[lethbridge]

I've just had two of these in the past month or so in completely different places. The first was at a Kwikfit in Wales for bushes on control arms on a Micra - I changed them myself and they really didn't look that bad at all and because of the design even if the rubber completely disintegrated I couldn't see how it would make the car Dangerous. The previous MOT was 3000 miles ago at a Nissan dealer and didn't even get an Advisory then which probably says it all.

Now I've just had a Dangerous MOT fail on my M3's first MOT at my local dealer for a puncture repair that the tester was able to dig around and find a bit of braiding. The puncture was in the middle of the tyre - I took it to ATS (got really good service there) and they couldn't believe it - they couldn't really see what the problem was and just redid it and just took extra care to make sure the plug (just a standard size for a largish nail) didn't push any braiding out. This now means the MOT history on the car makes it look like I don't take care of my car and drive around on bald tyres.

Both of these in my mind were not dangerous - maybe slap a major on if you must - but marking them dangerous means you can't move the vehicle without risking a £2500 fine so causes a lot of inconvenience - I had to drive a 180 mile round trip to fix the Micra when they were due to drive down to mine the next day. Anybody else finding this with the new(ish) system? Also neither place clearly stated the risk in driving - my daughter-in-law picked her Micra up oblivious to the risk of a fine - we had assumed from what they said that it was Major fail not a Dangerous and it was only when she looked at the paperwork when she got home (only a mile away) that she realised. Obviously I fully support Dangerous cars not being allowed on the road but this is getting silly...

[Ennoch]

I find those Quik fit style garages are always bad for marking stuff as worse than it is. I had a tyre on the Impreza which got a nail in it and the manager said it wasn't repairable as it was at an angle so ordered me a new tyre (to be fair, at a very decent price). Took it back the following day to get it fitted and it was the assistant manager who took one look at the puncture, said 'the manager's a dick' and fixed it for me FOC, and knocked more money off the fresh tyre (I had a spare 5th rim to stick the repaired tyre on). I guess like anything it's luck of the draw to a degree but I do think more testers are being harsher now as from what I've heard there are bigger penalties if they let stuff through.

I had one done many years ago on the Impreza where the woman who did the test checked the oil and noted it was below minimum so put it on the MOT as an advisory, despite that being because she'd put the dipstick back in 180 degrees out which gives the wrong reading. They refused to change the note or annotate it to say it was their error so that now lives with the car forever more too, like yours. Since then I just get my mate to MOT my cars. He's always fair, points out issues and knows that I'll go away and fix stuff. I do think some testers also are fairer if you say that you'll take it away and resolve the problems yourself if they find faults, rather than using their services.

[Abzynthe]

Maybe they are just getting their fail % up on easy fixes?

[BBri89]

Never ever let Kwik Fit do any thing except change a tyre. And even then that's a risk.

They don't have a clue with MOTs and there are so many cases where they a) trump up the failures from advisory to fail/major in order to charge you to replace something that doesn't need it, and b) then fck up the replacement fitting and damage the car.



About 13 years ago I took my sisters (then) 5 year old Ford Ka to them for an MOT. There was one legitimate fail, a snapped rear coil spring. And two tyres probably worthy of an advisory but well above legal minimum across the width of the tread.

They recorded 8 fail items, plus 4 advisories which they almost aggressively bullied me into getting replaced at the same time.

I said I'd take it away and do the repairs myself. Replaced the rear spring myself, rotated the tyres front to back, photoshopped and printed invoices for new bushes, wheel bearings etc, but never bought them and didn't fit or replace anything else.
Took it back and they failed it again but not for any of the previous things, instead they added 3 new items to the list and again practically bullied me into getting them to do the work.

Took it elsewhere and passed first time with only 2 advisories, one for each of those tyres.

[MY340i]

Personally I would avoid these kwikfit/halfords/mr-clutch outfits where MOT's are on "offer".

If you're not familiar with a good local garage, then I would recommend going to a council-run MOT center, their only job is to do MOT's. They have no incentive to upsell and services or repairs.

[Kendo67]

Never had an issue with Halfords doing our MOT`s , if it failed then it was genuine.

Until a few weeks ago when the Porsche went in for its test , which it passed , but with an advisory for a OSF track-rod-end.I figured i would just replace it now to save the agro next year , £60 for the joint and £25 for the splitter ,as i had lent mine to someone and never got it back. Once removed and in the vice there was absolutely no play in it so £85 down the drain.

BMW passed yesterday with no advisories.

K

[KRS_SN]

I took one of my cars for a hunter wheel alignment at kwik fit £120 and 2 years of free alignments. In and out in 20 minutes as car was perfect.
Took my other car and it took them 1 hour to get it right. They were sweating by the end of it.

But I use a local bmw Indy for mot and bmw dealer for any service and brakes etc and blackcircles for tyres.

[KCH1984]

Just had the same thing as you OP for the first MOT on my X5 at the local BMW dealer - dangerous rear tyre where they cited evidence of a poor puncture repair with the tyre "structurally compromised". Bear in mind this was repaired before it's last service 3 months ago where they did their usual health check and gave the tyres a clean bill of health.

Again like you, a dangerous fail means they literally have you over a barrel to pay their inflated tyre prices. I only took it to BMW due to the MOT protect scheme, never again.

[PeakyJ]

At least you can’t buy an MOT in the local pub for £50 anymore.

[Alscoob]

Only time I've had a fail on a car was when I made a mistake and took the F31 to BMW, had an end of warranty inspection so thought they should just MOT it as well to save effort on my part.

Failed due to headlights being too low, which was strange as I wound them up shortly after buying the car as they were low. They adjusted then passed it, but my first drive in the dark was just that, they wound them down and couldn't see a thing.

Wound them back up against the trusty garage door, with a couple of tweaks after a drive or two. MOT this year at my usual place, asked him to specifically check the lights, spot on he said. So on that basis i can only assume that the BMW tester didn't know what he was doing!! never again...

[Ennoch]

Originally Posted by Alscoob

Only time I've had a fail on a car was when I made a mistake and took the F31 to BMW, had an end of warranty inspection so thought they should just MOT it as well to save effort on my part.

Failed due to headlights being too low, which was strange as I wound them up shortly after buying the car as they were low. They adjusted then passed it, but my first drive in the dark was just that, they wound them down and couldn't see a thing.

Wound them back up against the trusty garage door, with a couple of tweaks after a drive or two. MOT this year at my usual place, asked him to specifically check the lights, spot on he said. So on that basis i can only assume that the BMW tester didn't know what he was doing!! never again...

When I got my car back from the BMW bodyshop after they'd finally replaced the NSF light, both lamps were aiming into the ground. Two full turns of the adjuster on each side got them to a useable position! I did try another half turn but got flashed a few times so dropped it back down. Apparently it was the MD down the road who did the actual alignment as the adaptive setup board is rather expensive, so if it was the same person doing MOT's you can imagine my local MD will be doing something similar to what you experienced! Then again I do sometimes think a headlamp alignment is a nice way to get an extra £20 or so out of a customer as most wouldn't notice the difference even if you did adjust them.

[BBri89]

Yeah BMW franchise I use has a habit of failing it on headlight alignment, 3 times in 3 years.

First time they snuck in the adjustment fee even though I never authorised it, had an argument with the service advisor about that and the manager took it off.

Next two times they've not charged the adjustment fee but have failed then passed it. Whether they actually adjusted anything I don't know.
Maybe they do it to keep their failure % statistics sensible.

[aquazi]

Yet half the cars i see from the likes of kwickfit and halfords passing MOT have dodgy spaced or tinted plates.

[3-GT]

Some might find the information in this link useful. It gives all the criteria of what is classed as a major or dangerous.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mot-insp...rcial-vehicles

[Mikey365247]

I own an MOT station and the dangerous failure wording has recently changed on the mot system .....so when you fail some items now the system will automatically word it as a dangerous fail which we have no control over.

Mike

[Kal101]

Originally Posted by PeakyJ

At least you can’t buy an MOT in the local pub for £50 anymore.

I put on here as a joke about knowing a friendly mot place that did them over the phone

Had a DM from a guy who genuinely thought it was a real thing

[Wills2]

Originally Posted by aquazi

Yet half the cars i see from the likes of kwickfit and halfords passing MOT have dodgy spaced or tinted plates.

TBF I find those quite useful it's a forewarning that the driver is a BE11 END so approach with caution, wind deflectors on the side windows is another sign

[agentorange]

I find it depressing that in the modern dealership with all the tools they have available that headlights alignment is still screwed up so often. This issue should have gone away in about 1980. I remember a 1988 used car I bought in the UK in 1991 that had the driver's side light adjusted so far left that on full beam the beams crossed. It's not confined to used cars, either. The last three new vehicles one of my coworkers bought have all had the lights set way too high. Two of them were fullsize pickups, so the dazzle for others must have been biblical.