Finally Debt Free After 34 Years, But Still Need to Live Frugally

Willowtree222

Yay for the MOT!!

Sometimes other halves are fixed and set in their ways. I guess if he is happy, then you have to let him be! x

HairyHandofDartmoor

badmemory wrote: »

You are very lucky in your local garage. I would never dream of taking my car for an MOT to a garage that actually does repairs, I didn't know their were places that only did MOTs until many years ago when I first came on here.



I certainly would never take it to a main dealers. Their maintenance depts have targets & if the sales are down (they get credit for preparing vehicles for sale) then they have to make their targets another way. I'm lucky though that I haven't had to pay for an MOT since 2005. I'm lucky enough to have a "friend" in the business & he just throws my car in with the other half dozen. But then he is lucky too because he gets his books done free! I do it for fun.

Our garage is a small independent one in the village where stepdad lives. He's been mending our family cars for years, so I would feel a bit guilty going somewhere else.

beanielou wrote: »

Glad that the car passed the MOT even if it needs some work to be done soon.
Good news on the free basket at SD. As you say pity there wasent more in it.

Thanks Beanie. It's a shame I wasn't buying £100 worth of perfume or something!

Nicnak wrote: »

Yay for the MOT!!

Sometimes other halves are fixed and set in their ways. I guess if he is happy, then you have to let him be! x

DH is very obstinate and sometimes I just have to let him have his head, rolls eyes. I would feel a bit guilty going somewhere else though.

in_need_of_direction

in NI all MOTs are done at government owned and operated centres. it gives peace of mind

[Deleted User]

HairyHandofDartmoor wrote: »

I mentioned to DH that Carboot only pays £35 for an MOT and he got all worked up and said he doesn't want to take the car somewhere else, and they fitted us in at short notice, and some garages would have failed us on the work that needs doing later this month. So I said, okay okay forget it, sigh .

Sorry, I didn't intend to cause any unrest:o. Finding a garage you trust is so important, I'm a big believer in loyalty and DH should stay with the one he uses now especially as they made a special effort to get things sorted so quickly for him this time.

You'd better not tell DH that a garage reasonably local to us (nowhere is really local, it's in the nearest sizeable town 16 miles away but that's virtually on the doorstep as far as we're concerned:()was doing MOTs for £20 at the time I had mine done. They're still advertising MOTs for £20, it's been about 8 months now. so maybe it's going to be permanent. It's a new garage with all the latest facilities and they are trying to get established so are making these offers. When DH was walking past once he popped his head in and said it was absolutely state of the art for facilities. He asked me if I wanted to risk that one for my MOT this last time but price isn't everything and I said I'd rather stick with our usual one. The main mechanic at ours is 'old school' and really knows his job.

Sun_Addict

Glad your car passed it's MOT Mr SA used to take his van to the council run garage where they don't do repairs just MOTs. The downside to that is that if it fails you have to go away to have them done and then pay for another MOT if not done within a week. I can understand your DH wanting to remain faithful to the local garage as Mr SA would've been like that if he'd found one he liked and trusted.

Brilliant about the free Superdrug shopping, pity you didn't have a basket full though.

Good news the emergency fund has got off the ground

doingitanyway

So pleased your MOT went well.
I can see your OH's point in a way and ultimately it is the total cost and perhaps a place with a cheaper MOT might 'make up' with little extras and prove more expensive in the long run. A trusted garage is such an asset. I wish I had one. My MOT will be due next year so I'll need to find a place to go to. Not looking forward to that.
Hop e you are having a nice Sunday.

redofromstart

We also go to the trusted local garage and pay more. I'm sure it evens out over time.

Chuckled at your 'can manage without underwear'

jwil

Great news about the car. There's a lot to be said for a trusted garage.

[Deleted User]

My garage that charges £35 for an MOT never 'finds' things that need fixing unless really true. My current car is 16 years old, I've had it for 13 of those and obviously it's had 13 MOTs, mostly at the same garage. It passes every time except for once it had a blowing exhaust which I knew might not scrape through and another the rear brake pads were worn, again I suspected as much. I've also heard that the tester is a real stickler and won't let any car get through if any test score is borderline so I always feel reassured when I come away with a pass:j. Because of that though I always go in very trepidatious (is that a word?) expecting each year that goes by that my old car might result in something failing the test.


Once I had a single bulb that had failed, must have happened on the way there as OH checks everything like that for me just before I go, but instead of failing it as they were entitled to do they put a new bulb in and charged me for it afterwards. No need for a retest. Obviously they wouldn't do that with the exhaust, the car failed and I had to have a new exhaust and a retest but as I had it done there the next day there was no retest fee. I wonder what one of these super-cheapie places would have done about the blown bulb, or a main dealer come to that:eek:.

System

Great news on the car , I also frequent a garage that has been doing our family cars for about 30+ years, wouldn't trust anyone else.

Have a good Sunday, it's a lovely day for walking.