Technical MOT Failure

[Mark03]

My Punto MkII failed its MOT.

I am not surprised but I am annoyed with the garage I took the car to.

I gave them a list of issues that I asked for repair before the MOT was done.

I chased them for nearly 2 weeks to get the job done, instead they put the car through its MOT and what do you know, it failed.

Sine its failure I have called daily or every other day trying to pin the owner sown to get a price to fix the car but despite my efforts, the guys never there. I get their valeter answering the phone claiming that he is not there or he is out collecting a car or collecting spare parts and she claims to be leaving messages but they never ring me, its me chasing them.

I also dispute the MOT which is done by an external company like Kwik Fit, the tester IMHO has been a bit over zealous and both the rear seat belt anchor points have failed the MOT, well if it was in the anchor points where the belt clips in to the belt clip then it would be three because of the lap belt, so I don't see how two belt anchor points can fail from corrosion and a call to several FIAT dealership service departments have heads being scratched as they also agree that it doesn't sound right.

Here is a list of the failures

Reason(s) for failure
*Parking brake: efficiency below requirements (3.7.B.7)
**Emissions not tested exhaust front pipe blowing (7.3.A.1)
Registration plate lamp not working (1.1.C.1d)
*nearside Rear position lamp(s) adversely affected by the operation of another lamp (1.1.A.3f)
*offside rear parking brake recording little or no effort (3.7.B.6a)
nearside front Tyre has ply or cords exposed (4.1.D.1b)
nearside rear Seat belt anchorage prescribed area is excessively corroded floor (5.2.6)
offside rear Seat belt anchorage prescribed area is excessively corroded floor (5.2.6)

All the * items are items I advised on needing sorting, the ** item is a previous repair by that garage that I complained about.

I spoke to the DVSA about the MOT but have not complained yet

I spoke to Consumer Advice who advised that I could try holding them for breach of contract and refuse to pay the MOT fee.

What is peeing me off the most is that I gave the garage 2 weeks notice prior to the MOT, took the car in for its MOT on the 2nd september, chased them for nearly 2 weeks before they did the MOT and since then I have only managed to speak to the guy once who said its going to cost about £300 including the MOT fee to get the work done and since then I have been chasing a ghost.

The other issue is the car is 12 miles away and I have no where I can store the car and have no idea on how I can get the car to another garage given that I am now looking at losing all my income. Until my PIP payment comes through, I have no money.

I really feel that I am being taken advantage of here, I am still paying the insurance on the vehicle and its fully taxed and I am again looking at losing 3 months of motoring if this keeps up.

Anyone here got any ideas?

 

[flisko]

so you paid a garage to prepare it for mot and they failed

i would go to the garage with the car, show them the bill of what you paid for and then show them mot test and insist they fix what they have been already paid for, that guy that is avoiding you he knows that they didnt do what was promised, scamming ****s

 

[Brendan W]

Two things here
a) The garage is giving very poor service. Unless they come with a very good excuse and an apology I would not entrust any work to them. Payment for the MoT is moot. At least you have a list which has to be worth something and some garages take the attitude of letting it fail to get the list rather than guessing what it might fail on. This is especially true for older cars with a lot of issues and the possibility that repairs will be more than the car is worth.
Second thoughts just find a friendlier garage.
b) The car. You could be in for new rear brakes, handbrake cable(s), new front tyres, new exhaust section and some welding. £300 is a bargain. The light bulbs interfering with each other is most likely a corroded earth wire pin at the plug for that light cluster. The other side is probably not far behind. The seat beat anchor points may be the outside ones. The rear floor pan and sill area is the usual place for corrosion to show up first. The tester may have understated the extent of the problem so before making a decision to proceed get the welding work properly assessed.

 

[atom0007]

Corroded seat belt anchors are more likely at the outside.
You're into passenger safety at this point, if the belt fails in an accident.
If I'm being honest, sounds like your car needs a proper review by some better garage, to determine whether it's worth it.

I would focus on that, rather than wasting time on an obviously duff garage.

So go and collect it, accept that you are wasting time with them, and brace yourself for some really bad news....

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Why on earth did you take a car to a garage 12 miles away?

Collect the car refuse to pay and book it in for an mot closer to home.

I don't understand how if you have to wait for your benefits payments to come thought you were going to pay in the first place?

There is a lot more to this than meets the eye.

It's not uncommon for a garage to put the car through an MOT before doing the work and it's not uncommon to use a third party garage. Once it has been through an MOT they can advise on what does and doesn't actually need doing saving you unnecessary work and expense. Then they use the free retest to get the MOT passed. Looks like he did the MOT gave you a list of things that actually need doing and you threw a hissy fit, and he can't be bothered with your hissy fit, at the end of the day he has your car so doesn't care either way.

 

[core]

It's not uncommon for a garage to put the car through an MOT before doing the work and it's not uncommon to use a third party garage. Once it has been through an MOT they can advise on what does and doesn't actually need doing saving you unnecessary work and expense. Then they use the free retest to get the MOT passed.

This is exactly what I do. I get people asking me to do pre-MOT checks/repairs all the time. I simply decline and explain that it would be better for them to put the car in for the test and if it fails to return with the fail-sheet. I then work according to the fail-sheet and then car goes back in for its free retest.

I used to do them but what I thought was good/bad wasn't always in agreement with what the MOT tester felt was good/bad. After an exchange of words with a few customers I decided it just wasn't worth the hassle.

 

[maggers]

This is exactly what I do. I get people asking me to do pre-MOT checks/repairs all the time. I simply decline and explain that it would be better for them to put the car in for the test and if it fails to return with the fail-sheet. I then work according to the fail-sheet and then car goes back in for its free retest.

I used to do them but what I thought was good/bad wasn't always in agreement with what the MOT tester felt was good/bad. After an exchange of words with a few customers I decided it just wasn't worth the hassle.

Pretty much what I was going to say so good advice, no 2 testers test the same anyway. You are supposed to be testing the car to a laughably low standard but many testers' don't plus we are all OCD about something or other. However, that doesn't help the OP. Yes, he needs to retrieve the car and take it somewhere else, preferably a garage recommended by a friend or family member but it sounds like that may be easier said then done - whereabouts are you, OP?