Kwik Fit MOT - 35% off NOW 40% off (merged)

RufusA

Also worth noting that https://www.national.co.uk are doing MOTs for £30 if booked online and you can earn Tesco reward points, and http://www.nationwideautocentre.co.uk are doing MOTs with 10% off BUT you can pay with Tesco Reward vouchers i.e. £10 of reward vouchers = £40 MOT!

Personally I would MUCH prefer to pay a little more for the test and take it to a trusted local independent garage who aren't going to be creative over what has failed, will charge a good rate for labour if any repair work is needed, and have an enlightened policy over retests (i.e. free retest within a week and you can get the work done anywhere you want).

I took my first car to a national tyre chain for an MOT and they wanted me to buy new tyres (one was within 1mm of failure), brake discs and pads (discs had some surface rust on them) and new shocks (shock casing had surface rust) totaling around £600 on a car worth half that.

Local independent place passed it first time without any repairs needing except washer jet deblocking and headlight alignment (which national chain had missed) only charged the MOT fee, and showed / explained in detail exactly why the national chain were so wrong.

YMMV - Rufus.

talksalot81

So if you do this, kwik-fit would actually do the MOT test themselves (Not simply give it the once over before you take the car for the test yourself?)

Ive always just booked through out local test centre which i assumed was a government run thing..... i didnt know other could do the tests...

Adam

alared

Anyone offering cut price MOT tests have got to make the money up from somewhere.
Usually by inventing jobs that don`t really need doing and ripping you off!

RufusA

talksalot81_(Adam) wrote:

Ive always just booked through out local test centre which i assumed was a government run thing..... i didnt know other could do the tests...

A large percentage of tyre places (national chains and independent) offer MOT tests which they carry out themselves on site, and are able to repair some failures (tyres, shocks, exhausts, brakes), but could struggle with emissions or welding!

A lot of independent garages, and car dealerships also offer MOT tests. Essentially anyone can offer an MOT test provided they have the right equipment and register with VOSA (a Government agency).

AFAIK there are very few Govenment run MOT centres, the few that there are tend to be owned by local authorities or county councils and are there mainly to test their own vehicle fleet. However they do open up to the public and test public vehicles but few are able to carry out any remedial work. In theory these are likely to be the most thorough and honest as they have nothing to gain by failing a vehicle or passing it dishonestly!

As I said previously I would always opt for a trusted independent garage (or council run testing centre if one was available).

YMMV - Rufus.

darbooka

Wow, when I first posted the Kwik-Fit online booking disscount for MOT's I thought it was a great deal. Now having taken up this offer I can confirm first hand some of the cautions fellow MoneySavers have indicated and provide the following caveat:
If you are just looking for an MOT second opinion, or are darn well certain that the car will pass, (or if you are for some reason looking to fail a car on an MOT), then the cheap Kwik-Fit MOT is worth considering. But if the car should fail the MOT, always get a alternate estimates on the cost of work necessary before allowing Quik-Fit to do it.
Kwik-Fit quoted me approx 700 quid for parts and labour on my car which they said was necessary to get it through the MOT. I went with their results sheet to a small local garage where even before seeing it the staff jovially but accurately predicted some of the more expensive repairs that they thought Kwik-Fit would've told me are necessary. And the prices quoted produced what must've been a comedy of the week for the garage staff.
Fortunatley Kwik-Fit wasn't able to schedule me to do the repairs on the day, so in the end I happened upon the said local garage which did all the repairs for under 150 quid compared to the 700 that Kwik-Fit wanted!
So the look of a bargain can be decieving.
Caveat emptor!

wolvesinwales

I would echo the sentiments about not trusting these quick fit places to advise on what needs replacing.

I was once advised to get an MOT done through your local authority depot, where they do there own vehicles, you will pay the full cost of the MOT but they are not interested in doing work that is not needed.

royalsteve

RufusA wrote:

Also worth noting that https://www.national.co.uk are doing MOTs for £30 if booked online and you can earn Tesco reward points, and http://www.nationwideautocentre.co.uk are doing MOTs with 10% off BUT you can pay with Tesco Reward vouchers i.e. £10 of reward vouchers = £40 MOT!

Personally I would MUCH prefer to pay a little more for the test and take it to a trusted local independent garage who aren't going to be creative over what has failed, will charge a good rate for labour if any repair work is needed, and have an enlightened policy over retests (i.e. free retest within a week and you can get the work done anywhere you want).

I took my first car to a national tyre chain for an MOT and they wanted me to buy new tyres (one was within 1mm of failure), brake discs and pads (discs had some surface rust on them) and new shocks (shock casing had surface rust) totaling around £600 on a car worth half that.

Local independent place passed it first time without any repairs needing except washer jet deblocking and headlight alignment (which national chain had missed) only charged the MOT fee, and showed / explained in detail exactly why the national chain were so wrong.

YMMV - Rufus.

same can be said of main dealers.....my wife took an our older car to a Peugeot dealer in reading and they charged her 80 just to look at it as it was making a droning noise over 30mph....they said it needed a new driveshaft.....etc etc....and would ocst 600! just had it mot'd elsewhere and the cv boot was the only thing it failed on!!

so i will be seeking compo from the pug main dealer.....franchise rubbish.......

i also wont be using nationwide autocentres after the ahole on the counter was abusive at me.

mike_the_bike_2

Gosh how unusual to find Kwik Fit offering a discount MOT and then typically telling people that they need around £700 of repairs to pass..I have never heard of them doing that before

darbooka

With so many of us having discovered the extensive degree of variance in MoT failures and asserted remedies, it remains to be asked: why are there so many 'discrentionary' aspects of MoT tests? Surely either something is safe or it isn't. Can't Transport Dept or whomever devises and regulates MoT's come up with some more objective form of testing/criteria for determining roadworthiness of vehicles?!