I'm back now and all is well
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First MOT - 3yrs / 19779 miles
Result: Pass - no advisory items
Cost: £54.85
Where I live, there are many garages offering cut-price MOT's for as little as £25. However, I chose to ignore all of these offers and paid the full price to have the test done at my local small independent garage. Why, you may ask, would the notoriously super-frugal JR choose to pay more than would seem necessary?
Firstly, no garage can make a profit doing MOT's for £25. It's a good 40-45 mins work, you need quite a bit of expensive testing kit which also needs frequent recalibration, and the testers need to be both well qualified and regularly trained. So those cut-price discounters are banking on getting enough additional profitable work to cover the loss they make on the testing. Their main business is selling stuff like tyres and exhausts - both very common failure items - and if you're looking at an instant fail, they know you'll be much less likely to shop around & will quote you accordingly.
Secondly, the risk of collateral damage is greater if you go to a Kwik-fit style MOT centre - and if they put a lifting beam in the wrong place & dent the sills, you'll be posting to another popular thread here
. Leaving the car in a workshop where YTS apprentices chuck exhausts about next to the MOT bay just doesn't do it for me.
Thirdly, I like to support local village businesses if I can. There's truth in the old adage of 'Use it - or lose it'.
Fourthly, it's convenient. I just drove the car over & walked back home, made a cup of tea & sat down to write this drivel... A phone call to say it'd been done & I was back home 5 minutes later.
The best bit was when I cautioned the tester against jacking a 500 on the sills; he just smiled & said
"I'd never jack any car on the sills - there are just too many fragile panels & plastic trims on modern cars to ever take the risk". Those words alone made it worth every penny
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