Advice needed for running my own automotive repair garage and doing mots

k13rpp

Hi, I want set up my own buisness as a service and repair garage with mot testing facilities. I am currently working for a main dealer as a vehicle technician and mot tester. What do I need to do to get started? And can I be an mot authorised tester and manager at the same time as ill only have one other person doing sit ins for me?

specialboy

First thing you need is a hefty lump of cash, setting up an mot bay and kitting out a garage isn't cheap.

bugslet

https://www.gov.uk/become-an-mot-station/your-application

This may help you - if you ring up, I usually find that they are helpful ( though I deal with a different dept of VOSA).

AFAIK, our fitter left to set up his own MOT station/garage and there was only him working there, + a gofer/grease monkey.

Westmead_Fan

one tip for you, dont buy brand new stuff at first look for 2nd hand equipment that is how we started 3 years ago, we are still using the items we brought today without problems but we know these items owe us nothing. buying new stuff you would need lots of money for set up costs.

forgotmyname

Lots of initial outlay. Workshop, Equipment, General bills.

Find one for sale? Any small places where the owner is looking to retire.

My local MOT station has changed owner several times. The owner retires and the main mechanic takes over.
The current owner started working there many moons ago.

Always a good sign. Not one of those places that change names/owners everytime there is an unhappy customer.

Bigphil1474

My brother had a repair garage for years, but the cost and space requirements for an MOT station put him off. Ended up selling it and now sells motorbikes, and does MOT's on them - much easier to set up. When he did have his garage, he had a good relationship with a local MOT station, and had the MOT's done there, and did all the repairs at his place. Most of the faults were picked up pre test anyway. Also can build up a good busines doing repairs/service to fund the MOT station requirements. Main issue for him was amount of space needed to be set aside for MOT parking and testing. I'd walk before you can run unless you've got deep pockets.

AdrianC

Bear in mind that the number of small garages is reducing rapidly, not increasing. New cars are getting ever-longer warranty periods and ever-longer service intervals. In-car technology is ever-more expensive to support and maintain, and ever-more necessary to do so fully. You need to be as good with a laptop and multimeter, even an oscilloscope, as with a torque wrench.

You work for a dealer at the moment, so you're mostly dealing with newer cars and routine servicing, right? Those trickier-to-diagnose problems can be escalated to the specially trained expert or even up to the manufacturer/importer. What are those going to be like once they fall out of the dealer chain, and corrosion starts to cause electrical connector problems, as well as once the bodgemonkeys have had a few years of running them on a shoestring, and you don't have that route of escalation?

salubrious

There is nothing wrong with trying to better yourself, but it will be a tough start up if you aren't specializing or have a ready made customer base to get you going. Although location does make a big difference.

Anyway, you can be a nominated tester and an authorized examiner, all while operating as a sole trader.

If you need extra information send me a message, I have some experience in this

colino

Unless you have a passion for business and a speciality that is missing in your area, I really wouldn't advise it. With the deals that have been available for years to completely kit out a workshop on the never never, there aren't enough barriers to entry to stop any Tom, !!!!!! or Harry set up in the trade.

londonTiger

this thread is so doom and gloom. looking at it half empty point of view.

Almost everyone has a car and cars are the second most expensive asset they own and that means people will spend money on upkeep.

If you have a passion for working with your hands, love cars and want to run a business. go for it. It will become profitable eventuallt. but in the short term assume you're not going to make any profit for the first 2 years. So have some other sources of income to go with.

Spouse that can support you, savings, or business loan etc

Flying-High_2

All your Mot bay equipment can be leased for not too bad a price... All new upto date kit aswell.