Free MOT at Halfords

[Herbie]

Just received the latest newsletter from the Money Saving Expert website and thought this may be of use to someone:

Free MOT at Halfords

[Hadrian]

Handy I suppose if you are watching the pennies.  Personally I wouldn't let Halfords anywhere near a car of mine.

[Herbie]

1 hour ago, Hadrian said:

Handy I suppose if you are watching the pennies.  Personally I wouldn't let Halfords anywhere near a car of mine.

I completely agree, along with Kwik-Fit too, but as you say, if money's a bit tight at the moment....

[doog442]

2 hours ago, Hadrian said:

Handy I suppose if you are watching the pennies.  Personally I wouldn't let Halfords anywhere near a car of mine.

My lad stuck his 132,000 mile 13 year old shed  Hyundai Getz through Halfords for an MOT last year despite my warnings . It sailed through with no advisories. 

He's going to try the same stunt tomorrow - different Halfords - lets see what happens. He lives away so its out my control but its a cheap and interesting experiment.  

I recall when I had my IS200 various posters on here taking up Halfords service offers back in the day but like many I tend to avoid. Its a shame really as they are almost a bit of a national institution, sort of like M & S but at least you know what your'e getting with M & S if you get my drift. 

 

[Linas.P]

My experience - Halfrauds only do "freebies" where they expect to get extra jobs on you... So you can go in for free MOT and then be hostage to do £500 works on car else MOT fails. I found them very useful to do pre-MOT checks - go there pretend to be fool, book list of their "free checks" -brake, safety, summer, Battery, tyres... whatever they have and then when they come back with 1000 items list say you will think about it - as you have no obligation to do anything and they cannot fail you for anything. But I would be worried to do MOT with them...

Maybe Hyundai Getz goes past as they expect person to have no money, but they always find something wrong when they see Lexus (prey) coming along...

[rayaans]

Yes its basically a money making scheme. 

They fail your car, you can't go elsewhere because of the new rules so most people will agree to it straight away.

If you look at their rip off prices especially tyres and wiper blades, you can understand why.

[steve2006]

I can imagine the scenario.

“Your front brake pads are wearing thin”

“How thin?....the pads have wear sensors and nothing has flagged up”

”That thin the car has failed with a dangerous defect and cannot be driven away but the good news is we have some in stock for only £1230.00 fitted”

[Linas.P]

It is literally like that.. last time I tried to use them for A/C re-gas (which they failed miserably) and at the same time I asked them to carry out free checks...  they advised me to change rear tyres because of uneven wear and asked for £180/tyre, noted that Battery cell is short and needs changing £160, that rear pads wearing thin ~£80 pads +40 labour, one parking light is blown £22 and that rear calipers are stuck £260/caliper + £80 labour.

Now the tyres were definitely fine, I brought them with wheels little bit worn on inner edges, but across 75% of the section they had ~4.8mm left, Battery was Halfords brand with warranty (which when mentioned they obviously would not honour), rear pads were virtually new ~2000miles and to be fair calipers were stuck, parking light they replaced for free when I refused to pay 😄 

So in short... mixed bag, wanted to charge me £360 for tyres which were perfectly fine, £120 for swapping my new pads.. but correctly noted that rear calipers were stuck. What I haven't told them was that I have just refurbished calipers at home ready for fitting and it was ~£500 for all 4, not £260 per caliper. Got parking light for free.. so £22.... aham £0.20 bonus! Obviously, all lucky because MOT was not due for another 2 months back then... Be that "free MOT"... I would have had a choice to pay £1000+ or have failed MOT.

Edit:.... ohh and they missed cracked front stabiliser link rubber for which I subsequently failed MOT... take it as you wish - it wasn't cracked back then? or they were looking for more expensive parts and could not bother with checking links? or maybe during MOT other garage just failed me for links hoping to make money out of it (asked for £200 for single link)... ?!

[scudney]

wouldn't use Halfords even if I got paid to😊 

[BarneyTT]

If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

I'm afraid I wouldn't let them anywhere near a car of mine, or my wife's, a mate's, a total stranger............

[Guest]

Remember the Kwik-Fit saga on Watchdog? Potential for same thing.

Always demand the return of your old parts before work starts, make it clear the return of removed parts (that are still your property) is a condition of payment.

[doog442]

17 hours ago, rayaans said:

Yes its basically a money making scheme. 

They fail your car, you can't go elsewhere because of the new rules so most people will agree to it straight away.

If you look at their rip off prices especially tyres and wiper blades, you can understand why.

No new rules .Its always been the case that you shouldn't use your car in a dangerous condition so nothing has changed in relation to the law or rules. They can only advise you not to drive it away (as MOT places always have done in my experience.)

The previous MOT is also still valid until date of expiry if you take it in early.

However people are confused and I'm in no doubt that some garages will use this to their advantage. That said garages are also at risk of getting numerous cars left / dumped on their premises if they attempted to force the issue. 

 

 

[rayaans]

1 hour ago, doog442 said:

No new rules .Its always been the case that you shouldn't use your car in a dangerous condition so nothing has changed in relation to the law or rules. They can only advise you not to drive it away (as MOT places always have done in my experience.)

The previous MOT is also still valid until date of expiry if you take it in early.

However people are confused and I'm in no doubt that some garages will use this to their advantage. That said garages are also at risk of getting numerous cars left / dumped on their premises if they attempted to force the issue. 

 

 

That's not true.

The new MOT if failed cancels the previous one even if it has 1 month left. Previously you could still drive around if you had an MOT until it expired

[doog442]

1 hour ago, rayaans said:

That's not true.

The new MOT if failed cancels the previous one even if it has 1 month left. Previously you could still drive around if you had an MOT until it expired

This thread is worth a read :

DVSA confirm previous MOT is still valid if you fail

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5838860#topofpage

You can drive your vehicle with a major fault if your old MOT is still valid, because you took your vehicle in for an MOT early. But your vehicle does have faults that may make it unroadworthy, and if stopped by the police you could be prosecuted.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/blog/new-mot-vehicle-test-may-2018

 

If you can link to something that says the new MOT, if failed cancels the old MOT and your other point "They fail your car, you can't go elsewhere "   I'm sure more than a few of us would be interested.

As far as I can see and confirmed above  your old MOT is still valid, however the system gets updated with Dangerous Fault / Major fault and  (like before) you run the risk of driving a car in a dangerous condition. If dangerous fault the advice is dont drive it, if Major you can still drive it away , get repaired / to re test etc.

Scenario : Your MOT expires on 30th June. You get it MOT'd on 5th June and it fails on a dangerous fault- say a completely bald tyre. You get the tyre replaced and you can still drive until your original MOT runs out even if you dont get it re tested -it will also now be roadworthy.

cheers

[Linas.P]

I think the difference was that previously failed mot was NOT equal not road worthy - you could drive the car for as long as you have left (unless it is actually not road worthy), whereas now car with Fail + Dangerous is automatically considered not road worthy and you can be picked-up even by ANPR. Practically, I guess there are no real difference.... people who don't care about car condition will find dodgy places and continue driving with not road worthy cars and people who care will keep cars in tip-top condition. The only advantage is that they no properly check DPF.... well... I say properly... only the reasonable places do... dodgy ones don't even need to see the car. 

[doog442]

Practically no difference. 

Will ANPR even pick up the finer details of an MOT failure when an MOT is still in force, absolutely no chance. Nothing has changed.

You  get an MOT fail certificate even if you rectify it to a pass one hour later and there is no way that will be uploaded quick enough to the DVSA database. There are too many differentials in fail / retest hence thats why they have probably kept to the simple solution of an expiry date 12 months after the initial issue. 

 

[Linas.P]

That is not what they saying officially, but might well be what it actually is in practice.