Strange Failings

heavenknowsi'm

My wife’s car failed the MOT on Saturday. OK it was a Citroen Picasso so perhaps it was understandable. But we thought we had done everything right. We got it prepared at a “reputable” garage – Shaws of Bangor. Reminded them to check the exhaust and headlight alignment – and their invoice stated that was done. However, the car failed on the headlight alignment. My wife took the car back, but Shaws staff (no doubt after their Catherine Tate crash course in customer service) blamed MOT centres for being too fussy and bumps in the road for unaligning headlights. Their failure to notice and replace a bulb that had “blown” a week previously was easily explained by saying it had been replaced but it may have blown again due to condensation.

Moral of the story: find a garage directly beside an MOT centre and drive carefully avoiding bumps in the road and wet weather.

IvanOpinion

Shaws of Bangor ... the word 'reputable' is not one I would use when thinking about them but that is another story.

I remember a few years ago watching a couple of lads jack up a couple of cars, transfer the wheels from one to the other, in it went for MOT and on the wy out the car got jacked up again and the wheels swapped back. While the fact this happens did not surprise me, what did surprise me was that this all happened pretty much at the gates of the MOT centre itself.

Ivan

absoluteutopia

IvanOpinion wrote: »

Shaws of Bangor ... the word 'reputable' is not one I would use when thinking about them but that is another story.

I remember a few years ago watching a couple of lads jack up a couple of cars, transfer the wheels from one to the other, in it went for MOT and on the wy out the car got jacked up again and the wheels swapped back. While the fact this happens did not surprise me, what did surprise me was that this all happened pretty much at the gates of the MOT centre itself.

Ivan

I think that was me

george_2

heavenknowsi'm wrote: »

My wife’s car failed the MOT on Saturday. OK it was a Citroen Picasso so perhaps it was understandable. But we thought we had done everything right. We got it prepared at a “reputable” garage – Shaws of Bangor. Reminded them to check the exhaust and headlight alignment – and their invoice stated that was done. However, the car failed on the headlight alignment. My wife took the car back, but Shaws staff (no doubt after their Catherine Tate crash course in customer service) blamed MOT centres for being too fussy and bumps in the road for unaligning headlights. Their failure to notice and replace a bulb that had “blown” a week previously was easily explained by saying it had been replaced but it may have blown again due to condensation.

Moral of the story: find a garage directly beside an MOT centre and drive carefully avoiding bumps in the road and wet weather.

Did you know that Halfords wont change headlights in newer Citroen's because they are deemed too difficult to access?

maybe Shaw's follow the same process!

Milko

george wrote: »

Did you know that Halfords wont change headlights in newer Citroen's because they are deemed too difficult to access?

maybe Shaw's follow the same process!

Nor in the Audi A2 as you have to remove the headlight to change the bulb !

startrekker

Ex.Pat here...We take our cars to local garages or dealers who have the facility to test..unlike the Government run testing stations over there, I cant remember that last time my brother who lives in Belfast had a car go through its mot first time...He never looks forward to it and always presumes the worst anyway.....

ballyblack

There was no need to use a main Citroen dealer to prepare it for MOT with their expensive labour charges.

Next time take it to a small independent garage, preferably a one/two person operation. Much better chance of a better service and quids cheaper.

Ok no main dealer service stamp in your service book , but it doesn't much matter in an older car anyway!

belfastgirl23

ballyblack wrote: »

There was no need to use a main Citroen dealer to prepare it for MOT with their expensive labour charges.

Next time take it to a small independent garage, preferably a one/two person operation. Much better chance of a better service and quids cheaper.

Ava garage on Ava avenue is great if anyone is looking. When I was trying to find a good garage three different friends who know about cars recommended them and I've found them to be reliable and honest.

dmxdave

For the past few years I have left our car into an independant garage for MOT prep. It has always passed but the bill is usually £180 to £250 ish including service.

This year I bought the service parts £28 new horn £8 and did it myself in about 3 hours inc. adjusting the hand brake. The OH took it for washing underneath the day before £10. I figured even if it failed it would be cheaper having the specific failure bit fixed and then a retest but thank goodness it passed :T

agal

dmxdave wrote: »

I figured even if it failed it would be cheaper having the specific failure bit fixed and then a retest but thank goodness it passed :T

You raise an interesting point. Many years ago when I drove old bangers I would present them for MOT unprepared. I would then take the list of failures and have them seen to. The retest ONLY looked at the failure list. By doing it this way I wasn't spending money uneccessarily on things that the car wasn't going to fail on anyway.

65special

Moral of the story: don't use Shaws of Bangor.