£12 MOT's - What's the catch?

Adam

Adam

Adam

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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So I noticed a garage that was offering £12 MOT's the other day. I have never used the garage before and it's not in the nicest area of the world so therefore know nothing about it.

I need my Mondeo MOT'ed and I have no idea if it will pass or not (nothing specific, just a hunch). I was thinking of taking the Mondeo there to be MOT'ed but was wondering how they can afford to offer an MOT that cheap. The standard price is £54, so what do they gain by offering such a cheap MOT?

I can only assume their failure rate is high and they charge OTT prices for repairs etc. Just seems a bit crazy to offer something like this so cheaply.
 
I have never failed an MOT on any car I've owned except the Xantia in 2003.

In that same period, every single MOT I have ever had has been at some promotional bargain price (except the one I had at BMW in 2006 as car had warranty), my last MOT was completely free of charge.
 
Might as well just take it. If they fail you on something, ask them to show you or just take a look yourself.

If you're competent enough with cars, i shouldn't think they'll be able to take you for a ride because you'll be able to inspect the parts yourself. However, i expect they make their money off men/women, who seem clueless about cars.

EDIT: one of my work colleagues is a 45ish year old woman who doesn't have a clue about these kind of things. She had her car MOT'd yesterday and they told her she needed a new headlight (£85) because the old one was aimed too high.

I got involved and told her to tell them that the headlight can be aimed down with a knob on the back of it. The garages reply - "Oh...oh yeah, we can i guess, but i was just quoting you for the worst case scenario" :rolleyes: Scamming ****s
 
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No catch I guess, they operate on the basis that the MOT test gets you through the doors, and rather than get it fixed elsewhere, it's easier to just leave it there and get it fixed - good way of getting business. :)
 
Some woman from work got a cheap mot on a golf, "Yeah the emissions are too high, it's going to cost us £250 to look in the ECU and then another £500 for an exhaust"

I just laughed, at how blatent their ripoffery is, and told her to take it to my mechanic for an MOT, passed first time, there was nothing wrong with it.
 
Take it to the council test garage. Or a mechanic someone you know, know's; are the better options I can think of. £12 MOT is clearly just to get you in there.
 
The Mitsubishi/VW franchise up the road from me is doing cheap MOTs. I know the service guy and the parts manager from there and they just said they do it as a loss leader. They'll wash and vac the car too, give a good service as they can and try to get and keep the custom. No different to cheap fuel at ASDA I guess.
 
I get around said:
Some woman from work got a cheap mot on a golf, "Yeah the emissions are too high, it's going to cost us £250 to look in the ECU and then another £500 for an exhaust"

I just laughed, at how blatent their ripoffery is, and told her to take it to my mechanic for an MOT, passed first time, there was nothing wrong with it.
Click to expand...

Yea right
 
I get around said:
Some woman from work got a cheap mot on a golf, "Yeah the emissions are too high, it's going to cost us £250 to look in the ECU and then another £500 for an exhaust"

I just laughed, at how blatent their ripoffery is, and told her to take it to my mechanic for an MOT, passed first time, there was nothing wrong with it.
Click to expand...

I trust she informed trading standards with a copy of the relevant quotes?
 
There is a place near me in Crayford called Just MOTs where a few friends of mine have gone before. £35 and because they aren't a fully fitted garage, they wont try and generate work because they don't have the capacity to do it. They'll jsut do the little odds and sods that might need doing like wipers and blown bulbs. Only downside is if the cars fails you will have to find somewhere else to get the work done, but it's a good punt if you're confident the car will pass.

Edit: Apparently there's quite a few branches of this place.... http://www.justmots.eu/
 
There is a Kwik Fit near me that does 45 quid MOTs and the ammount of scamming they do is nothing short of criminal, they seem to pry on the less informed like older people and women etc.
I know £45 doesnt sound that cheap but around here none of the garages discount at all.

Imo ask around, your friends, family, work mates etc. Find a garage that has a good reputation and just keep going there. Lets you build a level of trust with them and you'll know any faults they might find are geniune.
 
My local MOT place is 50 quid. When you drive a 20 year old car you need to think a little harder about where you take it for the MOT.

Mine passed with no advisories last time.
 
Got this year's one free on Audi's "3 year and older" deal.

Was quite surprised that it needed nothing and they just simply phoned me up and said all done. Didn't wash it tho :(
 
My local garage always charges 50 odd quid for an MOT - which is starting to seem a bit steep - but they're very thorough and know classic cars so are able to ascertain what is a failure point or not on certain models.

Just seen Lopez post pretty much the same thing :D

They're always entertained at what I drive in - but the nice thing is they're able to undertake work on all of it.
 
my girlfriends uncle has a garage so i go there, costs £40 for mot but any tiny jobs get fixed free and anything bigger i get cheaper aswell :)
 
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