Cheap MOT

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

I needed to do my MOT in advance, as I will be abroad when my car turns 3 years. So I decided to give a try with one of these cheap MOT places. There is a garage near to me, they advertise for 15 quid. Went there yesterday and booked at 8am today, as a first car. Arrived on time, to find that they are two cars before me (interesting, as I was booked as the first car for the day) and it will be better for me if I go and find myself something to do. Really, there is no comfortable place and that’s really nice, that I brought book with me, but it can take long, so I have for sure something important to do, you know, we call you there is REALLY no reason for you to sit here, in this dirty waiting room being bored and listening to the workshop noise and there is so nice cafe just along the road…

I knew the rules of that game, so just went to eat some breakfast. My car is just over 19 500 miles, serviced the day before and I checked everything I could the night before, so I was really hoping that no matter how hard they’ll try, they won’t find anything. But it turned out, that “nearside headlamp too high” and “offside fromt headlamp image obviously incorrect” whatever that means. It’s amazing how fragile these headlights are, you know, I just checked them the night before, and the lines were perfectly as they should be at the perfectly the same level for both headlights… :grimacing: :grimacing: But, lucky me, the guys in the garage were so kind, that they fixed it for me for mere 15 pounds and they did not charged me for re-test, so I have brand new MOT certificate for only 30 pounds…

As I said, I knew the rules of that game and as long, as it’s cheaper than 54.50 I am playing along, altough it’s funny, as that my first MOT failure ever and I never had car younger than 11 years before…

But can anyone explain it to me? Why they just don’t tell you “we do your MOT 30 pounds” and then let you sit and read your paper instead of throwing you out to get wet on the rainy day? :slight_smile:

2

if they only charge £15 there isn’t much profit in the job, so they cant afford to buy a nice new sofa and colour tv to put in a nice waiting room for you while you wait…
so if you don’t like it go and pay £54 somewhere else and hope they have a nice room for you… its not a hotel !!! LOL
do a google search and see how much it would cost you to buy a set of brake rollers and 2 exhaust gas analysers and a computer linked to vosa and the cost of getting one or two mechanics accredited to do mot tests…
how they can do it for £15 is beyond me.

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Trukkertone:
how they can do it for £15 is beyond me.

Read my post again and you will get it: they just mess something with your car and then charge you a small fortune to do fix it back right for you. Or possible they dont’ do even that, they just TELL you something was wrong and that’s the reason why they don’t want you looking over their shoulders. So in fact they charge you 15 quid for MOT + some small sum for “fixing the problem” to make some profit. But off course not too much, as in that case you would just go to normal price MOT place when your car would pass without any problems.

My question was: we all know that 15 for MOT is not right. But obviously they can do it for 30. So why they just don’t advertise “MOT 30” and do it that way instead of “cheating” by advertising 15 MOT and then messing around with your car to get some more cash from you?

As for the sofa in waiting room - they had quite nice sofa, kettle, tea and coffe. No TV, but I don’t need it.

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orys:

Trukkertone:
how they can do it for £15 is beyond me.

Read my post again and you will get it: they just mess something with your car and then charge you a small fortune to do fix it back right for you. Or possible they dont’ do even that, they just TELL you something was wrong and that’s the reason why they don’t want you looking over their shoulders. So in fact they charge you 15 quid for MOT + some small sum for “fixing the problem” to make some profit. But off course not too much, as in that case you would just go to normal price MOT place when your car would pass without any problems.

My question was: we all know that 15 for MOT is not right. But obviously they can do it for 30. So why they just don’t advertise “MOT 30” and do it that way instead of “cheating” by advertising 15 MOT and then messing around with your car to get some more cash from you?

As for the sofa in waiting room - they had quite nice sofa, kettle, tea and coffe. No TV, but I don’t need it.

The reference to a waiting/viewing room or area is in the MOT Testing Guide - A
hand book for Scheme Administration (Fifth Edition) Section D A2.1 Premises
paragraph f).

f). a clearly identified, warm and weatherproof public waiting area from which the
whole test can be directly observed without interruption, except for road
testing (room for 2 seated people is considered sufficient).
Directly observed means that for example mirrors or close circuit TV are not
acceptable. The observation room or area should be identified by a notice and
floor markings if applicable. There should also be a notice in reception
indicating the presence of a viewing area.

There are dozens of these cheap places, but they will always find something wrong. If you are sure the car is OK, take it to the local council depot or bus garage. They have no reason to fail it as they do not do repairs. Although you will pay full price.

I do see your point though Orys, they were never going to pass the car for £15 as the tester would probably want £10 per hour as wages. Repair Garages will use MOT testing as a loss leader like the supermarket will sell milk for 18p per pint.

5

Wheel Nut:
There are dozens of these cheap places, but they will always find something wrong. If you are sure the car is OK, take it to the local council depot or bus garage. They have no reason to fail it as they do not do repairs. Although you will pay full price.

I do see your point though Orys, they were never going to pass the car for £15 as the tester would probably want £10 per hour as wages. Repair Garages will use MOT testing as a loss leader like the supermarket will sell milk for 18p per pint.

Yeah, exactly, I was pretty sure that I will not end paying 15 quid, but I expected that they won’t make it dearer than full price - and I was right on that, since I am nearly 25 ahead.

But my point is: why to play this stupid game? Why just don’t calculate their cost and say honestly “we’ll do your MOT for 30 quid, everyobody are happy, you have MOT cheaper, and we still made profit on it”?

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Local council MOT centres

Many local councils have their own MOT testing stations for their own vehicles, like buses or ambulances.

By law these test centres (though not taxi or Crown stations) must be open to the general public. As they generally only carry out tests and don’t do repairs, there’s no incentive for mechanics to find faults that don’t exist.

Centres we’ve visited tell us this guide gave them a fourfold increase in members of the public visiting. Better still, they said they were grateful as it secured their jobs in times of council cuts. Good news, as it means you’re seen as a welcome customer, not an annoying distraction.

Does it make a difference?

Thousands of savvy MoneySavers have used these test centres and the vast majority report their cars either consistently passing the test, or needing fewer repairs compared with MOTs done at other garages. Here are a few examples:

I took my ten year old Renault to my local Council Depot for a test last year, it passed first time. This has NEVER happened in my life. RESULT.

I took my Mini for a service at a London dealership. They told me it needed £1,700 of repairs, many of which would be likely MOT failure issues. Having read this thread, I took the car the following day to the Camden Borough Council MOT Test Centre. This has just saved me £1,700 - more than a month’s pay. I can’t tell you how happy I am!

Took my 4x4 to the local garage only to find out it had failed with a £1200 bill. My council-run MOT centre passed it… Massive thank you to this site

MOT Testing Discussion Area

So while you may miss out on the special ‘cheap MOT testing’ deal, the money saved in repairs should make up for it. Of course there are no guarantees. You may go to a local council test centre and be told repairs are needed, which is good, as it’s for your safety and you should always want to know if your car has a problem.

Is it a safety compromise?

This isn’t about getting a shoddy quick MOT that passes your car. Council-run MOT centres are often some of the best out there, and they run the safety tests stringently.

One MoneySaver tells how, after being quoted £700 for MOT repairs from his local dealer, he took it to his council test centre where it passed without any need for repairs.

He then reported the dealer to his local Trading Standards department, which had it re-tested; it passed with no need for repairs. So he wrote to the dealer requesting his test fee be returned for ‘non-compliance with the Road Traffic Act’ and got a refund.

7

I pay £40 for an MOT, decent waiting room if required or they will phone you to let you know when it’s done, a booking time is kept and they will only fail the vehicle for genuine reasons.

I’d rather pay £40 and know I’m getting a proper job than £15 and know they can hardly afford to pass the vehicle :wink:

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If you think they’re deliberately failing perfectly legal vehicles or causing damage so as to make it fail, report them to trading standards and VOSA. Bet they soon put the price up to something more realistic.

9

I used kwik fit for my last mot, 07 reg focus, £30, they passed it no probs.

10

I take my car to a garage round the corner from work. Been going there for years with various cars. The guy knows he wont get any work of me, TBH hes too busy doing modifications and rally preparations to do the work anyway.
Usually costs £45, but any minor faults such as bulbs he has changed without charge or just told me to sort it out.

Main reason I go there though is convienience, I can drop the car off at anytime on his forecourt ,pop the spare keys and cash in an envelope through the door, then he rings me with the good or bad news and locks the car up (leaving the spare keys in the boot) and i collect it later that night

11

orys:

Wheel Nut:
But my point is: why to play this stupid game? Why just don’t calculate their cost and say honestly “we’ll do your MOT for 30 quid, everyobody are happy, you have MOT cheaper, and we still made profit on it”?

come on, you’re a clever bloke, why did you go there instead of one with a sign outside saying mots £30? because it’s cheaper! and although you knew the game there’s a lot of naive / daft people about who don’t realise they’d be losing money at that rate, therefore they need to bump it up to make it pay.

i give mine to a bloke i know who charges me between £30 and £40 but i can take it away do all the work myself and he’ll retest it for free

12

stevieboy308:
come on, you’re a clever bloke, why did you go there instead of one with a sign outside saying mots £30? because it’s cheaper! and although you knew the game there’s a lot of naive / daft people about who don’t realise they’d be losing money at that rate, therefore they need to bump it up to make it pay.

I was curious how much he needs to bump the price to make it worthwhile for him :wink: And to be honest hoped that maybe, since my car is perfect, he will fail to find anything, so it was a bit of gamble as well :wink: In worst case I would just go to the normal MOT place and do it there, loosing 15 pounds. But I gained 25, so it was worth it.

As they say you are lucky in hazard only first time, so I am not coming back :slight_smile:

13

Cheapest mot i had was £7 from a main skoda dealer.

When i booked it they asked if I wanted to wait while it was done, I asked how long will it take and they said 30 - 45 minutes, so I said yeah I’ll wait as I live about 8 miles away and wasn’t worth the bother.

After about 4 hours they had the courtesy to tell me it had passed after annoying them every 20minutes as to how much longer it would be. (i wasnt in any rush anywhere so thought I’d play up)

I made it nice and loud in the showroom and said that they were making me wait until i bought a new car.

They soon started apologising and asked if they could make a mense so to speak so i said i want £15 knocking off for every hour I’ve been here. (So they would pay me for my mot(and £13 pounds up))
“Let me speak to the service manager”

Ends up he knocked 40 quid off and a voucher for a half price service at the next yearly service.
I’d say that was worth 4 hrs of my time :smiley::grin::grin:

14

When doing an MoT test now,the garage has to log onto the computer for a fixed time,I think it’s the best part of an hour,so your test is recorded in real time.
As has been said,there’s no way that any garage can have an accredited MoT tester ■■■■■■■ for so long at the rate he must be on.
I’ve come across a lot of these scams over the years,mainly for servicing,but I had one MoT test done where the itemised bill showed that I had been charged for adjusting the o/s headlight and again for adjusting the n/s headlight.Most garages adjust your headlights during the test for nowt!

15

I once worked for a rover garage in bham, we put a brand new montego (unregistered) through an MOT, it failed! i take my cars to a place that only do MOT,s no repairs no garage work purely MOT,s and pay £35…

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I always watch from the designated viewing area (tiny yellow box), ready to yell insults at the tester if I think he’s being incompetent.

I did have a £30 test done at about 2 hours notice on a Saturday morning at a place I had no knowledge or experience of. Failed on a duff light bulb and emissions. I watched the test conducted and the tester spent a long time checking the steering and front suspension. Hat’s off the tester for correctly getting the Tapley tester out unprompted and not roller brake testing. Adjustment to carb and bulb came to £14, which was fair enough with a pass ticket at 1.00pm closing on a Saturday. He could have nailed it for more in my opinion, but he gave the car a fair and square test.