spacekadett
Part of things
F*cking take that Hans Brrix!!
Posts: 830
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Just a little advice; Choose by recommendation Never get a cheap one as they always find fault so they can get repair work And never ever ever (infinitum) take it to a tyre and exhaust centre. They tend to be staffed by the unskilled and inexperienced and most seem intent on raping your wallet. A couple of examples include a Focus that recently been purchased (it was actually in for a 'cheap deal / voucher'services). The owner was told it had less than 100 miles left in the front pads, needed a new engine and had fluid leaking from the rear brakes. And that he'd been ripped off. On inspection when the car came back the pads were half worn and the rears in good non leaking condition. The new engine thing was a slight missfire caused by water in the plug recess A friends daughter had her Ka done at the same place and they refused to return it until they'd repaired it!
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Mechanic's rule #1... If the car works, anything left on the floor after you finished wasn't needed in the first place
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+1 ^^
We regularly* get angry punters turning up (who have bought a car we MoT'd 3/6/12 months ago) saying the test was done wrong and it should have failed etc, invariably this is after a visit to Kwik-fit. I also notice they advertize themselves as "the UK's no.1 MOT tester"... twunts.
*Most recent was last week, Micra K11 with a rust hole in the front x-member (which is an advise, not a fail...) KF sent him to us to complain, we printed off the advisory from 3 months ago that clearly states "Rusted hole in front crossmember". Went away grumbling about not being given the advisory when he bought the car.
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To get a standard A40 this low, you'd have to dig a hole to put it in
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Something needs to be done so MOT's are done fairly, to end this lottery until you find a decent test station.
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I've always had reasonably good experience with MOTs, whether I take the car my self to my "trusted" place or my mother/sister/grandma just take cars to wherever.
There are so many areas where the opinion of the tester matters - they are only human and one guy will miss something, whereas another guy will miss something else and decide that the x amount of play in x bush is not acceptable.
I'm pretty happy with how comprehensive the MOT is - Ignoring the usual emissions garbage I really don't mind fixing anything for the MOT. Yeah, sometimes they want places welding that really won't cause the car to snap in half but really, I might as well just do the work.
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froggy
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,099
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Sorry chap but you are getting on my paps now . Why didn't you challenge the original test result ? If your wing is rotten at the bottom is the sill end behind it rotten too ?
I'm sure this car means something to you but to me it's a crusty old bm that I don't want to come back and bite me in a couple of months because I advised a load of corrosion .
Might seem harsh but to fight vosa on an appeal over corrosion is not something I or any other tester wants to do .
I had a trader who sold over the Internet and I had s few snotty calls over the cars he sold with no advisories so I used to do a duplicate vt32 and stick it under the drivers seat
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Last Edit: Nov 2, 2010 23:27:36 GMT by froggy
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Well,Ive owned my own garage up until 3 weeks ago (hence my free time on here!!) and I must have moted 40-50 cars in the last 15 months or so.
I paid £40 per ticket to a place called Fairfield Mot centre in port Talbot who only do mots,no repairs at all,so no gain to them,well only tyres which are pretty cheap there too.
I found them excellent,no problems at all,near enough 90% of what they said was wrong was,ok maybe a few times I thought"that's a bit petty" but it's their livelihood at the end of the day and you have to respect that.
I'm not sure,but if someone turned up in an old Beemer I'd take an educated guess that they have some knowledge of cars as it's not really your usual eurobox Clio or Ka that you see every day,I'd guess the person must have some sort of reason for driving an old car.
And before anyone jumps down my throat I've owned an e plate 528i and loved it,so it's not a slating,just an observation that their fast becoming enthusiasts cars rather than something you look at as a cheap runabout.
Fairfield offered free retests which was great as invariably there's always something wrong,especially on the older cars.
It's a pain granted,but it's your safety at the end of the day,and the safety of other road users.
I take your point about inconsistencies,we did some Mot work on a mk4 golf cabby that had failed on all sorts. Took it down after all the work was done only for it to fail on a loose seat which was advised previously!!!!
It's down to the testers discretion at the end of the day but I believe the general rule of thumb is advise where possible rather than fail.
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My 100 quid Vitara came away with some advisories when my MOT tester bro in law gave it a pretest before i decided if i was gonna bother buying it and fixing the worn propshaft UJ, it needs a couple of 50p sized plates welded on the end of the chassis, has a blowing exhaust near the back box (he suggested jubilee clips and a tin can would cure it) and brake light and number plate bulb out, advisories were sensible though i thought.
Rear door handle sticky, but door is secure, Both rear tyres close to limit, rear number plate starting to discolour.
Its pot luck with a new car if you don't look round it well enough, but if its your own and your driving an older car i think its up to you to learn enough to keep an eye on its condition, even if only to spread the cost of repairs over the year.
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Volvo back as my main squeeze, more boost and some interior goodies on the way.
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A learning experience it certainly is and a good one. That was part of the reason for buying this car as I knew it needed work and I wanted to do most of it myself. Many jobs where new to me. As the second test station from reading up about MOT's in the last couple of days has made the right calls (should have done this reading first) I know a bit more than I did last week. I also know a fairer and more honest MOT station now. It will going for it retest at the end of the week once the remedial work has been carried out.
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Darrel
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,167
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My Tigra that I bought with a years MOT last month is still not being used. After it went to the garage for a clutch replacement they phoned me up saying the car was lethal and that it had rotten seat belt anchorages, having looked underneath they are right and I can see the carpet. Not only did the car pass, but it passed with no advisorys????Ive got to wait till pay day so I can afford to have the car properly welded and also re MOt'd before I trust it with my kids in there.
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