You can bloody guarantee they'll pick up on something insignificant that you can't disprove without being under the car with them, then they force you to pay them to fix it or pay them to bring it back for a re-test.

I swear I'm never going to another MOT with garage place again. My previous MOT place would let me wander around with them, point out potential future problems, tell me what might become a problem before the next one and what they thought should be replaced. This one just calls up and says "this needs replacing, if you disagree speak to VOSA".


GRRRRR

at farmers we were under the car with them, was reasonably impressed.

might be worth looking for a council run mot place. no vested interest there

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-mot

the map half way down shows 2 in glasgow.

I go for one which doesn't have a garage. MOTs is all they do. They let me go down into the pit and have a shoofy at anything which needs work. Which is nice.

i know 2 mot guys who have lost there jobs for passing cars that should not have pass ,there now back on the tools. bishopbrigg are coming down hard on test guys .one of my mates is a tester and hes sure they have had 2 marked cars in in the last few weeks.

as with many things it can come down to individual testers.
the place where mine goes is part of a chain and testers first impressions when he saw it was a kit car werent very positive.
after chatting though he warmed up turns out he stuck v8's in various things, and on subsequent years he's been great.

I don't think you can generalise. The best experiences I have had have been with a local garage that also does repairs. Both the Indy and our C8 have passed every time.

As for being allowed under the car, I would have thought that was outlawed a while back, certainly I would expect the insurance people not to like it.

Yes, the problem is that I've got used to the fact that I know my old MOT place (MOT only) and the new one doesnt know me from the next person (having just moved here). The problem is that I'm not asking him to pass something that'll fail, I'm questioning a couple of items that are personal opinion - failed on brake proportioning valve stuck. It sticks every year due to lack of use (never carries any weight in the rear) and every year gets freed with some lube and a 30 second wiggle by my MOT man for nowt. Not this year, it's a fail and the work will cost half an hours labour. A few other minor items (corrosion related) that are IMO fine but I would replace anyway in the coming 12 months.

But obviously he's only doing it assuming he'll not see it for another 12 months and it could be someones life on the line in 11 months time- I do understand that, I just find it very frustrating not to be given the chance to rectify it myself and be forced to pay someone to do it, or pay them not to do it.

Council sites are tempting - I'll be finding one near me. It's the fact that you don't know if they've genuinely found something you've missed or if they're just bending you over.

As for being allowed under the car - wasn't a problem until I moved location, old place was fine with it and I know a few other people who get let in to see.

[Edited on 20/9/10 by coyoteboy]

I have a couple of trustworthy local garages I use, they know from the outset that they wont get any repair work from me and so just do an honest MOT which is all that you can ask from them.I would never go near any of the big chains such as kwik fit , Lucas auto centers etc as they will always find something wrong with brake disks , exhaust , shockers etc even if you just take the car for an oil change they look for work.
Paul

I wouldn't normally ever let anyone do work on my cars but in this case it's a partial-retest fee anyway so I'm scuppered - even if I take it away and fix it myself I've still got to give them even more money. (vosa rules, not theirs to be fair!)

[Edited on 20/9/10 by coyoteboy]

quote:

---

Originally posted by coyoteboy
You can bloody guarantee they'll pick up on something insignificant that you can't disprove without being under the car with them, then they force you to pay them to fix it or pay them to bring it back for a re-test.

I swear I'm never going to another MOT with garage place again. My previous MOT place would let me wander around with them, point out potential future problems, tell me what might become a problem before the next one and what they thought should be replaced. This one just calls up and says "this needs replacing, if you disagree speak to VOSA".


GRRRRR

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by coyoteboy
I wouldn't normally ever let anyone do work on my cars but in this case it's a partial-retest fee anyway so I'm scuppered - even if I take it away and fix it myself I've still got to give them even more money. (vosa rules, not theirs to be fair!)

[Edited on 20/9/10 by coyoteboy]

---

Can't agree with the OP on this one.

I've had a number of MOTs done by Nationwide Autocentre. Never had an issue, they even replaced a brake light bulb for free so the car would pass.

The last MOT on her car was done by kwik fit. Now, I'm the first to complain about them and the guy was a miserable git but they failed it on rear wheel bearing having excessive play so I said show me and they took me through, put the car on the ramp and showed me how bad it was. To be fair I had a feeling one was on the way out but I hadn't got round to searching for it.
Cost to fix it was only £10 more than I could get the parts for so I left it with them and picked it up later that day.

I normally do the work myself but I can't complain about being shafted on MOTs

I did a little later But as I say, they're subjective fails and things that are very hard for me to dispute especially as I'm unable to be with the car - taking it to VOSA would cost me an additional test and time.

As I say, I have no issues with having a car failed for something that is an immediate safety hazard. Christ, my other half drives it - she's the last person I'd want to risk for a few hundred quid, it's just the lack of comeback.
While not the item in question - excessive disc corrosion - one garage's fail is another's "that's fine, keep an eye on it". But with a garage there's incentive not to be helpful. While an MOT-only may say "these discs are close to their limit" it makes no financial sense for a garage-MOT place to say that. On calling the chap for a chat and to ascertain which comments were fails and which advisory, he simply said in a slightly miffed voice "that's what it failed on, take it to VOSA if you don't agree" - which is not the tone I look for in someone I'm willing to pay to do things.

I can see his side, I really can, maybe I expect too much from previous good experience. There seems to be a reason my parents always swore by the local council stations.

quote:

---

Nope Vosa only states that full retest will take place after the 10 working days......if you take the car away, repaired your self and bring it with in the 10 working days then is the mot stations desision if they going to charge or not.

---

As a young truck apprentice in the 80s, I worked in a local dealers. Our side did trucks, and out front they sold Peugeot/Talbots.

The car mechanic mot testers , were t0ssers.


They used to find it really amusing to damage customers cars, if for example a floor section looked rotty. It often got a hammer through it. they also took great delight in bragging how they had either amassed a huge failure list, or how they could only find one trivial point to fail a car on.

And as far as the car workshop manager (t0sser) was concerned these idiots were golden balls.

It often caused plenty of friction between the car workshops and the truck shop, sometimes boiling over with a heated row at the stores counter.


Ive never ever gone to a dealer for workshop/mot stuff.

Find a local small garage, and stick with them assuming they are decent guys.


Ive been with my current one nearly fifteen years.

And he mots my Lada (yes Lada) and it passes, its safe and isnt dropping to bits. It goes without saying if I went anywhere else they would have a field day on it.


For no good reason than they are t0ssers..


Thanks for listening....

i had a similar thought about garages doing mots when my striker needed one. So i searched for a quick mot place. I found just mot which i think is a nationwide company. The guy was very nice and let me walk all round and under the car.
Only 25 quid if prebooked online if i remember correctly to. It obviously passed!

Last time I needed an MOT I went to a garage that does repair stuff because they're the only garage in town my dad trust. He's had so many different garages tell him stupid things when his vehicles have stopped working (More than one of them told him he had a broken clutch on an automatic, and one misdiagnosed failed Glow plugs for needing a new altinater and starter motor).

The biggest problem is alot of garages assume their customers are idiots and try and see what they can get away with. As alot of people already have said, find yourself someone your happy with and stick with them.

Obviously you all know that there are MOT testers on here and I'm one of them. From a testers point of view you follow the book and obviously everyone's view on the book is different, there are guys in my workshop who's standards are different to mine, it's called testers discression.

We're told that if you aren't sure about an item then pass and advise, some items aren't possible to advise and are fail only items.

I agree with the MOT Tester and if you have a problem with the test then you should refer it to VOSA and let them decide if it is reasonable. If your appeal is successful then you don't have to pay the appeal fea (which I think is the cost of a test).

If you believe they are failing things that should pass then ask them for a VT17 appeal form, I believe they are required to give you one if you ask.

If an investigation finds they are incorrectly failing cars then they can lose VOSA accreditation so it concentrates their mind regarding anything VOSA might consider frivolous.