a little story about MOTs

Gary

Gary

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I took my car for an MOT last week. It failed on rear tyres and windscreen wipers. I told them that it shouldnt have failed and they are talking nonsense.

So, I took it home and found out you can actually appeal an MOT failure. I filled in the form, posted it to VOSA and two days later a member of VOSA came over and inspected my car. He agreed that on inspection it looked fine.
So, today they arranged to MOT the car themselves in front of the reprasentatives from the original garage. It passed and the VOSA reps gave the reps from the original garage an interview (with a proper caution and everything) and gave them a bollocking.

So, I'm a smug git this afternoon as i was right and they were wrong :)
I dont know about you guys but i dont like it when people try and rip me off.

the reason i'm posting this (quite boring) story, is that i thought you might like to know that you dont have to believe what these garages try and tell you, and that you can appeal (which i never knew)
the best thing is to ask for an appeal form at the garage, which means they might think twice and pass the car after all.
 
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well I never knew that
well done you! :thumbs:

suggest you find a new shop next year though - they might just remember!
 
Interesting story, and good for you for having the sense to appeal. I'm sure they fail cars just for the hell of it to make money out of us unsuspecting motorists. As if its not expensive enough to run a car!
 
Excellent. I've always been careful who I use, and not had a problem so far, but that's a very handy thing to know! Thanks (and nice result for you!)
 
Fantastic!

Do be aware though people, I think when you complain you can't do any more than 2 miles or something daft after the MOT, until VOSA comes and check your car out. Otherwise you can't appeal, I'm sure i read it on a leaflet in a garage as I was waiting once.
 
the right of appeal against a testers decision has been around for years and it printed on the back of a failure and pass certificate.

What were the tread depths and the condition of the tyres?
At the moment there is a strong movement to raise the minimum limit from 1.6mm to 3mm.


The reason for rejection on the wipers is also interesting .... Was it for not clearing the scren? Some times washing the screen is enough to change that result.

Not all garages are bad and not all MOT testers are out to shaft you.. I know that because I still hold a licence to test class 4 and 7 vehicles :) and I'm a nice man. :D
 
If you want to be sure of a 'proper' test, try this : Chalk the letters VOSA on the underneath of teh car somewhere.

My Sister in Law works as a vosa inspector, and being a young girlie she regularly does the undercover act taking a car into a suspected dodgy garage. They of course assume daft lass (not knowing that she's a trained mechanic). One day they got the first garage but everywhere else was good. When they got back to the depot they found that someone had written vosa on the underneath of the floor plan.
 
lolol, you can always get vosa to test the car for you, you don't need to go to a garage.
 
It depends very much on the ministry test centre. Around our area Mitcham are b`stards but the guildford lads are pretty sensible.

I took a cobra for a SVA in mitcham six times. Each time the same guy failed it for a different miniscule thing. Didn`t bother me, it wasn`t my car, but the builder was not a happy bunny.
 
MichaelPlace said:
Fantastic!

Do be aware though people, I think when you complain you can't do any more than 2 miles or something daft after the MOT, until VOSA comes and check your car out. Otherwise you can't appeal, I'm sure i read it on a leaflet in a garage as I was waiting once.
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that might not be the case anymore.. the VOSA guy asked me how many miles i'd done in it and i said 350 (which was true). He said thats OK as technically it would have made the tyres worse.

the failed tyres were worn out on the outer edge. the rest of the tyre had about 3-5mm tread.
 
I agree with DF, not all MOT stations are crooks, not all garages are either for that matter and you do have a right of appeal. We don't have an MOT bay, mainly because we couldnt fit one in due to some strange architecture, so use an local independent to do the MOT's and another local independent to do tyres, that way, no one has the incentive the false fail ;)

The whole MOT system is in a way a failure, as its not worth the paper its written on the following day - take BB's tyres, they may be legal now, but might not be a week from now making the car unroadworthy. Having said that, it is infinitely better than no testing system at all nad there really isn't any other more efficient system. Used to have a friend that lived in America for 20 years, running a restoration shop for classic cars, in a state where they dont have what we would know as MOT testing - he has many stories of people stopping by his shop in cars and trucks held together with bits of string and hope! :bonk:
 
I always go to places that do MOT's with free retests and no repairs. No chance of them failing the car just to make some money.
In Japan they practically dismantle the cars for an MOT and are very expensive apparently. Hence the influx of grey imports.
 
LadyLens said:
I agree with DF, not all MOT stations are crooks, not all garages are either for that matter and you do have a right of appeal. We don't have an MOT bay, mainly because we couldnt fit one in due to some strange architecture, so use an local independent to do the MOT's and another local independent to do tyres, that way, no one has the incentive the false fail ;)

The whole MOT system is in a way a failure, as its not worth the paper its written on the following day - take BB's tyres, they may be legal now, but might not be a week from now making the car unroadworthy. Having said that, it is infinitely better than no testing system at all nad there really isn't any other more efficient system. Used to have a friend that lived in America for 20 years, running a restoration shop for classic cars, in a state where they dont have what we would know as MOT testing - he has many stories of people stopping by his shop in cars and trucks held together with bits of string and hope! :bonk:
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you need to get that MOT bay sorted before this time next year :)

The tyre thing is a bit weird anyway.. well scrubbed (and not badly worn) tyres are going to cut my braking distance by a lot in the dry especially compared to a brand new set of tyres.
 
I got clawed by a local garage for a retest, he takes them next door to be done and claimed they charged him for the retest. Spoke to them and they didn't, went back next door and said I hope the extra £50 makes you happy as it's the last cash you'll ever get from me. Gives me great pleasure to wave at him as I drive past to the business next door LOL.
 
Beats me why people do that, long term it can only harm their business. Bad news travels fast and a bad rep can be very hard to live down.
 
An outfit selling cars near me advertised budget cars for sale with the added "bonus" of free MOT's for life, I wonder how many they pass after selling them.
 
my father in law had his van fail an mot on worn front pads and a rusty fuel pipe. garage told him £70 to rectify.half an hour later we went back and pointed out that i had put new pads in it three weeks before, and the "rusty " fuel pipe was dirty , and PLASTIC.
tow mins later we had a certificate and a refund of the fee. an apology from the garages owner, and a week later he fired the doggy mechanic who had been testing for him.
now we all use an independant test centre,who doesnt repair, will happily let me have a shufty under the car, and tests my bikes too.
he even points out a problem clearly to you, and seldom charges for a retest.
even tweaked the emmision for free on my wifes old car, so it passed.
thats daves independant test centre on oak tree lane , if you need it dave.
 
Well, you learn something new every day.

The funny thing is that I no longer own a car, and one of the beauties of living in UK is that I can get by to wherever I so desire (well almost) without a car.
 
Galaxy66 said:
An outfit selling cars near me advertised budget cars for sale with the added "bonus" of free MOT's for life, I wonder how many they pass after selling them.
Click to expand...

Our local Renault garage does this and the wife brought a Clio from them and has free MOTS since then no problems, It has failed on the hazard warning light switch which broke when I was checking the car ready for the test.
 
Well, I need a dodgy MOT man - my old wreck is in Spain with an expired MOT, and I either find a dodgy one or scrap the car....
So, point out one of them criminal types to me please !!
 
Funnily enough, the guy who does my cars MOT thinks he went to school with badgerbaiter......
 
just to finish off the story...

i sent the MOT testers a bill for my hire car (via the small claims court) and they paid up.
they wrote me a stroppy letter too, but at least i'm not so much out of pocket anymore!
 
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