It's an mot pass, that's great, but not going again!

I know what you mean, I don't like to put all my eggs in one basket, and I've used some garages for years, and I feel that if they are local, know me, and the vehicle, then it's easier. I've used another garage as of a year ago that's 7 miles away......you book it, you wait, you go. The staff like old cars, like to have a chat and genuinely like seeing something different, if there is a problem they show you what it is whilst on the ramp.
I took my stiletto last week, and the tester asked me if I was happy to put it on the ramp and do the test with him as it was unfamiliar to him and he didn't want to make a fool,of himself. That's something I've not done for many years. I will be taking everything there in future. The days of me supporting local are over.

I probably pass 10 or more garages to get to my preferred one, been going there over 10 years. They know I do the work myself and aren't interested in taking on jobs, so there's no push to "find" a fail.

I can't really see what your issue is with the garage?

The MoT is just a visual check and doesn't involve any repair work, they found a leak on the calliper (after you had repaired it) and gave you a quote for repair work before carrying out any work, they then did the repairs, road tested your car and only charged you £25.....I'd say that was a good service, especially considering some of the horror stories you hear!

Braking systems don't just leak, they either have faulty parts and need repairing/replacing or someone had been working on them previously and hadn't done the job properly, which to be fair the garage wouldn't know about hence they gave you a quote for repair work. Your quick to criticise the garage but you left you car with leaking brakes.

Sorry not trolling but family business is a MoT and service centre, and I was a technician (mechanic in old money) for years and get a bit defensive lol

Had this about 5 years ago, had used a certain local garage for years. No dramas.

Then issues started arising:

1) Nissan 200SX was up for sale, deposit taken. I agreed to have new temp sensor fitted as it always ran cool.

Garage said; "not a problem mate, it's same as primera engine, done plenty"

Car done Thursday, I take it 2 miles home.

Friday, collect new owner from train station, begin test drive on way back to mine.. car overheating badly.

I call garage, head straight there.

Turns out they'd let the YT kid do it, who was "doing a degree in Motorsports".

Garage owner rectified. Then it turn out that the 20 year old yt kid had taken my 370bhp car for "a good test run" despite having zero insurance to do so.


2) daily needed MOST, service and cambelt etc. Price quoted, £500 ish all in.

Collect car, £1100 bill including MOT fail for leaking fuel filter and leaking shockers.

They'd fitted springs as snapped (they said) but not noticed that the shockers were shagged.

The fail on fuel filter, was the filter they'd fitted an hour earlier and not tightened.


Needless to say, I voted with my feet.


ETA garage #2:

Alternator failed on daily. Needed doing ASAP. Local garage who a mate works for agreed, quoted £200 ish.

Collect the next night, £340. Load of excuses re: previous garage buggering up the bolts.

I get halfway home, notice a crunched hole in my front bumper.

Go back... "Err must've been a customer, go see bodyshop xyz across the road, we'll pay"

Took it there, old school place, says he'll need it 2 days.

Had it 5. Front end repair lasted 4 washes until flaked off.


I then pay trusted place to rectify at £200.


Now using another garage, thus far no issues....

I count myself lucky with the guys who do my m.o.t, they are a garage but know i do my own repairs so don't even quote, he knows retros and has no quibble about me being present during the test.

About 12 years back when I used a different place, I took a mk3 fiesta for test as a favour for someone, I was present and the new tester pulled out a pick hammer not the corrosion assessment tool, he began knocking the utter curse word out of the fiesta, I left him to it because I knew the gaffer, he came to me and said "Oh mate its failed on rust" i asked him to put it back on the ramp to show me, he had put a few holes in solid steel with this hammer, I popped up to get the boss and got him to look and pointed out the hammer used, he proceeded to rip shreds off this guy and made him weld it, I didn't see him there long after that

Once again I never leave my car. Not sure if it makes a difference.

I use and have used the same garage for a few years now. It's on the estate where I work and thus far they have been very fair and also very accommodating. Always go back and have always been sound.

What garage is this if you don't mind me asking? As I know you're local to me and its always good to know of decent places.

That's exactly what I tend to do mondeogrd! If it needs doing, fine, Any advisory gets fixed for next year. My original garage was fully aware of this as it returned each year for 15 years. But now the son has taken over and just sees the Land Rover as junk, and advised me to buy a newer van. Even though it only ever fails on a minor point, but 80% passes, not bad for a 56 year old Landy covering 5k a year of hard work. Don't thing a van would really cut it.