MOT and Service questions...

[Ben_UK]

Hello,

Got a few questions regarding my cars MOT and service.

The car is a Fiat Punto 1.2 16V Sporting on a 2000 W reg

I have almost had the car a year now and its coming up for its MOT.

First of, both of my front tyres need changing. I took the info of the tyres "185/55/R15/82V"

Been on the Kwik Fit web site and its quoted me £115 inc.vat, that includes fitting, Valve and Balance and Tyre Disposal Charge. Does that sound like a good price for 2 front tyres ?

Also would you recommend taking my car to Kwik Fit for its MOT ?

Next question is about the service. How can i tell if my car needs a service now ? The garage i brought it from did a service last year when i brought it, that was at 43156 miles. I am now just coming up to 50,000 miles.

Just seen on the Kwik Fit site that its £149 (maybe less it says) for a Full Service and MOT ? that a good price ? (that price will go up though if some parts fail and need replacing)

Thanks Ben

[Konan555]

First of, both of my front tyres need changing. I took the info of the tyres "185/55/R15/82V"

Been on the Kwik Fit web site and its quoted me £115 inc.vat, that includes fitting, Valve and Balance and Tyre Disposal Charge. Does that sound like a good price for 2 front tyres ?

Depends what the tyres are. That size would go from about £60 a pair to £150 a pair.

Next question is about the service. How can i tell if my car needs a service now ? The garage i brought it from did a service last year when i brought it, that was at 43156 miles. I am now just coming up to 50,000 miles.

Just seen on the Kwik Fit site that its £149 (maybe less it says) for a Full Service and MOT ? that a good price ? (that price will go up though if some parts fail and need replacing)

If I'm going to pay paying a franchise to service a modern car, I personally prefer to go to the dealer. The type of serice carried out also depends on mileage, they'll have that information.

[XA04]

It's probably best to go to a smaller place to get it MOT'ed, as you will get away with more (obviously not on big things) - but over little things. It might be cheaper too but I'm not sure.

[integerspin]

Ask someone local for a reliable place for an MOT, we had a crop of 'cheap' MOT stations at one time, they were failing the cars on 'simple' jobs and making their money like that. I was mending cars at the time and had a girl bring in a vauxhall with a failure sheet for something not even on the car!
As to service your looking at a possible time interval[e.g 12 months] as an alternative to a milage interval.

[Shad]

That tyre price is shocking frankly. I pay £30 for each Yoko A539 that I use, in 195/50/15 dimensions. And I bet they're much better tyres than Kwik Ripoff are trying to sell you!

Buy a couple of tyres online and go down to a local place to get them fitted. I'd avoid the big name chains because they might tell you where to go or just charge you more for the fun of it. It ought to cost you around a tenner a wheel for having a tyre fitted and balanced.

I don't think you should have to spend much more than £80.

As for the service... either work by the milage interval that will be in your handbook or get it done every 12 months. If the book says all you need are some filters and fluids changed and things inspected, why not do it youself and save some cash. Otherwise, find a private Fiat dealer.

[davidstone28]

I've been to Kwik Fit for the last 2 years to get the MOT done. Can't complain. Personally, I feel slightly more comfortable getting a big well known company to do an MOT than some back street place who might fail the car on things just to earn some extra £££s. I think they charge £35, whereas the cheapest you might find elsewhere would probably be £25 so you're not looking at a big difference.

Cost of tyres vary enormously. Difficult to know whether thats a good price or not for that brand / size etc. There are quite a few online places, so if you're that concerned about cost, you could do a few price comparisons. £115 for some 185s doesn't sound extortionate. I paid about £165 for a pair of Dunlop 195s only a couple of weeks ago.

I think the servicng deal that Kwik Fit do is pretty good. £130 or so is pretty good value and they give you a checklist of stuff that they cover as part of the service. Just bear in mind that if they pinpoints specialised items of work they might not be able to do it. For example, I had the full service done at Kwik Fit last week and they pinpointed 3 items of work that I would need to go back to a main dealer to have done which is fair enough.

[shelley bda]

It's probably best to go to a smaller place to get it MOT'ed, as you will get away with more (obviously not on big things)

No you won't get away with anything, they make you fix it there and then or they'll fix it for you, why would they let you go when they can charge for bits however small that bit may be, and what if your a complete pillock who knows nothing about cars and won't get the job done, why would you when you already have the pass sheet, i'm sure there's some kind of legality there, so no it's not in their interests to let you go with a pass sheet and expect you to do the work

[herulach]

Personally the most id ever trust to kwik fit is a tyre change. Cant get better than a kwik fit fitter my arse, its called a trained mechanic, rather than some chump theyve dragged off the street, i mean you only have to compare the selection of (staff) cars outside my local kwik fit and the garage i use:
Kwikfit -Barryed up nova, barryed up metro (6R4 kit, even though its blatantly no more than a 1.2) mundeaneo with stupidly loud woofers.
Garage - Series 3 Landy, Triumph Stag, absolutely pristine XJ6

[shelley bda]

Personally the most id ever trust to kwik fit is a tyre change. Cant get better than a kwik fit fitter my arse, its called a trained mechanic, rather than some chump theyve dragged off the street, i mean you only have to compare the selection of (staff) cars outside my local kwik fit and the garage i use:
Kwikfit -Barryed up nova, barryed up metro (6R4 kit, even though its blatantly no more than a 1.2) mundeaneo with stupidly loud woofers.
Garage - Series 3 Landy, Triumph Stag, absolutely pristine XJ6

How true, my hubby is a mechanic working for an small independent centre and the amount of work they have sorting out cars which have been to places like Kwik Fit, even some dealerships, you tend to find that the fitters in places like this will only ever change tyres, oil and water at most. Jon's place has a young lad who is working at Furrows and he says it's ****, he's not learning anything, so while he's earning good money at Furrows, he spends time with Jon learning real mechanical skills

[Nox]

No you won't get away with anything, they make you fix it there and then or they'll fix it for you, why would they let you go when they can charge for bits however small that bit may be, and what if your a complete pillock who knows nothing about cars and won't get the job done, why would you when you already have the pass sheet, i'm sure there's some kind of legality there, so no it's not in their interests to let you go with a pass sheet and expect you to do the work

There was a paragraph about this on the MOT failure sheet I had - I actually took my car away for about a week, got bits, fixed most then took it back and let them finish it off. They didn't do a full retest, only the bits that failed, even though on the sheet it says if you take it away it had to be back within xx hours (either 24 or 48 I think) or a full retest would be done. And regarding what is, or isn't in a garages interest, think customer loyalty...

Nox

[shelley bda]

There was a paragraph about this on the MOT failure sheet I had - I actually took my car away for about a week, got bits, fixed most then took it back and let them finish it off. They didn't do a full retest, only the bits that failed, even though on the sheet it says if you take it away it had to be back within xx hours (either 24 or 48 I think) or a full retest would be done. And regarding what is, or isn't in a garages interest, think customer loyalty...

Nox

That's because your car failed, they won't give you a pass sheet when your car needs work doing to it to get it through it's MOT that was my point, if it fails they don't care what you do to it ( i was talking about minor things in my previos post btw )

[Rave]

I've been to Kwik Fit for the last 2 years to get the MOT done. Can't complain. Personally, I feel slightly more comfortable getting a big well known company to do an MOT than some back street place who might fail the car on things just to earn some extra £££s.

Kwit Fit are well known for doing exactly that. It's their corporate policy to try and maximise the value of every transaction, and their staff are trained to look for work they can try to justify doing even when it's not necessary. The extent to which they do this will vary from branch to branch I expect depending on the staff, but I'm pretty sure they'll all try it to a certain extent. Even if you just go in for a tyre they'll offer a 'free brake check' to try and sell you new discs and pads. They're not going to do a free check out of the goodness of their hearts are they?

Ben_UK, I reckon TBH that probably the best way of finding a good garage is simply word of mouth. If someone knows a local garage who do good work and are honest, go in there, and tell them that so and so recommended you so they know not to try it on with you. As for the tyres, for £115 you should be getting proper branded tyres like Michelin, Dunlop, Pirelli, Yokohama etc. I'm not quite sure why you need V-rated tyres, H-rated tyres are rated for 130mph which should be more than enough for a 1.2 Punto.

[Flibb]

We started using nationwide a few years ago and stuck with them until wife got a vcompany car. Servicing / mot was done quickly and they didnt seem to go out of their way to find problems (10 year old mondeo). Price on tyres seemed good as well. Worth checking for discount vouchers for them.

http://www.nationwideautocentres.co.uk
http://www.nationwideautocentres.co.uk/vouchers.asp

[Ben_UK]

Thanks for all the info lads

My MOT runs out on the 5th May.

Do i have to wait untill then or can i get it MOT'ed now and start the new MOT from the 6th May ?

Thanks

[integerspin]

As long as it's not more than 30 days before the mot ends the new one will run for a year from the ending date of the old one. So yes.

[Nox]

yeah, bit handy that.

Nox