The Great MOT Rip Off Begins

With the recent changes to the MOT system along with the reclassification of faults, and wording which says serious faults must be rectified before driving the vehicle on the road means that many garages are acting up for profit in two major ways:

1) More vehicles are failing the MOT with serious faults.
2) Garages are lying and telling customers that their vehicles cannot leave the premises until the faults are rectified.

This works very simply, they find a minor fault and inflate its importance and claim its a dangerous fault, they then claim the vehicle cannot be driven away from their premises and that customers have to have the work done before they can release the vehicle, they then inflate the price of parts by doubling or even trebling the retail price and make huge profits here, they don't inflate their labour rate but they do overquote the time needed to do it so when the customer finds the labour per hour rate on their invoice it looks fine, but they are charging for 3-4 hours for a job which should take less than 1 hour. If you try to take your vehicle (property) away they threaten to call the po-lice and that you will be fined £2500.

This happened to my Mother's next door neighbour and her 22 year old 4X4, a widow who is elderly with an older car, they saw her coming, they claimed excess wear in all four front ball joints, both track rod ends, all four shock absorbers, and a leaking power steering rack for the steering and suspension, they claimed excessive corrosion on several of the brake pipes, and braking inefficiency of all four wheels and the handbrake for the brakes.

Several issues here, the vehicle is too old for a power steering rack and has a manual steering rack, the brake pipes were all replaced by me two years ago and along with new flex hoses it had Kunifer brake pipe fitted which does not rot, the shocks were changed in January along with the front discs and pads, and the rear brake shoes so I know these were done as I did them.

I made a phone call to an independent vehicle examiner I know, he too is a classic car buff and he agreed to inspect the vehicle for me and I asked the owner to bring her file that she keeps as she has receipts for everything she spends on her vehicle, I went home and collected my large 4X4 and hitched the trailer up and picked up the examiner and owner, and the examiner covertly video'd the collection. Initially the garage refused to let the vehicle go and said the work had to be done and threatened o call the Po-lice so I called their bluff and told them to as I would hit them with a counterclaim so large that it would bankrupt them, and I would post all over social media about their fraudulent practices, so they released the vehicle, I drove it to my vehicle and onto the trailer and lashed it down and went to my mates workshop where he stripped it for inspection while catching everything on video, in the meanwhile I called a mate at DVSA (VOSA) and he asked for the examiners report to be E-mailed directly to him, at which point he sent not one, but three of their examiners to examine the vehicle, and both the independent examiner and DVSA examiners only found one fault which was very slight play in the steering joints. One point to make is that these vehicles have grease nipples on all their joints and each one had two pumps of grease and the slight play disappeared.

Beware of the dodgy MOT testers.

I was in a Halfords service centre yesterday and while waiting I asked the manager what he would do if a car failed its MOT on a serious fault. He said they had 2 cases where the customer just drove their car away and they did nothing about it.

They cannot do anything because if they try to impound a customers car it is theft, and they would be breaching many EU trading regulations.

At best they can phone the po-lice, and at best they would take three weeks to attend, so an exercise in futility.

I have actually heard a mechanic say to an mot centre that he would be pleased if the mot centre failed (urging , in fact) because it would lead to more chargeable work for him

handle wrote:I have actually heard a mechanic say to an mot centre that he would be pleased if the mot centre failed (urging , in fact) because it would lead to more chargeable work for him

What a dangerous place our public roads would be if this incompetent mechanic had his wish come true. Mot's are regulated for a reason, would you watch or feel safe that your child, son, wife was a passenger in a vehicle that had been tested by a mechanic who had the only best interest at heart was himself.

In other words, a mechanic handing out mot's in the interest of profit, while the Gov hands out regulated mot's in the interest of your safety and the safety of others.

Go figure.

popey wrote:

handle wrote:I have actually heard a mechanic say to an mot centre that he would be pleased if the mot centre failed (urging , in fact) because it would lead to more chargeable work for him

What a dangerous place our public roads would be if this incompetent mechanic had his wish come true. Mot's are regulated for a reason, would you watch or feel safe that your child, son, wife was a passenger in a vehicle that had been tested by a mechanic who had the only best interest at heart was himself.

In other words, a mechanic handing out mot's in the interest of profit, while the Gov hands out regulated mot's in the interest of your safety and the safety of others.

Go figure.

I, as an artisan, I would see GREATER pleasure in knowing my work is not needed! THAT is a safer place to be, and not one where all cars are crappy the day AFTER the MOT!

Are you a mechanic Tom?

What the mechanic was doing was urging the mot centre to exaggerate an advisory into a failure so the mechanic would get extra work and charge for it

handle wrote:What the mechanic was doing was urging the mot centre to exaggerate an advisory into a failure so the mechanic would get extra work and charge for it

Mot test centres would be risking their licences to do mot's as Vosa do send in test vehicles that are designed to watch that the test centres are complying and not ripping off drivers. Vosa also without warning can watch a vehicle enter a test centre and immediately know via computer if that vehicle has passed or failed, then stop to make checks.

Test centres all know this and do not chance it. And also big fines given too.

In other words, the test centres or a company can be corrupt and the Gov is there for checks and balances, looking after us all. The Gov can put the centre out of business and we can sue.

popey wrote:Gov is there for checks and balances, looking after us all.

well that is your opinion popey. I doubt anyone else agrees though.

" The government looking after us all"

Now thats an interesting concept, A first time for everything I suppose.

Lopsum wrote:

popey wrote:Gov is there for checks and balances, looking after us all.

well that is your opinion popey. I doubt anyone else agrees though.

Well it aint the mechanic or the test centre is it lol, they want to rip you off but would be afraid of losing their licence because Vosa (Gov) has protection in place for us all.

popey wrote:

Lopsum wrote:

popey wrote:Gov is there for checks and balances, looking after us all.

well that is your opinion popey. I doubt anyone else agrees though.

Well it aint the mechanic or the test centre is it lol, they want to rip you off but would be afraid of losing their licence because Vosa (Gov) has protection in place for us all.

This has now been reported in the media with hard evidence, so your claims are worthless as several garages have been caught out, how many dodgy MOT's are handed out every year when you know the testing station staff and bung them a few £sssss and you get a pass on the most dangerous of vehicles? no system is infallible and the MOT system is no different.

assassin wrote:

popey wrote:

Lopsum wrote:

popey wrote:Gov is there for checks and balances, looking after us all.

well that is your opinion popey. I doubt anyone else agrees though.

Well it aint the mechanic or the test centre is it lol, they want to rip you off but would be afraid of losing their licence because Vosa (Gov) has protection in place for us all.

This has now been reported in the media with hard evidence, so your claims are worthless as several garages have been caught out, how many dodgy MOT's are handed out every year when you know the testing station staff and bung them a few £sssss and you get a pass on the most dangerous of vehicles? no system is infallible and the MOT system is no different.

Several garages have been caught out you say? Good, so my claims as you put it is not worthless then is it. The Gov (Vosa) are looking after us all even if you don't like the idea. Although most garage owners and MOT testers follow the rules and work within legitimately run businesses, there are still those who try to cheat the system. You see, the Gov who are there to protect you and me are doing a great job.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/garage-owner-guilty-of-faking-mot-tests

https://mattersoftesting.blog.gov.uk/tackling-mot-fraud-protecting-us-from-unsafe-drivers-and-vehicles/

Tell me ,are you here to cause discord , or do you actually believe what you are spouting about our benevolent Government ?

daveiron wrote:Tell me ,are you here to cause discord , or do you actually believe what you are spouting about our benevolent Government ?

Why would you suggest such a thing when I post facts? Do you not believe in facts?

Clearly you dont believe in facts as you are simply trying to manipulate the facts, nowhere did I state that VOSA caught them out as you proclaim, so you are assuming or manipulating facts to fit your own agenda.

In point of fact it was the various individuals and Trading standards who triggered this and latterly the media who also picked up on it, and neither is VOSA.

Clearly you like to attempt to manipulate the facts to suit yourself.

Trading standards go on reports from the public they are not the regulator. The police can be used or an appeal https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/problems-with-your-test-result but most of the time Vosa do checks randomly or when they suspect wrongdoing. Most test centres wouldn't risk because Vosa do send test vehicles for testing, some are total failures while other vehicles have been checked and classed as fit for an mot cert.

Why would I want to manipulate the facts to suit myself?

popey wrote:Are you a mechanic Tom?

Lol! I know jack about cars!

But in everything I do I take pride and seek 100% in things I see.

You have clearly tried to deny the facts, you have tried to challenge every other poster when they disagree with your points, and you have conveniently tried to ignore the key issue and deflect away from it and this issue is that there is a sudden rise in MOT failures and complaints where a large number of garages have refused to give people their property back unless they pay an inflated price for repairs to be done.

assassin wrote:You have clearly tried to deny the facts, you have tried to challenge every other poster when they disagree with your points, and you have conveniently tried to ignore the key issue and deflect away from it and this issue is that there is a sudden rise in MOT failures and complaints where a large number of garages have refused to give people their property back unless they pay an inflated price for repairs to be done.

You are correct i think, yes mot failures are probably getting higher and are very keen now, but this is not due to the garages it is due to the law. I think the whole system is changing where before minor faults would be ignored but are not anymore. Garages that have done work on vehicles are allowed to hold onto the customer's property until they have paid their bill for repairs.

This is not about vehicles being booked in for work and the garage holding the vehicle until the bill is paid, which is perfectly acceptable under lien.

This is an issue of certain garages creating work by failing a vehicle on exaggerated faults and trying to charge well over the odds for repairs, and refusing to release a vehicle which has had no work done.