Halfords Autocentre - honest or not?

marlot

topdaddy wrote: »

Dont know if theyre rip off but do consider them equal to kwik fit. Read into that what you will.

As someone who used to travel long distances from work, and who's employer used kwikfit, I saw a wide range of branches.

The best were very good. The worst were terrible. Unfortunately the one nearest my house is one of the terrible ones.

salubrious

Like their main competitor they have targets to meet, that in itself should be enough of a warning.

flea72

Had 3 cars MOT'd at my local branch, all passed with no add-ons

Popped in one day as had headlight bulb kept coming loose. They fixed problem and changed bulb as they said bulb was deteriorating. All done foc

However sister went and had some work done at same branch and they totally stuffed her car, by not reattaching something and causing further damage. They did admit fault and repair it tho

mrmot

I had my 23 year old Ford MOTd by them this year and it passed with only 4 advisories, 3 of which I knew about. I found their MOT to be prompt, fair and by the book, I couldn't fault them. They gave me the option of authorising any replacement bulbs & wipers with the costs before the test.

To be fair I could have tested my own car at work myself for £2 less, but after redaing the reviews I wanted to find out first hand what they were like and I was pleasantly surprised.

[Deleted User]

Kwikfit/National/Halfords mostly employ young spanner monkeys fresh out of school with little knowledge of fixing cars other than selling brakes and exhausts.

You can usually tell this by the row of souped-up boy racer cars parked up outside.

grahamtabby

try to find a local impartial mot station. we have Just Mot's. they are helpful, if it fails they can usually steer you to someone who can do the work or give good advice if you want to fix yourself.

Rachmac1

Last year I took my ''97 merc E320 for a cheap MOT at my local halfords Autocentre and they failed the car on both front brake hoses being excessive perished and quoted an extortionate amount of money to replace them. As my husband is able to fix cars we bought the new brake hoses off ebay and my husband set to work and was going to replace them, what he found was the brake hoses on there were in perfect condition and it wasn't necessary to replace them. I immediately phoned HAC and advised that they had made this mistake and threatened to go to VOSA about them. I was told to go straight over and surprise surprise was given an MOT PASS certificate although the brake hoses went down as an Advisory! Today I took a newer car to HAC and it failed on both front anti roll bar link - split covers on both, it seems that it is always both things and not just one side - same MOT Tester as before, I was quoted £77 per side. I have bought both parts on eBay for £8.51 with free postage. If they look perfect when my husband goes to replace them VOSA will be involved and I will show them the ones that come off!

topdaddy_2

If you know what to look for why not check the pipes before buying new?

[Deleted User]

topdaddy wrote: »

If you know what to look for why not check the pipes before buying new?

Because you don't expect an MOT from a National based company as big as Halfords to lie to you, do you.

curtainsplitter

in my opinion some of the halfords are good and some bad. I found that some of them if you use special offers like £24 mot etc will quote you for other stuff..it maybe that you do need it, but your cars not going to blow up without it..so it's kind of a half overquote..and what i mean by this is stuff like..well sir your cambelt has a crack in it..we'd recommend replacing it. Well if the cambelt functions and runs fine who cares. I also think it goes on the area and how well business is for that branch. I went to one in stockport for a free tyre test etc and they told me everything on my car was fine and there was nothing wrong, so much so they couldn't recommend and my car is now 11 years old..so it goes to show some are good and some are bad.