Money Moral Dilemma: Should I abandon my local garage for a cheaper MOT?

mr_accountant

How much are you 'saving' about £25 max i would guess, is it worth risking taking your car to another garage you have no knowledge how honest they are for one you have found to be reliable, they may sting your for repairs, they me of course be reliable but you can't be sure

Personally its a no brainer, I would stick with your current one, good mechanics are like honest criminals, very rare!

Plus his already saved you money, but if you think his starting or will start to rip you off move on, ie keep your mind open

Sparkle_66

If you already have a reliable and fair garage I would stick with it. The large garages overcharge on repairs eg my son had a quote for 3 new tyres from Kwik Fit for £220 but got them for £120 from the small independent garage that I use. Charges me £99 for a full service, £30 MOT and fixed a brake light for free. Customer Service is more important.

ap156

Stick with the local garage, you need to keep him open like any local outlet, once the customers dry up, the outlet shuts and you will be worse off. Throw in the customer service like fitting you in when there is a panic etc and you be foolish to save on the face of it £20 / £25 and like others have said, potentially a repair bill that costs more. Grass is greener and all that springs to mind.


In our village garage, a single person does the MOT, £39.95.

fizzking

Cheap MOTs are a good way for the garage concerned to nit pick and fail you, so as do expensive repairs. Legally you are allowed to drive home from a MOT failure but the car must be roadworthy.....would you want to argue the point if stopped?
Stick with your tried and trusted local garage.

CapricornLass

Another one for sticking with the local garage. He's provided good service to you for the past seven years and saved you a lot of money too- show a bit of loyalty in return!

Bear in mind that small garages depend on their local reputation to get and retain custom. You are llikely to get a much better job from your small garage than you ever will from the big garage, as the small garage has so much more to lose if things go wrong. And I can almost guarantee if any work needs to be done because of the MOT, it will be a LOT cheaper - in the case of my local garage, it was 50%, which was a lot when the big garage wanted to charge me £1500.

dogshome

So an Online parts supplier has issued a discount MOT voucher ! ?

Online part suppliers can't do nationwide MOT's, but what they do have is lots of garage owning customers who do, do MOT's

It would seem then that the 'value' of this voucher is far higher to their trade customers, ( Sorry Guv, it's failed on the eccentric steering spigot, but we can fix it for £300 ), than it is to an individual car owner

worried_jim

takman wrote: »

In my experience MOT tests don't have two people doing them, in all the ones I have watched they have done it alone. But I still agree with your conclusions.

Always two people doing mine.

Stick with the local indy garage where you know you get good service. If you change there are likely to be tears and a spanking.

minislim

Stick with the garage. especially with the favor they did last time
I've heard countless story's of people lured into garages with cut price MOT deals only to end up being stung for unnecessary repairs that where only advisory's.

pauleb

I booked my car in for service and MOT at my local dealer. I picked the car up and paid but when I got home realised they had forgotten to do the MOT ! They sent a driver out the next day with a replacement car, took mine away for its MOT and returned in a few hours. No charge and no "extra" work needed so I saved £50 for their mistake and a slight inconvenience. I have been very happy with the garage for 8 years but recently I now have to fight through a layer of staff in uniform tight white shirts/blouses and polished nails to speak with any mechanics.

ChezBabeNo1

I tried this a few years back - but for a cut-price service at £50. Ended up paying £300. Never went back there and wouldn't recommend. My advice? Stick with your local garage - they know you, they know your car, and are far less likely to rip you off with any spurious repairs that need to be done. I learnt the hard way - don't make the same mistake.