The Lemon Fool

This tip comes from Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert.

Buy anything from Halfords and you get a voucher entitling you to a free MOT test at Halfords auto centres. Any purchase will do - he suggests an air freshener, price £1. The offer runs until approx 13 Oct and the voucher lasts until October 2019.

Cinelli

is it an MOT that will always find a fault if you get my drift? that halfords can of course repair and re-test(re-test for free obvs... ).

Maybe Halfords dont; do repairs of course in which case - excellent deal!

We have three cars in the family and use Halfords to MOT each of them. Having received the offer by email from them last week, the three car owners have each bought a bulb (bulbs are free delivery) which have been delivered (all by same van) and we now await the codes enabling the free MOT to be booked. Based on the options of how to receive the necessary code, this seemed the fastest way. I'll update here once the codes have been received, and MOTs booked.

Having used Halfords for several years for MOTs, I don't hold with the "They will always find something that needs doing" argument, as it hasn't been the case for us.

BrummieDave wrote:
Having used Halfords for several years for MOTs, I don't hold with the "They will always find something that needs doing" argument, as it hasn't been the case for us.

tx BD


If only our nearest Halfords Autocentre wasnt 13 miles away! LOL.

didds

leaving aside the free MOTs... DAK if a Halfords MOT "fails" can they "do the work" with a free re-test (or guaranteed pass anyway), or is it a case of take it away, fix it, and return for another (presumably paid) re-test?

didds

If you take it away for repair and return within 10 working days you pay a fee for a partial retest. Don't know what this is. For certain defects you can get a free partial retest if you return it the next working day.

See https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/retests

Scott.

didds wrote:

BrummieDave wrote:
Having used Halfords for several years for MOTs, I don't hold with the "They will always find something that needs doing" argument, as it hasn't been the case for us.

tx BD


If only our nearest Halfords Autocentre wasnt 13 miles away! LOL.

didds

I don't think there's a limit to the distance you can travel to get an MOT test, didds!

Watis

Watis wrote:[

I don't think there's a limit to the distance you can travel to get an MOT test, didds!

Watis

LOL. No indeed. Its just a tad impractical I meant

didds

Well, interestingly, our Halfords Autocentre is 8 miles away and all three cars have their MOT in October. I book them in at one week intervals, then drop the car off, walk home, then walk back to collect once it's passed, which is usually the day after, or the one after that. I then repeat for each car.

So I get the cars tested and a good workout for my legs all thrown in!

BrummieDave wrote:Well, interestingly, our Halfords Autocentre is 8 miles away ... drop the car off, walk home, then walk back to collect once it's passed,

If and when my running gets back on track i could use Halfords for half and particularly dull marathon training!

didds

BrummieDave wrote:Well, interestingly, our Halfords Autocentre is 8 miles away and all three cars have their MOT in October. I book them in at one week intervals, then drop the car off, walk home, then walk back to collect once it's passed, which is usually the day after, or the one after that. I then repeat for each car.

So I get the cars tested and a good workout for my legs all thrown in!

Crikey! My garage of choice is only 2.5 miles away and I chuck my bicycle in the car rather than walk home and then back to collect.

On the topic of "Halfords - good or bad?" I think they are like any garage: if it's good, stick with it, if not, move on and try to find one that is. If the free MOT offer is convenient to use, great. If they report back a list of work that seems suspicious I guess you can always take the car to another garage for a second opinion?

VRD

Previous experiecne of free MOT offers, not Halfords, is that you will need a lot of new bulbs which they will call you about and ask you if they should just go ahead and do it and charge you the fitting fee. There may also be problems with brakes, exhausts and tyres usually advisory rather than compulsory.

didds wrote:

Watis wrote:[

I don't think there's a limit to the distance you can travel to get an MOT test, didds!

Watis

LOL. No indeed. Its just a tad impractical I meant

didds

Now I think about it again, I have my car MOT'd at the same time it is serviced at the garage that supplied it - and this garage is 14 miles away!

They collect the car from my home in the morning and return it, serviced and MOT'd, at the end of the day.

While I appreciate that I am paing for this - the cost is hidden in the price of the service - I wouldn't get a refund if I took it to the garage myself.

Watis

A quick update before I go off line for a few days; I've now bought three items for £3 each, received three codes for free MOTs using three email addresses for the three car owners in the family, and booked three free MOTs.

So far so good.

I bought a sponge for 50p.
Waited over a week for my code to come through and had to book an MOT separately because it hadn't arrived. I later found out it was in my spam box and had been sent within 2 days.
Ah well, it's valid until October 2019 so I can use it next year.
Also, at Kwikfit the MOT was only £27 for a next day booking so not too bad. Far better than the £55 that Mercedes wanted!

So it's final update time folks!

Back in September I'd bought three bulbs for £9 in total and received three 'Free MOT Codes' to enable me to go online and book the three MOTs our family cars would require in October.

Two cars were duly MOTed in October and the third one booked in. I then sold that car, and replaced it with a car that would not require its MOT until March this year. As I'd received and used the third code, but cancelled the MOT when I sold the car, I thought I'd lost out. But on phoning Halford's call centre a fortnight ago and explaining the situation, they saw that the third MOT had indeed been cancelled and were therefore happy to send a new code for the third free MOT.

That car passed today with no remedial work required, this following our two other cars passing in October with the only remedial work being one tyre.

So I've paid £9, plus the price of a tyre (which was needed anyway) for three MOTs.

First class service from Halfords throughout!

Some years ago I switched from using a local garage to an MOT-only establishment. Because MOT work takes a predictable time, they take bookings at 45-minute intervals and keep to schedule. Drop off, do shopping, collect car. Anything needing fixing must be done elsewhere - and it's my own stupid fault if a bulb has expired unnoticed.
Best of all: no 'make work' ("That brake pipe looks a bit dodgy; we'll do it this afternoon...")

stewamax wrote:Some years ago I switched from using a local garage to an MOT-only establishment. Because MOT work takes a predictable time, they take bookings at 45-minute intervals and keep to schedule. Drop off, do shopping, collect car. Anything needing fixing must be done elsewhere - and it's my own stupid fault if a bulb has expired unnoticed.
Best of all: no 'make work' ("That brake pipe looks a bit dodgy; we'll do it this afternoon...")

I once had an advisory for a corroded brake pipe.

Inevitably, one forgets to do anything about it, as 'out of sight is out of mind'.

So, all to soon, the next year's MOT rolls around and I'm on tenterhooks as I'm expecting this to fail the car, as I had taken it to the same place.

But no - the car passes the MOT and the brake pipe is no longer even an advisory!

This was back in the 1980's. I've no doubt that these days, with it all being computerised, the MOT tester can see last year's advisories.

MonsterMork may be able to confirm this?

Watis

Watis wrote:I've no doubt that these days, with it all being computerised, the MOT tester can see last year's advisories.

I can see ours:

https://www.check-mot.service.gov.uk/

Whether or not the tester bothers to look is another matter.

Note also:

The MOT test changed on 20 May 2018

Defects are now categorised according to their severity – dangerous, major, and minor.

More here https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mot- ... 0-may-2018

Anecdotally, one of our vehicles has this from March 2017:

Advisory notice item(s)

Nearside Front Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)
Offside Rear Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)

Due to low mileage we didn't change those tyres (although we continue to monitor). Neither the 2018 nor the 2019 MOT reflected any advisories whatsoever.

Watis wrote:I once had an advisory for a corroded brake pipe.
Inevitably, one forgets to do anything about it, as 'out of sight is out of mind'.
So, all to soon, the next year's MOT rolls around and I'm on tenterhooks as I'm expecting this to fail the car, as I had taken it to the same place.But no - the car passes the MOT and the brake pipe is no longer even an advisory!

The same happened to me about 4 years ago. I did ask - but the garage said that it looked OK. I presumed that they came to the conclusion that it was no worse than the previous year - so was clearly not a problem. I should add that before the next MOT the car was traded in for a magnificent £250.