About MOT Testing

MOT testing is a funny old thing. It’s probably the most misunderstood area of the garage trade. When completed properly it can be a valid and worthwhile safety test, to a point, although often it is devalued and discounted.

We can never work out why some garages are so quick to heavily discount the test fee, especially given that an MOT Testing bay costs upwards of £50,000 to install.

You have to ask yourself; “How can Fred In A Shed Garage Co. make a living charging £35.00 for a MOT?” and then smell a rat – a very big rat! Given that the garage has to recover the cost of owning an MOT testing bay, the only way to make profit on discounting a MOT is to either cut corners or carry out unnecessary repairs- “and that ain’t good”.

Especially when you come back to the fact that the MOT Test is primarily a safety test designed to protect you and your family! That’s why we believe in unbiased and independent MOTs. We are not looking to rip you off for unnecessary repairs as we only do MOTs.

Even completed properly, there are a few points worth bearing in mind:

The mot test is a snapshot of your vehicles condition on that day. As an mot tester you can’t look at a component and fail it just because you think it may fail six months down the road.

Nothing is stripped down on the mot. For example, a tester can’t take your wheels off to check your brakes – if you can’t see it, you can’t test it. Strangely the tester has to take off your fuel cap to check the seal, but is not allowed to take off the brake fluid reservoir cap to check the brake fluid level – great eh?

The MOT is not a replacement for a service. An mot is just a visual check – no adjustments, no stripping, no cleaning.

Just because its passed an MOT it doesn’t make it legal! Take tinted windows for example, If your front door windows are tinted it won’t fail an mot, but a keen policeman would see things differently. The police work to a different set of regulations (construction and use blended with a few old wives tails quite often :-))

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