The short version
If you take your car for an MOT at Basingstoke MOT & Tyre Centre on Wade Road, I would say that you will get a valid pass/fail. However, if the car fails and they tell you that a whole load of work needs doing to get it through it's MOT, be prepared to question them, especially if some of the things they're talking about were marked as advisories on the initial test. I guess that would be good advice for any garage really!
The long version
I first came here a month ago when I hit the curb and burst a tyre. Long story short, the hit was more serious than I would have liked, and I ended up paying the best part of £700 to sort out some bits that got bent in the prang. More than I would have liked, but they showed me the part they removed after it was taken off and it did look like it had been bent. Won't fault them for this.
I then put the car through its MOT with them this week, and it failed on a couple of bits some lights not working, and the nearside rear wheel not being stopped by the handbrake. There were also a few advisories, including corrosion on the brake discs and the pads running low. After dropping the car off for them to do what's needed to get it through the MOT, I was informed that the handbrake problem was due to the handbrake cables having seized up, and they'd need replacing. I was also told that the brake discs and pads would need replacing at the same time, quoting £397 for the whole job. To their credit, they were prepared to write off the hours labour they'd spent investigating what the problem was.
Had I not already spent £700 recently, I may well have just sighed and said go ahead. As it was, I was a bit suspicious that things that were just marked as advisories during the MOT suddenly now needed fixing to get it through. I decided to pay the hour's labour charge, and take the car to the garage my parents have used for 16 years, Mendem Motors in Tadley.
Mendem have now got the car through it's MOT. The handbrake cables genuinely did need replacing as MOT & Tyres Centre said. Mendem have also confirmed that the discs and pads on the brakes will need some attention in the foreseeable future, but that they are safe enough to pass the MOT.
I can't help thinking that MOT & Tyre Centre thought that, since the car was already in the garage, they could get a bit more work out of me. Thinking back, I'm not 100% sure they said the discs and pads need sorting for the car to pass its MOT, but they certainly quoted above and beyond what the car strictly needed to pass when that's all I thought the car was in the shop for.
Had it not been so soon after the massive job I paid them for 4 weeks ago, I may have been tempted to sort the discs and pads while it was in the shop, but I felt it was disingenuous to quote for fixing advisories which would have taken my monthly spend up to £1100 with them!
As I said, feel free to use them I'm not calling them dishonest. I just think they could have shown a bit more sensitivity and integrity by only quoting for work that was strictly necessary for it to pass it's MOT, rather than bundling in extra work as though that were also required.
Maybe if they'd said It'll be £xxx to get it through the MOT, but we recommend you spend £xxx extra to sort out this other stuff while we're at it this would have been a very different review. read more