We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Vehicle Testing - What A Scam
Options
Comments
-
If you've had a decent mechanic check over the car previously, then he will have replaced the borderline tyre beforehand....
Personally, i've had experiences whereby they have said, look that tyre or whatever is borderline, bring the car back tomorrow and ask for me and i will pass it then. but thats mot centre dependent i guess
IvanI don't care about your first world problems; I have enough of my own!0 -
IvanOpinion wrote: »The tyre place thought it would go through because only the outside edge was scrubbed .. rest of the tyre was fine ... I blame all those flamin stupid ramps that are appearing (somebody must be on a back hander .. buy one get 20 free) ... I have had to dump 7 tyres now that had one portion badly scrubbed but yet there were several thousand miles left on rest of the tyre ... typical non-enviro friendly policies from our government
Ivan
Ivanopinion - Your tracking is out on that wheel. If the car has been lowered then camber angle will also cause wear on one edge. You need to get it checked or it will just keep scrubbing the outer edge. Use a garage that checks all four wheels, Carryduff tyre Depot is one of the outlets that has this facility.
Do not use Hursts tyre depots! I left two alloy wheels in to get new tyres. One of which was brand new and still in the plastic packaging. I lifted the two wheels from the boot of my car, went to pay the guy in the office, after only a few minutes the guys had finished and placed the two wheels with brand new tyres back in the boot. I said thank-you very much and drove home, went to lift out the wheels only to see that the brand new one was scuffed to bits..... I COULDNT BELIEVE IT! by this stage the place had closed and so I went down the next morning.
"Right I demand a full refund a replacment wheel!"
.... "Im sorry sir but we cant do that!" said with attitude by the manager
"WHAT??" I literally had to argue my case to get my money back and a new wheel ordered up. They had the cheek to offer to get the wheel refurbished, the wheel was brand new not 10yrs old.
Complete numpties both in the workshop and the management. I could go on about other cases involving Hursts but another time perhaps.
Its worth pointing out that the MOT can not ckeck for wheel allignment, they will spot it if your tyre is duff, but a brand new set of boots and they will be none the wiser.
As Ballyblack said: get an application form for the MOT from your local DVTA. This will provide a list of everything tested from wipers, lights, seatbelts to exhaust emissions.0 -
'Charles Hurst' is owned by a big mainland company 'Lookers PLC'
Profit last year up 35%
If you have a choice?
Consider giving your motoring custom locally, better service and better value for money0 -
ballyblack wrote: »'Charles Hurst' is owned by a big mainland company 'Lookers PLC'
Profit last year up 35%
If you have a choice?
Consider giving your motoring custom locally, better service and better value for money
Totally agree, give your custom to local independent garages. Just because Hursts have the financial backing to build snazzy showrooms doesnt mean that they will guarantee customer satisfaction or be any more competent than the smaller garages.
My experience of Hursts is that once you have signed for the car they dont want to know you.
Ballyblack - you must be in the know with that sort of statistics0 -
Hursts employ fitters @ £75 a hour labour.
A local indepedent have mechanics/engineers charging half this price.
Also a mechanic will try to repair, fix or use a secondhand part, not just fit a brand new part
The choice should be obvious to a money saver0 -
i've used hursts a number of times and apart from putting a motorbike tyre on the wrong way round i've always found them pretty good. Their upper newtownards rd branch was the only place who knew how to do the tracking on a 4 wheel steering car and they were more than happy for me to stand beside them refining the technique as they did it. Michael who used to own harry's tyres now works at their sydenham road branch and he knows his stuff inside out.0
-
yes i was going to say hurst's sydenham are pretty damn good, mainly because of michael - he's brilliant. their prices are excellent for bike tyres.
I am normally the biggest Hurst hater in the world but for tyres i wouldn't go anywhere else0 -
The branch I was referring to was the main Boucher road branch.
I have never used the N'ards Raod branch and Im sure there are some good technicians, those guys should go out on their own, they would do so much better under a different name.
I work on cars myself but not business wise. I know one particular mechanic who got all the training payed for by Hursts.
He now makes far more money on his own than he ever would have working for Hursts.
I have had too many bad experiences from Hursts both with personal vehicles and fleet vehicles too.
Norn Iron is far too small a country to shaft customers, news travels fast0 -
Ivanopinion - Your tracking is out on that wheel. If the car has been lowered then camber angle will also cause wear on the outer edge. You need to get it checked or it will just keep scrubbing the outer edge. Use a garage that checks all four wheels, Carryduff tyre Depot is one of the outlets that has this facility.
IvanI don't care about your first world problems; I have enough of my own!0 -
through the last 2 mots for my car i've been given an exemption certificate when the appointment is after my MOT has ran out. so for me the fact that the appointment is a month away was never a problem as the OP has suggested it is.
also i've always been able to get times that suit so that i don't have to take any time off work - like he has also said.
personally i like the system and what i do is a check over the simple things and then put it through - my car has only failed once - the benefit of this is that the MOT centre tell you whats wrong and then all you've gotta do is take it to a garage to get that fixed - as a woman and a person who knows nothing mechanical about cars this gives me confidence in that i know the garage isnt taking me for a ride!
and paying the £17.50 for a retest doesnt bother me. chances are if i'd taken my car to a garage first they would have charged me more than the extra £17.50 to find out what was wrong anyway.DON'T WORRY BE HAPPY
norn iron club member no.10
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 350.8K Banking & Borrowing
- 253K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.5K Spending & Discounts
- 243.8K Work, Benefits & Business
- 598.6K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 176.8K Life & Family
- 257.1K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards