Half price MOT - Halfords Autocentres

Strider590

Half price MOT, at Halfrauds expect simple failures, like blown bulbs, worn wipers, etc etc.... (even the above isn't rocket science). Unless the staff are feeling brave they probably won't want to attempt big complex jobs.

mikey72

paddedjohn wrote: »

I took my daughters car to Halfords last year and it failed on a rack boot and track rod end, due to having a bad arm at the time i asked for a quote for the work, i nearly fell over when i was quoted £45 for the track rod end (not the end of the world) and then they told me £45 for a rack boot. I asked the manager why so much for the boot since the car would already be stripped for the rod end and he said not his fault, thats what his computer says.
Also tried to tell me that since it failed, her existing 3 weeks mot were cancelled and the car was illegal to drive, never heard so much boiiocks from one mouth.

Was the track rod end the same side as the boot?

paddedjohn

mikey72 wrote: »

Was the track rod end the same side as the boot?

Yes, thats why i was shocked at the price but he wouldnt budge on it because thats what his computer said he had to charge, obviously never used a spanner in his life.
I fixed it myself for £20 odd quid in about 30 mins in the end with one arm in a sling.

When i took it back for retest later that day he still insisted i was breaking the law driving it with no mot

EdGasket

My experience is that half-price MoT's equate to almost certain failure on stupid, picky things.
I once had a haf-price MoT at a tyre retailing chain (not KF) and they failed it on every single brake pipe on the car. Absolutely rediculous. Took it to a garage and paid normal MoT price and it passed. Draw your own conclusions.

LincolnshireYokel

Exactly, they might knock £15 or £20 off the MOT but they soon slap it back on in the parts or labour cost. Like priavte parking companies, garages are there to make money out of you, not provide a cheap service.

grizzly1911

paddedjohn wrote: »

Yes, thats why i was shocked at the price but he wouldnt budge on it because thats what his computer said

I had the same issue with some work I needed doing on my brakes. Asked for a worst case scenario (F&R) at two chains and the quotes they produced were for four different jobs (discs x2 brakes x2) even though they would not be doing the full range undoing/redoing on each job.

Local independent did the job no problem for about 60% all in.

I guess last minute MOTs may also suggest a lackadaisical approach to car servicing and road worthiness in general.

mikey72

LincolnshireYokel wrote: »

Exactly, they might knock £15 or £20 off the MOT but they soon slap it back on in the parts or labour cost. Like priavte parking companies, garages are there to make money out of you, not provide a cheap service.

nah. I don't see the parking reference. Last time I parked my car, I paid for the privilege, and they still didn't fix the brakes. The garage did though. Neither gave me a parking ticket. But I do use a very good garage, and I would indeed like them to make a fair profit, if they did everything at a loss, I wouldn't be able to use them for long.

datostar

paddedjohn wrote: »

I took my daughters car to Halfords last year and it failed on a rack boot and track rod end, due to having a bad arm at the time i asked for a quote for the work, i nearly fell over when i was quoted £45 for the track rod end (not the end of the world) and then they told me £45 for a rack boot. I asked the manager why so much for the boot since the car would already be stripped for the rod end and he said not his fault, thats what his computer says.

Ha! That's the British Gas technique. I had them service our boiler and while it was all in bits their engineer fitted a new thermocouple. Trivial job really and about £7 for the part. Got billed as 2 separate jobs for nearly £300. I argued with them on the lines that dismantling and reassembly were part of the service anyway and shouldn't be charged for twice when only done once. They relented and ended up charging £170. If you're otherwise happy with Halfords it might be worth taking that kind of thing up at a higher level. Firms don't always seem to realise that they're double charging when using fixed pricing.