Opinions please on Halfords for MOT tests.

LadyDee

My 3 year-old car is due for it's first MOT. Halfords currently have a 50% off MOTs, pre-booked online. Any opinions (either way) on how good they are? The alternative is to have it done with my 3-year service at Toyota, and though I haven't asked them yet I suspect I won't get my MOT free with the service!

forgotmyname

Why not use a proper MOT station that do not repair cars. So no profit in it for them to fail it.

Or as this site suggests council run MOT centres.

Halfords half price MOT is still more than i pay for my MOT.

Sometimes the main dealers have MOT offers. But the bill for any repairs are likely to be fairly high.

You just need a wiper blade to pass. Thats £50 please.. Err but they only cost £3.
Yes but these ones have Toyota sticker on them so are better quality.

Not.

LadyDee

forgotmyname wrote: »

Why not use a proper MOT station that do not repair cars. So no profit in it for them to fail it.

Or as this site suggests council run MOT centres.

Halfords half price MOT is still more than i pay for my MOT.

Sometimes the main dealers have MOT offers. But the bill for any repairs are likely to be fairly high.

You just need a wiper blade to pass. Thats £50 please.. Err but they only cost £3.
Yes but these ones have Toyota sticker on them so are better quality.

Not.

No Council run MOTs near me.

I can't find a local MOT cheaper than Halfords at the moment.

For the reason you state I don't really want it done by Toyota. I have actually just had a major repair done under warranty (ECU) and T did a check of most (could have been all) of the MOT items and found nothing wrong - I have only done 9,500 miles in 3 years so there'll be serious questions asked if they find something now!

Strider590

LadyDee wrote: »

No Council run MOTs near me.

I can't find a local MOT cheaper than Halfords at the moment. now!

MOTs cost a set price, garages make little profit on a full priced MOT, if you see one at a cut price the chances are its going to fail and cost a small fortune in unecessary repairs.

Alternatively, they'll pass it with a ton of advisories and tell you how urgent they are.

LadyDee

Thanks for your comments, and I'd forgotten the Watchdog programme - good job I was reminded and your point regarding finding unnecessary repairs is well made.

I've now managed to negotiate £40 with Toyota so I'm happy with that. I'll take my paperwork with me from the checks they did a month ago so I'm ready for them if they fail it.

arcon5

Strider590 wrote: »

MOTs cost a set price, garages make little profit on a full priced MOT, if you see one at a cut price the chances are its going to fail and cost a small fortune in unecessary repairs.

MOT costs are not a set price, there is simply a MAXIMUM price chargeable for MOTs. And garages can make a lot of money on MOTs alone, if they didn't you wouldn't have companies like MOT Max (weonlymot) who charge £45, £9.85 below the maximum allowed.

LadyDee wrote: »

No Council run MOTs near me.

I can't find a local MOT cheaper than Halfords at the moment.

The cheapest may in fact end up being the most expensive. Your objective is not to find the cheapest, it's to find a testing station with either integrity or not incentive to fail you.

I'll take my paperwork with me from the checks they did a month ago so I'm ready for them if they fail it.

So long as you know what you're talking about, as components can go at anytime so just because something was checked a month ago doesn't necessarily mean a problem hasn't arisen since.

gardner1

LadyDee wrote: »

My 3 year-old car is due for it's first MOT. Halfords currently have a 50% off MOTs, pre-booked online. Any opinions (either way) on how good they are? The alternative is to have it done with my 3-year service at Toyota, and though I haven't asked them yet I suspect I won't get my MOT free with the service!

Halfords..:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

AVOID AT ALL COSTS

kazmeister

We have had excellent service from our Halfords. Hubby has taken his car in for MOT. It did need repairs done to a major spring underneath but they took him into the garage and showed him where it was broken. They then gave him the broken parts so that we could go back to the garage we bought it from so that we could claim as it was covered under warranty (and yes we did get the money back). When he took mine in for them to investigate something I wasnt happy with, they had it for a few hours, tested out the problem and said we needed to take it to a main dealer and didnt charge us a penny. The main dealer charged us a fee just for looking at it so we took it elsewhere.

rdwarr

It probably depends on the staff at your local branch. There's a lot of anti-Halfors babble here with nothing to back it up and evidence to say that they're good.
I'd give them a chance - if it's terrible then you can go elsewhere.

lemontart

Halfords bought out Nationwide who I used to go to and I was not happy with first mot done there for reasons stated of advisories etc when Nationwide had done that work a year earlier - took somewhere else and they found nothing wrong. Now use kwik fit and been very happy with service there for past few years, No council mot centre near me either to use ,

worried_jim

lemontart wrote: »

Halfords bought out Nationwide who I used to go to and I was not happy with first mot done there for reasons stated of advisories etc when Nationwide had done that work a year earlier - took somewhere else and they found nothing wrong. Now use kwik fit and been very happy with service there for past few years, No council mot centre near me either to use ,

Out of the pan and into the fire!