Council MOT centres

ian_the_saver

Hi all,

On the topic of council MOT centres MSE says: By law these test centres (though not taxi or Crown stations) must be open to the general public". I've just spoken to Nottingham council MOT centre and been told they cannot do public MOTs, only council staff & taxis. I questioned it and was informed that it was based on the bosses instruction. Any thoughts? Any legal bods out there with a useful opinion?

Thanks

Mildly_Miffed

OK, so you persuade them to take a booking.

Bet the only slot they have is at the least convenient time possible, in two months. And you can bet that they'll make it the least pleasant customer experience possible, too.

Save yourself the hassle, read between the lines, and give your business to a test centre that want it.

The whole "council MOT = fairer" thing is false, anyway. EVERY test station MUST use the exact same standard, printed in the tester's manual, which is available online. They can't just make things up.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-inspection-manual-for-private-passenger-and-light-commercial-vehicles
Sure, there's things the tester has to use their interpretation on - and if you're unwelcome, you can bet that's going to err on the stricter side - but remember they get regular "mystery shopper" visits from DVSA, especially if they're suspected of being naughty and manufacturing faults that don't exist, or taking backhanders to go easy.
No tester who values their qualification is going to push it beyond what they can reasonably justify.

Mr.Generous

I know a transport manager for the council and asked him about this a while ago. He said they do them, and because they don't do any remedial work it is correct they don't try and find any faults for that reason, but as they are almost always vehicles they aren't used to working on they do very thorough checks and use them to show junior mechanics and apprentices how to do checks, so in reality they are more likely to pick up a fault that a normal MOT station. That is probably a good thing overall - better finding and fixing a safety issue than missing it.

DullGreyGuy

Mr.Generous said:

I know a transport manager for the council and asked him about this a while ago. He said they do them, and because they don't do any remedial work it is correct they don't try and find any faults for that reason, but as they are almost always vehicles they aren't used to working on they do very thorough checks and use them to show junior mechanics and apprentices how to do checks, so in reality they are more likely to pick up a fault that a normal MOT station. That is probably a good thing overall - better finding and fixing a safety issue than missing it.

Was going to say similar, its most likely they are straight down the line rather than making up faults to get unnecessary rectification work or turning a blind eye to borderline cases for regular customers