Cheap MOTs: Oxford, Brighton and South East England

DragonQ

I knew the MOT on my new car expired some time in February or March but couldn't find the paperwork until the other day - turns out it had just expired. Fortunately I don't need the car until the weekend!

A "car man" mate of mine recommended a garage near me who are very reliable and trustworthy, but they charge £55 for an MOT. Before biting the bullet, I checked MSE and to my surprise there was a council MOT centre 5 minutes from my house! Booked this morning and should save myself some money (this car has only failed its MOT once in 10 years and that was for wiper blades).

DragonQ

Council MOT centre passed my car with no advisories and even offered to buy the car from me.

The only thing I found weird was that there was absolutely no-one else there, so I wonder why I had to wait 3 days for the appointment from the date of booking.

fleurh

I'm in Reading and as with others on this thread there don't seem to be any council-run MOT depots nearby. I took my 4 year-old Fiat 500 to Kwik Fit as an alternative to the main Fiat dealer based in Slough, but while prepping for the MOT, they discovered a problem with the fan in the car so I've had to get a breakdown service to take it back to the main dealer after all, to fix the fan before I re-attempt the MOT.

If Kwik Fit had been able to complete the MOT without issue I would be saying that they might be quite a good option if you live near Reading, as it was a fixed rate of £30 for the MOT and you could book it all on-line. I'm pleased to say they haven't charged me anything for attempting to do the MOT even though they must have spent some time with the car as when it overheated the coolant was expelled. This was refilled at no charge.

Anyway, the reason for writing is to say that following the Kwik Fit experience, I looked around the web for other alternatives, and came up with this site

http://www.servicingstop.co.uk

..and I wondered whether anyone else had any experience of them? What is fantastically convenient is that they will pick up and drop off the car for you, removing most of the hassle with taking it to a main dealer which in my case is over 20 miles away. Are they too good to be true? The price I was quoted of £24 including collection and drop-off is even better.

I've booked in with them assuming I'll get my car fixed in time, so will report back to the forum on how the MOT went.

londonTiger

I've taken my car twice to a council run mot place in consecutive years now. I will not name this location because I have some criticism of the test. But I like the tester so dont want to throw him in it.

He does check the crucials meticulously, the underbody checks, brakes, lights, tyres. Always catching me on tyres and warns me of them almost wearing.

But he's never checked the windscreens (the car has had the same windscreen and all the private MOT centers have put advisories on them). He's never checked the spare wheel and ignored a "emissions workshop" dash warning because the car past the emissions test and as far as he's concerned there is no emissions advisory required.

Also the business end of it always puzzled me. I don't think they make any money on the MOT at all. The MOTtest is also the most relaxed, slow, calm experience I have ever had in a garage :rotfl:

I get the feeling that the council just has MOT testing so they can do MOT tests on their own fleet. Just by doing MOT testing in house they probably save tens (if not hundreds) of thousands in unnecessary repairs as private garages will just take advantage of the public sector fleet.

They offer MOT testing to the public just so they can keep the workers busy and give them something to do.

zippy08

@fleurh: I wondered - how did you get on with Servicing Stop?

worried_jim

zippy08 wrote: »

@fleurh: I wondered - how did you get on with Servicing Stop?

They haven't been back since posting this in 09-11-2013 so don't hold your breath for an answer!

Obviously_the_best

MSE missed a council run test centre off the list.

Adur and Worthing Councils have a test centre in Lancing, between Worthing and Brighton.

http://www.adur-worthing.gov.uk/streets-and-travel/mot-testing/