MOT nearly sold my disco

hi everyone . how can mots be so hit and miss ..i went to take my landrover discovery 1 1993 to a garage in liverpool for my mot i check the disco and know what to look for on the disco but when i go back to the garage the machanic said" the car failed on 10 things looking at the slip everything from headlamps need new ones all the seatbelt mounts need welding and the back end was like hangin off needing £200 of welding and i was being told i wont see much change out of £500 so i was and did sell put a add on this site to sell it for parts . i was so shock.t that i wanted a second opinion after looking under the disco.. so went to a garage the machanic look at the car and his first thorts was the garage that did this was looking for some work .so i said but it thru another mot 3 hours later i went the garage said its past the test and after parting with £50 i am back on the road i think the money making sign goes up when they see a older car roll onto the lot.. but most landrover owners put a lot of work in keeping the cars on the road. have any of you been thru this

No

On the other hand, if they tried to pull a fast one on you report them and get your £50 back

Depends if the first garage was ripping you off....


Or the second one just was willing to swap you £50 for an MOT pass, rather than MOT your car for £50....

Check this ....if you want to report the garage for trying it on.

VOSA corporate website

Friend of mine who's a full time mechanic was saying the other day he's been surprised by a few recent failures on motors he's put through......suspects there may be some touting for work going on but its difficult to be sure as there's a lot of grey areas esp when testing older vehicles

If any of the 'fails' on your first test are safety features, I for one would be getting a 3rd opinion. After all neither of the testers are driving your vehicle.
Is it worth risking the safety of your friends and family?

Surely there must be a balance somewhere in the middle

i check't the seat belt area today and there was no rust at all on the rear mounts still original paint on them.. as good as new.. and i check it all the time i can weld so would of repaired it before mot ...

I always use a council testing facility. Cuts out the ****ers or most of them anyway

Nice one Tom,

Good for another twelve months executive motoring then eh

If you need to do any major work on it then bring it up to Lymm, you can use the garage and stuff mate no problem.
Needs an oil and filter change I'll bet

my disco van which i bought earlier this year. Previous owner had been quoted 1500quid for the mot work so decided to sell it. I done the welding myself and sorted it all out for 50quid.

BAck in the 80's I was a mechanic for BT we held a MOT testing cert but at thathe time we did not test private vehilcles, however some of the rural garages did police fire ambulance doctors and district nurses vehicles,as part of the privateisation process that changed, (bloody thatcher did me out a job) we were obliged to take private cars although we had no obligation to carry out repairs as soon as word got round we were not in it to make money they were queued round the block, we had to start doing them at the week-end (bags of OT) as they were getting in they way of the fleet schedule,so back than the prevailing opinion was that some if not most were at the madam depending on how busy they were and I don't supose things are any better now
Dev

thanks pete i dont need to ask with you mate i be ready to go to lymm when i need to thro a new engine or something like that but the way the old girl is she gos like a good one...

The place I take my cars to don't do repairs so have no interested in creating work, having said that they do do the job properly which suits me fine.
I always get to watch the test being carried out, if there's wrong the tester points out the problem and to top it off nicely they only charge £35 and no retest fee.