Darlinks, wonderfulls newses*, Hallifo0ds is a be giving free* MOTs

[castros_bro]

Just sorn a "buy anything from Halifolds" and at the cash desk give details of email n reg num and get a link to book free MOT. Looks like a month or so to make the booking so same 4 bit od autoshite, one car every Tuesday will only cost me £2. Am looking for motorcycle Halfords MOT now.

 

 

I got a wiper blade but the cheapest thingie seems to be 50p.

[Rod/b]

Any chance Too_Savvy could pop in to translate?

[lesapandre]

Except they probably MoT stuff to an inch of its life. My guy in London loves old cars and MoT's them with understanding. Not a push over but understanding of the foibles of older motors. If they issue a fail with a lot of problems - its not in their interests to pass boarderline stuff you may end up with big problems. I prefer to pay up and get good service for my chod. I may be wrong of course.

[Wingz123]

Stay well away from these sorts of places for MOT’s....

 

You know the conversation from the ‘shop floor manager’ went something like this...

 

“Right lads fail as many cars as possible on silly things we can make money on that they can’t be arsed to do at home - i.e claim exhausts are loose, brake imbalances to flog more discs/calipers/pads. Etc etc etc”

 

He may well have even thrown a scare tactic in there to the lads on the shop floor.... if we don’t hit our targets then we may well have to let one of you go....

 

DVSA are less likely to investigate a testing station over too high a fail rate more a testing station with too high a pass rate.

 

If the MOT offer is setup in the way you say then you know thats the only way they can make money....

[Floatylight]

Went to Halfords for an MOT once, never again! Found a huge list of things which *needed* doing..

 

Sent from my Moto G (5) using Tapatalk

[chatsharris]

My favourite line is when they say "Your brakes are worn"

 

No shit, I drove it here and braked at some point.

[DSdriver]

... and with the new regs and your car declared dangerous to drive...

[lesapandre]

Being a big group they and their staff will be risk averse. If its boarderline say on some welds they will fail it - why pass it as it could prove unsafe in their eyes.

[lesapandre]

Im speculating that they don't get much business now anyway - word gets around about fascist MoT stations.

[lesapandre]

Though taking a car in for free that you are about to bridge anyway could prove an interesting fun diversion. See just how they treat it and then drive it to the bridge straight after.

[SRi05]

Halfords, kwik fit etc, run a fucking mile from these places

[lesapandre]

Of course the dangerous card is their trump card - you have to get it repaired on site in theory.

[Richard]

I'm not sure if he still does, but Lacquer Peel used to take all his cars to Halfords and he found them fairer than the various rural Highland garages he'd been using previously. 

[w00dy]

I used to MOT my '65 Beetle at Halfords 8 or so years ago since it was cheap and very close. Always had decent results, I think they were aware that there wasn't much they could easily sell me. 

 

 

Nowadays I take cars to a local garage as they will fix any issues very cheaply so even at £50 it works out decent value and I get to poke around their showroom of tat.

[lesapandre]

Background to their MoT operations: 

 

"On 18 February 2010, the company announced a deal to purchase the Nationwide Autocentre MOT chain, from the private equity firm Phoenix. The plan was to rebrand the centres under the Halfords name, and open another 200. As of April 2015, there are over 250 Halfords Autocentre garages dealing with MOTs, car repairs and servicing"

[lesapandre]

And a new CEO making changes probably.

 

"On 13 September 2017, Halfords made an announcement that Dixons Carphone executive Graham Stapleton would be its new CEO, with effect from January 2018."

 

So one kwality organisation to another kwality organisation. 

[lesapandre]

We were in Carphone last weekend - not me as the customer - shocking service god knows how they make money...maybe they don't. Another to avoid IMHO.

[DodgeRover]

Sorry to be negative but how many DANGEROUS fails are they going to find? I bet they will have a queue of recovery guys waiting to take stuff away as you can't drive it on the road now etc...

[sierraman]

I don’t think they’d be able to physically stop you leaving with it.

[lesapandre]

But they will probably put pressure on the less assertive. 

[Crispian_J_Hotson]

Fuck that. I'd pay a wunner to not have a test there.

[lesapandre]

My hunch with all this is some kind of masterplan to move in on the present MoT market. Kind of a MacDonaldisation of the business - if you can hoover up the small guys and get them out of business you have a guaranteed income stream ad infinity. Private Equity and companies like that. Even better if you can lobby Government to make it increasingly difficult for smaller operators.

[captain_70s]

Cheap MOT = Guaranteed fail. They need to make their money back somehow, that'll be on "urgent" repairs you need if you want a pass.

[M'coli]

I take mine to Halfords, I've got a "favourite" branch in Harrogate because they're good and I can go to the library while I'm waiting. Had to go to the other Harrogate branch to get the 106 tested, the tester said "I've not done one of these for years!" Again, no problems.

I started going to them when they were Nationwide because they had a deal with the CSMA of "no pass no fee" at the time.

[Lacquer Peel]

I'm not sure if he still does, but Lacquer Peel used to take all his cars to Halfords and he found them fairer than the various rural Highland garages he'd been using previously.

Aye I did, they were fine, my Volvo 944 TD and Octavia estate were straight passes and the Vanette had some justified fails like a leaking brake cylinder.

Most recently I used ATS Euromaster, massive list of advisories but the car passed the test no bother.

If you seem like you know a bit about cars they won't rip you off but branches may vary.

I prefer to use local garages now, but it's more an anti-corporate stance than anything else.

[Kiltox]

If you happen to have trade plates or can borrow some, stick them in the windows when you get there.

 

These places in my experience don’t try it on anywhere near as hard if you’re a trader...

[meggersdog]

My assistant saw this at the Stamford branch on Wednesday.

Let's hope the same people who fit headlamp bulbs do the test as they'd soon lose their license 

[lesapandre]

Aye I did, they were fine, my Volvo 944 TD and Octavia estate were straight passes and the Vanette had some justified fails like a leaking brake cylinder.

Most recently I used ATS Euromaster, massive list of advisories but the car passed the test no bother.

If you seem like you know a bit about cars they won't rip you off but branches may vary.

I prefer to use local garages now, but it's more an anti-corporate stance than anything else.

I agree with this. I'm sure there are good and dedicated staff at Halfords out to do a good job.  And if you know the people in the branch it helps. It's more the corporate culture that I have reservations with overall - I bet they are tough on staff and extracting every penny to keep profits. No problem with that its their business but I notice and its not something I want to give my ££ to. Me I also prefer to avoid the corporates but I'm retired so I have time to putter about at this. I went up and down the Motorways this week - London to Preston and back. Not something I often do so I'm sure it won't be a surprise to others how every service area now has the Burger King/ McDonalds/Costa/ M&S/Waitrose's etc squatting in them. Surprised me - everything was depressingly uniform (and grubby). They didn't get my money - I took my own food and drink he he he....including flask and tartan blanket..saved a lot and ate better. I just feel our whole lives are being manipulated by corporates these days. They buy up everything because there is so much cash washing around the world. Everybody wants to restrict real choice and to corner the market in something including MoT's?

[Lord Sterling]

It's a good little short-term marketing strategy; i.e; your average Joe car owner will know little or nothing about cars and how they work. As long as it starts, drives and transports them to thier intended destinations that's all they're likely to care about, otherwise they'll have little interest in it.

 

Couple this with a big name like 'Halfords'. Your average Joe likes big names and tends to trust them because they "do car stuff" plus with an offer like this, its hard for them to pass up an offer of something for free . Sadly they can't often see the wood for th trees and understand what might happen next;

 

Halford MOT centres will find a list of *DANGEROUS* items. Couple that with any misunderstandings/misinterpretations of the current MOT law where a vehicle cannot be taken onto public roads after a *DANGEROUS* fail and suddenly your average Joe will be shitting bricks, they have a car they don't "feel" they can take away because of pressure from the MoT man.

 

So he has few choices; pay up and leave with a clean MOT sheet or have the car taken away for repairs elsewhere (usually they wouldn't know anywhere else otherwise they'd not be using Halfords MOT centres) or taken away for scrap.

 

Of course, Halfords will play this out this business model until; they get found out by some watchdog programme or thier reputation is so far flushed down the toilet that keeping the MOT bays open is seen as a loss maker and they're shut down again.

 

Stuff like this won't appeal to people like us as we know (little) better. But then, it's not meant to appeal to us anyway.

[lesapandre]

Reputations seem pretty fluid these days...ie they take the piss.

 

The trouble for the average Joe is how complex cars have become (deliberately sometimes) to stop owner repair etc. People may just have no choice. My Citroen XM seems a positive doddle these days compared to some new stuff.