Passed MOT!!!

[Bobbybiscuit]

Only bought my first Z3 in November with MOT expiring 18/02/21. Its a 2002 1.9 and drives great. Just got it MOT early whilst everything was OK. No advisories. 13 months of MOT!!

 

[Fender2004]

Well done it is always a worry till the garage phones you up, and says the the car has passed.

 

[Bobbybiscuit]

With garages you never know if they are going to be tough and hammer you for everything. Just want garages to be sensible when having a MOT. This is the first time in years that I have had a MOT on a car that has passed and no advisories. Christmas came late!!!! Either that or early birthday present.

 

[Fender2004]

I’m getting used to mine passing every year with no advisories, or have I just jinxed it

 

[137699]

If you want "sensible" MOT - don't take your car to a commercial garage, seek out your local council run MOT centre (most/all have them - just not widely advertised). They are not run for profit and don't do repairs so have no reason to "hammer" your car, but will instead give you an unbiased factual MOT.

I started using my local council place about 6 years ago - before hand I regularly had cars fail MOTs on things I wasn't entirely sure I agreed with (2 out of 3 MOTs would result in a fail - at various garages) - since using the council place I have had 19 MOTs and only one fail.

Amazing how the cars suddenly pass MOTs when there's no money to be made by failing them....

 

[Bobbybiscuit]

That’s very interesting. One question though, I thought if a car had a serious fault that it had to remain at the premises until repaired. If the council run centre does not do repairs how do you get the car to a garage for repair?

 

[t-tony]

This is a very dark grey area. If an item is failed as “dangerous” and you had a problem whilst driving it away from the station for repairs (which you’re fully entitled to do) your insurance would likely be inoperative.
You could get it removed by recovery firm, ££££, so garages try to use this as a bully tactic to encourage you to leave the vehicle with them. Some do, the more savvy ones dont. Since this came in, I personally haven’t heard of 1 case of someone driving a vehicle away where the “dangerous” item caused an accident on the way home, though that isn’t to say it might not.

As I said, a very grey area. Your risk, your decision!

Tony.

 

[Bobbybiscuit]

This is a very dark grey area. If an item is failed as “dangerous” and you had a problem whilst driving it away from the station for repairs (which you’re fully entitled to do) your insurance would likely be inoperative.
You could get it removed by recovery firm, ££££, so garages try to use this as a bully tactic to encourage you to leave the vehicle with them. Some do, the more savvy ones dont. Since this came in, I personally haven’t heard of 1 case of someone driving a vehicle away where the “dangerous” item caused an accident on the way home, though that isn’t to say it might not.

As I said, a very grey area. Your risk, your decision!

Tony.

I have heard of a case where the garage refused to let the car be removed from the garage as it required urgent repairs. As you said above that if a car has failed the MOT technically its not insured for use on the public road.

 

[Z Victor 1]

The answer is to keep the car well maintained and if you are not too sure , get it checked before the MOT. I didn't know there were Council run centres here. Much better option, in Spain all MOT s are done at Government centres in each town so there is no conflict of interest. Having ordinary garages doing MOT s leaves the door wide open for unscrupulous opportunists.

 

[t-tony]

I have heard of a case where the garage refused to let the car be removed from the garage as it required urgent repairs. As you said above that if a car has failed the MOT technically its not insured for use on the public road.

The garage has no rights whatsoever to prevent you from removing your car from their premises, (despite it failing the test) and any who try to do so are breaking the law if you want to take it away even driving it.

Tony.

 

[137699]

If your car is going to fail on a "Dangerous" point then you'd know this before it went in - they never come as a surprise.
As has been said, you'd have to get it recovered to wherever you wanted it done.
But far less chance of a car being failed on a "dangerous" item when it's at a garage that don't do repairs.

 

[Paul Rice]

Agree in theory regards council testing stations. perhaps i am fortunate that i have complete faith in my local garage. May be not to everyone's liking but if the car needs a repair for MOT they ring me or on occasion just do the job. Last fail Z4 broken rear spring fitted £80 passed car, back same day. No fuss, as i say i may be lucky having someone local i can trust.

 

[137699]

There are some very good & honest garages out there - that rely on customer loyalty and don't take the p*** with MOTs but alas many not in the same boat - and even the good guys get desperate from time to time.
I have a friend who runs a garage in Glasgow - really good honest guy, but a couple of years ago he fell on hard times (combination of factors and nothing to do with trade at the garage) - then his daughter got ill and they wanted to take her to Disneyland in case she didn't pull through.

He admitted to me to "finding" issues with customer's cars & failing MOTs that should have passed, because he wanted to get the money to take his daughter away. And 99% of the time he's a totally straight up honest guy. But he got desperate - and in those times, anything goes. An extreme case for sure but I'd hate to have been one of his customers at that time.

 

[t-tony]

Very surprised that he would admit to doing that if I’m honest.

Tony.

 

[137699]

He wouldn't admit it in public for sure - but friends share info...

 

[t-tony]

And we’ve shared it with the www.

Tony.

 

[137699]

Without disclosing any information that could be used to identify anyone - yes.
Because it's relevant to this post.