Kwik Fit for MoTs?

[Jim Bell]

Isn't Kwik Fit a franchise?

 

It's all down to the local branch management. Some will be good, most will be shit.

 

Word of mouth is the only way to decide.

 

Ben

This.

 

The lads at the one in Tynemouth=amazing.

 

The lads at the one in South Shields=gobshites.

[xkjagnz]

I took my SAAB 9000 to Andover KF many moons ago as I had a broken exhaust, and they wanted an arm and a leg for a full system, also said I needed new pads/discs all round (had the brakes done about 2 months earlier by an independent near Basingstoke so told them they were full of shit)

They also wanted nearly 1300 quid for the exhaust not including the cat!!

I told them I could get a full system (also not incl cat) for less than a ton, and he said "Yeah right - if you can I'll fit it for nothing"

So off I went to GSF in Southampton (with my very noisy exhaust!) 98 quid the lot - took the receipt back to him and he did fit it (but was mightily pissed off about it)took him over 2 hours too

[Hendry]

The VAG Indy specialist I use is cracking, the guy knows his stuff on VWs even down to retrofitting stuff from newer/higher spec guys and is absolutely brand new, can sit and have a chat with him about general shit, very friendly, doesnt charge a fortune, and ive been pleasantly surprised every time ive went in, with faults/issues ive discovered, at times hes said "nah, thats fine nothing wrong" or "youll get another 5000 miles out of they pads, ill have another look in a couple of months if you pop in, before I do anything else"

 

Hard to find places like this, but i think when you show them loyalty and give them your business repeatedly they dont want to fuck you over, so Id have no qualms using them for MOTs, the MOT station he has its actually ran by another guy who solely just does the MOT tests, my mechanic does all the remedial work, and the test certificates issuing garage name is a different company with an entirely different name.

 

HOWEVER, if that ever stopped being the case, id use the local council ran testing centre who solely do MOTs and not repairs, so no gain to them for failing it, they do all the phc taxis and hackneys MOTs and taxi tests, and they are quite picky, but fair, so its quite thorough but you know if theyve failed on something, its a genuine fail and not something which should be at worst an advisory being failed to make money.

 

The guy who is the manager in my local Farmer Autocare (sound place as well) who i get tyres done at is brand new, he used to work for Kwik Fit as a manager and says theres a lot of pressure from management to push what he said was unnecessary work, because they have quotas and targets to meet, as do main dealers for labour hours and parts sales, mechanics on bonuses for that and retail labour hours sales, and get points for parts they recommend for replacement that the service advisors get authorisation from the customer for, at christmas these points equal 1 bottle of beer each, and the service manager used to nip down the cash and carry and pay out his own pocket for massive amounts of alcohol for the mechanics at christmas, now this could just be a way of making the mechanics do a thorough job but they should be doing that anyway, so the cynic in me thinks its a con. 

 

Local Kwik-Fit are hit and miss, I went to a locla garage last year to see if they would put the brake pad retaining pins in my calipers for me that id removed to paint my calipers, they were chocca so the woman who manages the office told me to nip round KF as they were quiet, the guy who was in charge that day personally did it for a fiver off the books, Recently I wanted new tyres, got quotes from KF online which were as cheap as I could find, nipped into the branch to see if they could match the online KF quote, thinking id rather it counted towards their bonus or target than doing it online, they couldnt do it and said book them online, come back in and youll get them at that price, also said KF wouldnt fit tyres bought from any other online site but KFs own one, company policy, I said id had a quote from a tyre website that KF mustve signed up to as each and every one of their branches was a selectable fitting centre, he as much as called me a liar, never been back since.

 

They tried all the upselling shit for bits not needed on my dads car once, and one time my uncle had a R plate Rover 400 HHR, it was due an MOT, a guy he worked with had done a pre-mot on it and said that his rear wheel brake cylinders were leaking, he needed new brake shoes, and one of the shocks was fucked, the other leaking fluid and it needed a rear tyre, so the guy duly got new parts, fitted them for my uncle and then said you just need a tyre and you should pass the MOT with flying colours, so he goes to Kwik Fit for the tyre, the guy comes back into the waiting room and does the usual sucking in through the teeth, ah you need this and that, so my uncle tells him its just been checked and is fine, so what is it thats needed, weirdly enough it was the same bits my uncle had just had done, a leaky shock and rear brake shoes, my uncle says theyve just been done, can you not see one is new, he then went out to the car and produced the receipts for the new parts, and the guy didnt know where to look. 

 

Then my aunt took in a 52 plate Astra without us knowing, for a puncture repair, it was a car id sold her, itd just had a fresh MOT, a service with genuine parts from an indy Vauxhall specialist, new front pads and discs, wiper motor and linkage, a rear wheel bearing and front top mount, both the place doing the MOT and the garage who did the mechanical work didnt mention a word about the tyres, I had checked them all before I sold it to her as well, this could only have been a few weeks after i sold her it, she does about 3k a year so she wouldve done less than 100miles, calls up my mum moaning id sold her a car with 3 dodgy tyres because she had went to Kwik Fit for a puncture repair and got stung for 60quid for 3 new tyres, budget 205/50/16s which i thought was a rip off, but anyway I knew all the tyres were plenty tread, new-ish so no cracks or perishing, no bulges, no nothing, asked her where the screw causing the puncture was, centre of the tread so repairable, but no they stung her for 3 new tyres. 

 

ATS and National are no better, and Budget Tyres and Exhausts (now Tyre City) were anything but, old man went in one day on a Sunday, needing a tyre for his Vectra taxi, they clearly knew this as they claimed the only tyre they had in stock in that size was £140, they got told to FRO and he just didnt work that day and waited till the Monday to go elsewhere, not like it was even an obscure size, 215/55/16.

 

I moved about 25miles from home to an area I wasnt familiar with, needed a new tyre because the outside edge was bald, had 3 panel pins punctured it in unrepairable places and was beginning to perish anyway, cheapest they had (195/50/16 88V XL) was £182, it was a bloody 1.2 Clio not a BMW M5 FFS! but i needed it done because i worked 65hours a week back then and needed my car for work and no time to get another through the week, they didnt even have one in stock, he actually got another local branch to call a taxi, chuck the tyre in the boot of the taxi over to the branch and paid the driver a 15quid fare for it, so god knows how much they made out of that tyre!!

 

Then finally the Mondeo my dad bought at the end of August last year had receipts in the history from Kwik Fit where the previous owner had gone for tyres, the Mondeo runs 215/50/17 95Ws, they had fitted on 2 separate occaisions 2x 91W rated Goodyear Efficentgrips. There was also a receipt for £102 for JUST a set of front brake pads for a 1.6 TDCI Mondeo!!! Utter rip off!! Surely no more than half that? £20 for a set of the shit pads KF would use, not decent Mintex, Pagid or anything like that, and about 20mins/half an hour tops to change? Their markups are unbelievable!

[PiperCub]

Not been to KF for many years but from memory, I'd agree that it totally depends on the staff, some are good others you avoid like the plague - twas always thus. To be fair, it's not just KF that can be accused here, most of the chains are equally guilty. 

 

I used to use KF alot in the 80's & 90's as had a really good branch locally and while never had work other than exhausts and tyres done, they were almost always my first choice esp for tyres as they always wanted to make a deal and beat other outfits on price. This was in the pre-interweb days of course. Plus on Sundays, the manager wasn't in and you cpould get work like tyre swaps or minro exhaust fixes for 'a drink' - handy.

Cannot recall any issues with them back in the day except for some crap remoulds I bought that had sidewalls that started to perish in a couple of months, they replaced both without complaint. 

 

Never suffered the upsell shuffle myself but knew many that did, with KF & others, I think it's alot to do with how you approach them, appear naive and a bit clueless, you are a prime target, however, walk and speak with confidence, detail what you would like, they tend not to fuck with you as they realise you won't be likely to tolerate any BS - well that's my experience anyway. 

 

I've tended to use independent places since I moved here to S.Hampshire to fit tyres (often via the interweb). The last couple of exhausts I fitted myself: MX5 - easy, 205 - ballache!

[twosmoke300]

Hendry - labour times are about 0.7-1hr for front pads . Iirc APEC pads would be about 25 plus vat cost . Pagid and Mintex are cheap crap anyway . Nearly every mechanic I know calls mintex " squealers " .

£102 quid for front pads isn't out of this world esp if it was in a city somewhere .

 

The problem with the motor trade is that for every KF type place ripping people off there is an outraged get Dom type saying that I could do that job for 10p . Garages have massive overheads etc .

[Richard]

.

[sierraman]

Wouldn't say £100 was out the way for supply and fitting of pads. Like he said you've got to factor in the cost of overheads etc.

[The Moog]

Round here Kwik Fit, ATS, Halfords and national are all pretty sound.

 

No upselling and happy to match prices with each other.

[Jams]

Not used the big brands for many years for my own car. Company uses ATS for the vans. I'm must admit ATS in flint are amazing!!

 

For my own car I use my mates garage or Buckley tyres as they are the best by miles around here!!

 

Kevs tyres on dock road used to be good but I think the manager has been taking lessons of late by dick Turpin and the training manager or kwik fit as he's gone a rite throbber!

[sierraman]

National tyres are always fairly good. Never tried to upsell me, I think if you go in and they feel you know what your talking about you'll not get fleeced. If you go in all green you'll possibly get stitched up, but that applies to a lot of things so...

[Lankytim]

As mentioned, I think the best way to bat away any idea of "upselling" you any stuff you don't need is to go in with a confident aura around you. Better still if you go in some oily overalls so you look "trade". Works with other places too, the local breakers were pretty much half price if you turned up in mechanics overalls. 

[sierraman]

If ever there was a reason to dress down, the breakers was it.

[Hendry]

Clearly Im well out of the loop then, I thought £100 just for a set of pads was daylight robbery, but then I know the right people who couldve supplied and fitted a set of genuine Ford pads for around £50-ish.

 

I agree about going in clued up or being into cars and not getting fleeced, but the main point is we, and nor should anyone else, NEED to do that, what about OAPs and young just passed their test people, they might no diddly about cars, and thus wouldnt go in clued up and looking like they are a mechanic, easy for us to do that, but not them. 

 

Ive only ever used one decent ATS Euromaster as well, and that was only because they were the branch we used when they had the contract to do tyres on our works cars, so when the work changed to National we all still went to ATS and the manager was a decent guy and done us a turn.

 

Any time ive been in any of the fast fits, ive found that they arent even polite or friendly to the customers they are trying to fleece, they are too interested in fitting 4x new Pirelli P Zero Nero GT 2000 F1 Asymmetric Technology things to company cars they know the lease company are just going to agree to and pay up for, they are like the Arnold Clark of the fast fit world, they dont care about customer service and not ripping people off because they have a captive audience who have no option but to use them because they cant go elsewhere.

 

They really do play on this "convenience" and "urgency" thing, especially at weekends, to rip people off further, because people openly go in and say I really need a tyre because ive got stuff to do, or a long drive, or im off on holiday and you are the only place open, so comments like that let them know theyve got you by the balls and thats when they launch into fullscale selling mode. 

[sierraman]

I think they must just take a look at me and think this guys destitute, I'll not waste my time approaching him on any of this stuff.

 

£50 to supply and fit some genuine Ford Pads? Bloody hell thats cheap, what's that work out at £15 labour?

[egg]

I think that life is a hell of a lot easier, and cheaper, if you know a decent mechanic, plumber, electrician and builder/roofer. If you own a house and car and have those in place you're doing well. A good solicitor helps a lot too!

[sierraman]

Even a good solicitor is expensive, unlike Mechanics or Sparkys they won't do you a favour for a crate of beer.

[egg]

This is true, I'm lucky to have a solicitor in the family, he's not cheap, but at least you can call anytime!

[Snipes]

Any time ive been in any of the fast fits, ive found that they arent even polite or friendly to the customers they are trying to fleece, they are too interested in fitting 4x new Pirelli P Zero Nero GT 2000 F1 Asymmetric Technology things to company cars they know the lease company are just going to agree to and pay up for.

If you had ever worked in such places you would know how far from the case that statement is.

[sierraman]

When I had a van through work, it started off with Contis then the lease company would only pay for the cheaper ones eventually and only when they were at the absolute limit.

[mercedade]

Never used Kwik Fit but I have used a few different Halfords for my last few MOT's and they were fine. I had assumed they would fail and try and sell me lots of repair work. £35 if you book online. I get the impression if you turn up in an old car they either assume you can do the repair work yourself or are just genuinely decent. This was for the Corrado and 940.

 

I have to say, against the grain of this thread, that's been exactly my experience with two branches of National Tyre. (Newton-le-Willows and Hulme). I make a point of explaining that I'd spent the weekend doing job XXX, but to let me know if there was anything that needed doing. They always wanted to quote for the work (eg the crappy handbrake on the C-Max), but almost like they were resigned to it. They knew I wasn't going to be buying from them.

 

I've made use of the half-price offers and they've always been utterly, scrupulously fair. My Vitesse walked a pass two years ago when I was budgeting for some serious welding (my smugness lasted a year, when it duly failed), but otherwise they've been grand.

[Tamworthbay]

My local one is decent, I wouldn't use it but I have worked on several cars of people at work who do and have never had a problem with any of the things they have failed on.

[Hendry]

I think they must just take a look at me and think this guys destitute, I'll not waste my time approaching him on any of this stuff.

 

£50 to supply and fit some genuine Ford Pads? Bloody hell thats cheap, what's that work out at £15 labour?

 

Granted its not a Ford, but I have an invoice from my mechanic (VW master tech ran independent VAG specialist) for my car for £375, for new rear pads, discs, a rear brake caliper and a front spring, and 3 hours labour, and broken down it equates to about £50 for the rear pads inc labour.

 

But then the same guy only takes £200 for a full major service on a 1.6 TDCi Mondeo, using genuine parts so oil filter and sump plug and washer, pollen filter, air filter, diesel filter and a 5 litre container of the genuine Ford Formula F oil, a wheels off brake inspection and refit the wheels to the correct torque and coppergrease the hubs where the wheel face mates to it, check and top up of all other fluids, grease the hinges, diagnostic scan, and a thorough inspect and check of all the steering, brake and suspension components. Basically what you would expect from a full major service from a Ford main dealer but that they seldom actually do. 

 

If you had ever worked in such places you would know how far from the case that statement is.

 

I had a feeling someone would say that, but I know our fleet department and the leasing companies we used were pushovers, and any time ive been in and theyve called other companies for authorisation theyve given it no problem. 

 

When I had a van through work, it started off with Contis then the lease company would only pay for the cheaper ones eventually and only when they were at the absolute limit.

 

Any less than 3mm bang on and our cars had their tyres changed, any issues with the tyre itself and they were changed without a fuss, and originally we were told to make sure the tyre company fitted Avons as a minimum, nothing less, and if possible depending on what the branch we took the car to, the best ones they had in that size, nothing less would be acceptable. That was with ATS, when we changed to National they were contracted to fit Continental and only Continental, if they had none of them they were to be ordered in and the car sat until it had Contis fitted, if a punter suffered tyre issues and changed the tyre themselves they were told it had to be a premium replacement tyre they had fitted so Dunlop, Michelin, Conti, Goodyear, Bridgestone, Yoko, Pirelli, and if they had put a budget on the car had to have that changed for a Conti before going back out on hire and they were billed for it. 

 

I ended up with a few brand new budget/mid range tyres after that which had sat gathering dust for over a year because they were getting binned, we had to keep them 6 months if the punter wanted it back because they had paid for it and we had swapped it to a Conti and billed them, they usually never arranged to get it back, so they were getting disposed of and I had the ones which fitted my cars. 

 

Same with part worns, some would fit a part worn premium tyre brand, they had to be new premium ones so i got a few recent Contis and so on with good tread on them. 

[JohnDeere]

Right, that's a pretty comprehensive "no".

 

Stanky, I am down South (for now) but the Jag now spends most of it's time in Cambridgeshire (don't ask).

 

Thanks Alcyonecorporation, I'll give ye a shout. Didn't think of that.

Where in Cambs? If round here (PE14), Crown Service Station in Outwell is highly recommended. They regularly do old stuff, and Stuart one of the testers is has an early Princess. Even though he did fail the Visa this week.

[Partridge]

Right on the Northants/Cambs border (in one of those weird little villages just off of the A14).

[Chris2cv]

As a main dealer, we are rarely the cheapest option. There is no point denying that mechanics will look for jobs that need doing, that is after all the point. That said, we at not going to make stuff up because if we were to get caught it would cause far more trouble than it is worth - I have know several dealerships (different company, nothing to do with us) suffer serious bad publicity and even closure in one case, for ripping people off. It is just not worth it.  We will report a tyre on 2.5mm, which I would not change personally, but we don't make you change it, just tell you the facts.

 

  We used to see a lot of the super valves (tyre pressure monitors) wrecked by our local kwik fit, who seemed incapable of changing a tyre without smashing one, which would utterly defeat the point of the £10 cheaper tyres. At the time, the valves were about £80 a time (now much cheaper) so this was fine by us!  This does seem to have stopped now.

 

  A couple of years ago we had a very upset young lady in a 5 year old car shouting about how poorly made her car was as the gearbox had failed at 30,000 miles. We couldn't understand until on putting it on the ramp, we found that her kwik fit exhaust was stopping it from going into 3rd or reverse gear! How they let it go out like that I will never understand.

 

 Some branches seem good, and as Barry Cade says above, no disrespect to the testers as I know they will be doing things to the right standards or feel the wrath of the ministry, just be careful and get a second opinion if there are unexpected extras. This advice is true for getting work done anywhere if you are not sure that it is justified.  

[bunglebus]

I avoid taking my car anywhere other than my own workshop (i.e. the driveway) unless absolutely necessary. Having said that, I have been into Kwik Fit in Wellingborough with my wife's modern (Motability), and then more recently my own car, both times for a pair of tyres. No upsell, nice waiting area and no rattle guns! All wheel bolts torqued up correctly which is a refreshing change from the usual "12 dugga-duggas" and then check it with the torque wrench.

Kwik Fit most certainly fit tyres on behalf of other internet tyre sellers, that's how I bought mine.

I get my MoT done by a guy my wife's known for years, and he knows if there's a problem, yo, I'll solve it.

[hpi_matrix]

If your that worried use your council MOT place, be warned they are strict and getting a re-test is a pain in the arse though.

[steveo3002]

best bet is to post up a new thread with your town location and im sure a local shitter will suggest a garage that wont have your pants down 

[reb]

The kwikfit local to me is ok, a friend of mine knows some of the guys that work there which helps a bit. A couple of them are similar to me, young with no money and an interest in old shit. Importantly they don't mind me having a prod about when the car's on the lift, though I think turning up with more oil on my jeans than in the engine helps on that front.

 

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

[Honey Badger]

I avoid taking my car anywhere other than my own workshop (i.e. the driveway) unless absolutely necessary. Having said that, I have been into Kwik Fit in Wellingborough with my wife's modern (Motability), and then more recently my own car, both times for a pair of tyres. No upsell, nice waiting area and no rattle guns! All wheel bolts torqued up correctly which is a refreshing change from the usual "12 dugga-duggas" and then check it with the torque wrench.

Kwik Fit most certainly fit tyres on behalf of other internet tyre sellers, that's how I bought mine.

I get my MoT done by a guy my wife's known for years, and he knows if there's a problem, yo, I'll solve it.

 

Strange as I've never used them as they guy on the phone was a bit of a cock telling me that my tyre choice was wrong and I wanted to buy the special offer death rings at the same price as the Bridgestones I wanted for the S2000, Wellingborough Tyres are the guys I go to now.

 

DG motors in Wellingborough do my MOTs now as long as you book well in advance as they are always rammed with work.