1.3mm isn't the limit though, it's 1.6mm (for cars anyway).

[trigger]

Sorry, that was me being a spaz, I meant 1.6mm!

[Jerzy Woking]

My local Kia dealer has been doing £10 MOT's for some time now and I have not read any reports about them failing anything other than something that needs failing.

[Grundig]

Starting in the current bun tomorrow.

 

Only drawback is its at halfrauds, eek

 

I'd rather have my car tested by a blind, one armed arthritic baboon.

 

I'd rather pay full whack for an MOT than ever buy that newspaper

[HH-R]

Always take my car to the same little independant who do it for £23 or something, really cheap. I know they don't take the piss either so happy to let them do any graft it needs.

[Louise2cv]

Fair play to our local one, I took the allegro in, to most people a worthless old banger, probably with some kind of messy hair and baby sick on my jumper, 20 mins late and I managed to knock down a little wall in their carpark... if that didn't scream easy target, I might as well given them my credit card with my pin on!

 

They didn't try it on though, it passed. And they weren't fussed about the wall either.

 

They also let the apprentice have a go in/on my 2cv, for educational purposes, which earned bonus points from me.

 

I guess anyone could slip the odd bit of borderline work in and hope the customer takes them up on it, national chain or otherwise.

[michael1703]

I charge £40, if you want them cheaper than you're welcome to drive 15miles to the nearest halfords.

 

I'd rather take the £40's and give a fair test, if it takes an hour then so be it.

 

The £10 test must take all of 25mins, it takes a good ten minutes to do a good emission test on a diesel

[michael1703]

I took the allegro in, to most people a worthless old banger, probably with some kind of messy hair and baby sick on my jumper, 20 mins late and I managed to knock down a little wall in their carpark...

 

it passed. And they weren't fussed about the wall either.

Priceless! One for the quote thread

[Louise2cv]

That's what I don't get, it's just a loss leader or something? An MOT is a set test/time isn't it?

 

Psychologically I think £40 is reasonable but £50+ smarts a bit. It's not rational really though, I guess it a bit like the perceived difference between 99p and a pound.

[Lacquer Peel]

Yeah, it must be to get people into Halfords Autocentres and spend money.

 

I have had the itemised list of things needing done, cambelt, brakes, etc. but they never pushed it beyond a print-out and their MOT testers have been fair at my local Autocentre.

 

There's a local independent MOT garage that's much worse, they fail anything that's remotely borderline.

[scdan4]

I'll buck the trend.

 

Our local halfords spanner center is spot on. Bloke who runs it (well) has a subaru / evo type thing that looks very tidy and well maintained.

 

They're straight down the line, honest and helpful.

 

Will swap loose tyres onto rims for a tenner each as well - the local indi's want 30 or 40 (!) quid each for that.

 

Last mot the tester came to find me to ask me to help him with the seat belts - he couldn't see the rear centre belt latch as it was buried at the bottom its notch in the seat pad. He'd started to dig for it but was too disgusted by the amount of dog hair, fox shit, toast, jelly tots, crisps, mud and christ knows what else he encountered. I dug it out (grim) and then couldn't get it working due to the amount of toast jammed inside it. He looked at me and said "you don't use it much do you" and passed it. Which was nice. 

 

If you just need something simple doing, they're ace,

[michael1703]

I pay DVSA (formerly vosa but most people don't realise vosa doesn't exist anymore) £2.05 for a test slot, we buy the tests in blocks, they used to be 100 but you can buy 25 at a time now.

 

You only get a test slot taken if it passes, we'd make more money on someone bringing a car for an mot and it failing and they then didn't come back for a retest as we'd get the full test fee.

 

But, some cars can be tested in half an hour and some can take up to an hour if there's a lot wrong with them or you can't get them warm enough for emissions or you've got to do a decelerometer test on a 4x4 or you're messing about setting headlamp adjustment or putting bulbs in etc.

 

You've got to think that you're going to spend up to an hour on a test and you've got the test slot fee, leccy for the ramp/rollers, ink and paper for the printer etc and as I charge £30 per hour labour, £40 for an mot works ok for me. My calibrations are about £800 per year too ( emissions machine is yearly calibrated for diesel and 6monthly for petrol, brake rollers/headlight level and ramp are every 6 months and my decelarometer is yearly) that's before rent/rates/insurance and all the other costs involved

 

Dealers that charge £85-£125 per hour labour don't like mots as its a loss to them

[UltraWomble]

£10 MOT you say?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_miGclPFGs

 

I think I'll stick with my chap in a barn, might charge the full £55, but at least I know he isnt in it to sell tyres, zorsts or other bits...

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Last year they were doing a £25 offer so I took 4 cars in , in 2 days. The only thing that failed was one tyre on the Arosa, admittedly they did charge more for a 155/70 13 than I'd normally pay for a 255/55 18, but that's my own fault for being lazy.

An added bonus was that Mrs N couldn't accuse me of any dodginess or leniency from places I regularly use.

[sierraman]

I'd suggest attending the local council run one. They don't mend them so theyve no incentive to start flogging housewives tyres and drop links.

[hennabm]

That's what I don't get, it's just a loss leader or something? An MOT is a set test/time isn't it?.

This is a common myth. There is no set time for a test. It takes as long as it takes. Imagine if there was a set time and because the vehicle was a pile of poo the tester hadn't finished the test - what would happen? Additional fee or stop the test. It just wouldn't work.

So we have no set time for a test.

[skattrd]

No set time for a test, my local place used to love testing my rally car as it took him around 15 minutes. Brake & fuel lines braided inside the car, underneath was mostly inaccessible due to a rather excessive sump guard.

[Pillock]

I'd suggest attending the local council run one. They don't mend them so theyve no incentive to start flogging housewives tyres and drop links.

 

Not a bad plan, and it's not just councils - round my old neck of the woods there were a couple of places (originally one, then a tester left and set up over the road) offering test only. Their adverts played heavily on the fact they weren't out to make money on repairs.

 

Which is fine, until you just need something adjusting or a simple fix that they just can't do, because they have't got any tools. Sometimes if it's a genuine fault, I'd rather leave it to be fixed and tested. Especially anything to do with exhausts, I bloody hate exhausts. Anyway, that then becomes a take it away and bring it back scenario which might not be convenient.

 

I was lucky, my test-only place let me leg it over the road to B&Q for a roll of tape to remove the sharp edges from my Audi 90 front wings whilst he did the rest of the car.....

[brownnova]

Halfrauds are the bastards that meant that 18 year old, naive about cars, away from home for the first time me sent the brown Nova for ours final journey to the scrap yard in the sky.

 

The previous year my local (Roman motors, Stratford on Avon - super garage) had passed it with a couple of advisories, nothing serious and I'd had work done. Being at Uni, with the MOT running out the week before the summer break started I took it to Halfords, as I didn't know of any local garages... They told me the car needed £1500 worth of work. So I traded it in fir a 6n1 Polo, knowing they would scrap it... With the benefit of hindsight they're was no way it needed that much work... Wish id done things different... But you can't go back in time!! I've never taken another car to halfrauds centre since on principal!!

 

It really is about finding a local garage you can trust!

[meggersdog]

I just do MOTs, no repair work except replacing the odd bulb and fitting wipers.Like Michael 1703 I charge £40.00 and time slots are hourly.A couple of weeks ago I'd logged a car in at 9 am then the whole industrial estate lost all electric 15 minutes later.It came back on just after 3pm.I phoned DVSA at mid-day and explained the situation.Basically I could either cancel the test or complete it.So one MOT took six hours to complete.

[Tamworthbay]

Like most things, it comes down to who runs it. Our local kwikfit fit is run by a complete car nut who is more than happy to swap tyres over for a donation to the tea and biscuit fund if it's for anything old or interesting. I use a local independent for MOTs and he is brilliant. Before I got my four post at work he would give me a chance to look underneath and check for any issues before thy stared. He would also point out anything that he thought was an issue before it became a problem so you could sort it. He only does mot's so no point in him fiddling them as he is not out to get trade into the garage.

[CortinaDave]

D&G autocare in Fife often do £10 MOT offers either via their website or the local radio station , and I've always found them pretty fair on my turds.

[The Moog]

Halfords in Accrington are good blokes. Pretty straightforward and didn't try to upsell.

 

Only thing that made me smile was the sheet they give you with traffic lights about the work potentially needs doing. It was suggesting a cambelt for a cam chain car.

[dieselnutjob]

The place that I go to charge nothing if it fails, and £50 if it passes, which isn't actually that bad in London.  No win no fee is very useful for old cars, especially the 604.

[Barry Cade]

D&G autocare in Fife often do £10 MOT offers either via their website or the local radio station , and I've always found them pretty fair on my turds.

Which used to be me. Didn't bother me in the slightest how much went in the till, I got paid the same. People were always suspicious though and if it passed they were ecstatic and you got biscuits, if it failed you were trying to rip them off. Sums up the trade really.

[stephen01]

My MOT place charges the full whack, £52.50 or something like that, he's honest and fair which is worth something. also he MOT's some right old classics so he knows his classics, not like the young chap who put the tyres on my herald, nearly shat himself when the wheels tucked under when he lifted it on the ramp.

[sierraman]

The place that I go to charge nothing if it fails, and £50 if it passes, which isn't actually that bad in London. No win no fee is very useful for old cars, especially the 604.

They'd go out of business my neck of the woods, on the basis you've spent an hour failing a car on welding and this that and the other then you hand it back to to customer and he says 'na fuck it I'll scrap it' and you are down an hour for nothing.