Cheaper MOT

Valid point I suppose, I usually watch them like a hawk on the 2 occasions I've been in there. I suppose when you get to more expensive cars, it's perhaps less advisable to use them.

But will it be valid from the end date of my current MOT :) or from the date it is issued ?

if it is done with 4-weeks or less left on your old MOT, then it should run after your old mot, thus giving you upto 13-months

It's not viable to do punter MOT's for £30 , traders usually pay more than that.

"Fred"

While I agree the F1/Kwik-fit types are the worse, I maintain that main dealers are almost as bad.

If you go to a small local garage you will pay probably £40ph and get a mechanic who you can talk to before he starts, who will explain to you at the end what was wrong, and who will be there in a couple of weeks when you go back.

On the other hand if you go to a main dealer you will pay between 50% and 100% more per hour for what's effectively a YTS trainee, you will have to speak to a guy on the front desk who has no idea which car is yours, let alone what was wrong with it, and you will find that the next time you go back they probably don't have the same staff and even if they do they won't remember you.

Geoff

Check out Nationwide Autocentres. Either use Tesco Clubcard deals to get an Mot for a quarter of the face value, paid for with Clubcard vouchers. Or join Civil Service Motoring Association if you can (now free) and get no-pass-no-fee plus 33% off the price as and when it does pass. Both my local ones have always been scrupulously fair.

You'll never get something for nothing... there's always a hidden catch.

=A330 for an MOT test means that National Tyres will be making a loss on each MOT test that comes through their door. An MOT test takes an hour to do properly. It takes two people to do the test. Plus a receptionist to book the car in. So that means 2 people are earning Nat Tyres =A315 per hour or 3 people =A310 per hour.

Barely enough to pay their wages...

Take your car to Nat Tyres... Let us know what it fails on & how much you are charged for the repairs...

30 minutes maximum

Only for a small part of the test

... who meanwhile is doing other things like seeing to other customers and answering telephone

5 mins receptionist time max. As for the rest : IME it's one person to do the test (*), and it doesn't take an hour if the car's in ok nick.

I take my car to small independent garages to have the MOT done, and they know I'll be doing any remedial work, so have no incentive to fail it.

(* why two? The MOT bays I've seen have mirrors for the lights tests, and the brake and exhaust tests are done from the driver's seat with a remote box on a wire)

cheers, clive

Maybe true with a company like national, but my local garage and one my dad uses near him both charge =A325 for an MOT. I've never had unnecessary work done by either. The owner of the garage near my dad explained it costs him a tenner to issue the MOT certificate and his guys can do an MOT in 1/2 hour so =A315 labour.

The only time I've felt ripped off was when they charged =A37.50 to set one of my headlights which was slightly out of alignment and had a bad beam pattern, but given it still cost less than a full price MOT I wasn't bothered.

It takes an hour under the computerised test AFAIK. Who turns the steering when they check for the steering action andy brake lines catching, and applies and releases the handbrake so they check for any damage or snagging of the cable?

Fair play.

See my points above. I know, because pre-computerisation, as a customer when they have been short of staff, to save me waiting, I have sat in the car to do the above things.

Elder ( snipped-for-privacy@bouncing-czechs.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

45 min slots on the computer, IIRC.

Which they shouldn't have let you do then, just as they shouldn't now. The only thing that changed with computerisation is the recording process for the test results - none of the test processes changed.

They seem to check for lines catching by turning the steering from the wheel. (They probably wouldn't be doing this on a CX...). Handbrake cable(s) appeared to be a visual check of cable (damage, and snagging shouldn't be hard to spot), plus the rollers of course which shows that the cable is feeding appropriately (ie when they pull the lever, it doesn't catch) and of course that the thing works.

cheers, clive

Which presumably includes allowances for the tester having statutory brekas, loo breaks, explaining the results to the customer etc etc

Just the amount of faff and red tape. What a surprise!

It was down to 'exploded' rear brake cylinders. Contaminated the shoes, and couldn't put them back together again without replacing them.

Symptoms were sticking when moving off after handbrake had been applied for a while.

I don't doubt it needed doing, just that once it was removed, they had me over a barrel.

I did get £60 off them under their pricematch offer! So I only paid 'dealer rates'. Oh, and I did get Clubcard points (gives an idea of who did the work now!).

D

Why do some cars do that? Surely it's a much safer design to make the wheel cylinders long enough that even if the pads are worn right down and the drums even scoured out a bit, the pistons can't pop out past their seals?

The problem is exacerbated by self-adjusters.

They may done in the past, but I think you'll find they don't anymore.

--=20 Lordy.UK

Clive George ( snipped-for-privacy@xxxx-x.fsnet.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

THANK YOU, Clive... I'd forgotten about the amusement of watching clueless MOT testers trying to defeat 2000psi of hydraulic pressure... Ah, fond memories of my CXs...