MoT in Oxford

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Is it really hard to find an MOT station in Oxford?

He did ask for "a good place". Nudge, nudge, know what I mean? A nod's as good as a wink to a blind man.

Don't use the VW/Audi specialist near the train station, took me for an expensive ride when I didn't have a clue about cars. £250+ and they didn't even fix the problem which was a lose clip on a water hose!! I fixed this once I knew the ins and outs of my car.

If you want to travel as far as Abingdon, Sutton Courtney Tyre Services at the back of the filling station, on the road to Tesco's, are as good as any. They only do MOT's, not repairs, so they don't have a vested interest in failing your car.

Regards PTE

Dunno about Oxford specifically but I generally find Nationwide Autocentres to be fair, used three or four different branches, no complaints yet.

I just got mine done in the local council testing centre. Councils set those up to test their own vehicles and taxis and by law they have to test private vehicles as well. On the plus side there's no incentive for them to fail unnecessarily and it was only £40 but on the down side the test took 65 minutes including 10 minutes for them to do the paperwork! They tried very hard to find anything wrong with it, even to the extent of slapping the light clusters when testing the rear lights and they went round the car testing each wheel for worn bearings at least twice.

I'll definitely go there again as I really want to know if anything safety related needs doing but at the same time don't want to be failed unnecessarily (I'd now be able to argue with an unfair fail but it still would have failed causing a lot of hassle). Ergo I like the strict but fair combination.

Look at the MoT contact details here:

I've had some (Nationwide) fail a car on things they shouldn't have and some pass a car when clearly it should have failed but I'm sure that'd happen anywhere. Wasn't impressed with their =A3850 quote for fixing my Carlton though.

I've used the little garage on Between Towns Road in Cowley, opposite the end of Barns Road and more recently, the tyre place on Marsh Road, Cowley. Both have been efficient and fine but really there are hundreds of MOT stations in Oxford.

I'm not sure about going to the City Council Works place on Marsh Road though. I used to be chair of the licencing committee for Oxford City Council and there were plenty of taxis on the streets in conditions that I would certainly not keep my own car in...

Tony

Oh, I wouldn't get any actual work done there, they're a bloody fortune.

Do Taxi's have to be MOT'd by the Council?

Phil

Yes, definitely, and every six months. The test is much more stringent too - there must be no visible body damage and the car must be clean inside and out.

Tony

OK, cheers guys, thanks for your recommendations!

Andy