Mr Clutch M.O.T's

[stevestix8]

Hi all,

Haven't posted for a while. All has been going well with my Xantia for a while now.

It is due it's M.O.T. in a few weeks and I have been looking around for the best prices.

I am fairly confident it will pass.

The best price I found was Mr Clutch for £21.00 if you book on line.

I have used the 50% off offer from Halfords autocentre for the last 2 m.o.t's. The first it passed and I only paid £27 the next it failed I got the work done somewhere else (and did some myself) took it back there and I had to pay the extra £27.

The Mr Clutch advert for £21.00 says no commitment to get the work done by them and that this price is all in (with the legal 14 days to get the work done before retest on the things that failed). At no extra cost.

Has anyone got some experience of the Mr Clutch m.o.t's ? They have been around for a few years but I have never used them.

Steve

[Xaccers]

Used the one in MK before when they were offering them for £19
Never had a problem.

[CitroJim]

I would sound a note of caution at using any kind of mob like this. I have my gravest suspicion (perhaps totally unfounded) that they be touting for work and might just fail the car on some items they fit as part of their core business so they can turn in a nice little earner.

I may be wrong and being very unjust to the fine institutions to which I'm referring. I also believe most of these outfits may not understand an older Citroen well enough to give it a proper test and can fail it for things that are perfectly normal.

I would much rather deal with my very local Indy whom I know well and he knows me and the peculiarities of my cars. He's not expensive at £35 a go and gets plenty of remedial work from charging on the low side for an MOT - he tells me I'd never believe the state of the majority of cars he has presented at test time.

Beware a cheap deal - it may well have a sting in its tail...

[waynedance]

For the small amount of money were talking about saving maybe the cheapest is not always best!!!

[Old-Guy]

I share Jim's suspicions. There have been reports here and elsewhere of MoT failures for non-existent faults - including a Xantia failed for damper failure! What dampers? Similarly, failures for slight (or fixed) LHM weeps are not unknown.

[waynedance]

Go to garage with good reputation and not on price.

Let us know how you get on.

[Northern_Mike]

I share Jim's suspicions. There have been reports here and elsewhere of MoT failures for non-existent faults - including a Xantia failed for damper failure! What dampers? Similarly, failures for slight (or fixed) LHM weeps are not unknown.

Kwik fit once advised me a BXs dampers needed replacing. Told them to go ahead and do it. Got rather embarrassed, grovelling apology from the manager.

[Xaccers]

So there you have it, one person who's had a couple of MoT's from Mr Clutch without any issues, and several people warning against it who've not had a MoT from Mr Clutch.
The choice is yours at the end of the day.
Any work they suggest is needed you can ask them to show you and of course you don't have to get them to do the work.

[CitroJim]

and several people warning against it who've not had a MoT from Mr Clutch.

One reason I've never used an outfit like that is I don't trust them anywhere near my car and another reason is I don't have one within walking distance of my home...

[citronut]

Xac i think Jim is referring more to the likes of the tyre and exhaust company generally,

i also tar those with the same brush as i have seen/worked on customers cars that they had taken to such place's,

i know the manager of our local branch of ATS who told me not long after they became a brake master center,
they charge 500% on all the brake parts they fit,

on top of that theres more tales were that came from

[CitroJim]

Xac i think Jim is referring more to the lokes of the tyre and exhaust company generally,

Exactly right Malcolm

[Old-Guy]

Tyre, then exhaust, brake, MoT and now clutch specialists have creamed off much of the easier and more frequent work that kept so many local independent garages in business and, by employing less well paid and less skilled 'specialist' staff (i.e. people who only have one skill - if that) reduce the pool of experienced and properly trained mechanics.

Similar to the impact of out-of-town super-stores on local shops - if (say) B&Q haven't got what you need there isn't anywhere else to try.

We are rapidly moving towards the disposable car to go with the disposable computer, washing machine, etc; designed to only last for the limited warranty period ('lifetime' in GM-speak) and not to be repaired, only scrapped and 'recycled' (expensively turned back into second-grade raw materials).

Along with our 15 year-old French car, we have a teenage washing-machine, a 'fridge in its twenties and a deep-freeze that's nearly forty - all of them British built! Our daughter recently had to scrap her 3-year old washing machine (made in China); seal failed, bearing seized and melted the plastic housing which isn't available as a spare part - apparently the usual failure mode with that make/model.

{EDIT: Pipped to the post again}

[john]

I would sound a note of caution at using any kind of mob like this. I have my gravest suspicion (perhaps totally unfounded) that they be touting for work and might just fail the car on some items they fit as part of their core business so they can turn in a nice little earner.

i believe that to be the case for most garages, hence why i hate mot time.

[citronut]

We are rapidly moving towards the disposable car to go with the disposable computer, washing machine, etc; designed to only last for the limited warranty period ('lifetime' in GM-speak) and not to be repaired, only scrapped and 'recycled' (expensively turned back into second-grade raw materials).

Along with our 15 year-old French car, we have a teenage washing-machine, a 'fridge in its twenties and a deep-freeze that's nearly forty - all of them British built! Our daughter recently had to scrap her 3-year old washing machine (made in China); seal failed, bearing seized and melted the plastic housing which isn't available as a spare part - apparently the usual failure mode with that make/model.

{EDIT: Pipped to the post again}

i belive this is being bought about by the supply giants like Tesco/ECP ,
as they are squeezing the buy it in price down so far the manufacturer has to produce shoddy sub standard goods to compete/stay up and running

[Longyear]

I would sound a note of caution at using any kind of mob like this. I have my gravest suspicion (perhaps totally unfounded) that they be touting for work and might just fail the car on some items they fit as part of their core business so they can turn in a nice little earner.

I may be wrong and being very unjust to the fine institutions to which I'm referring. I also believe most of these outfits may not understand an older Citroen well enough to give it a proper test and can fail it for things that are perfectly normal.

I would much rather deal with my very local Indy whom I know well and he knows me and the peculiarities of my cars. He's not expensive at £35 a go and gets plenty of remedial work from charging on the low side for an MOT - he tells me I'd never believe the state of the majority of cars he has presented at test time.

Beware a cheap deal - it may well have a sting in its tail...

Totally agree with this. I can't for the life of me understand why anyone takes their car to the 'corporates' like Kwikfit, Halfords or Mr Clutch, where Managers and staff are targetted on revenue and add-on jobs and where they just consistently claim more work is required, than any other independent garages.

My Father In Law took his 3 year old Mazda 2 for a MOT at a trusted independent on Wednesday last week, and it passed with just a (free) handbrake adjustment required.

For unknown reasons, he then took it to a Hyundai Main Dealer for a service (the local Mazda dealer has closed), and got a call "with an advisory to change both front tyres due to early signs of wall wear". He did not get the tyres changed (I would not let him!) and I inspected the tyres when we got the car back and there is not one iota of wall wear (I know I have it on my Citroen C5!)... the tyres have at least 4mm allround.

Absolute rip off merchants, just prematurely trying to take cash out of people's pockets. The customer service was not even good and although his car was booked in for 1pm, he was left waiting until after 1.30pm before they 'processed him' and let him go. He asked a receptionist what the delay was and was advised "all the service staff were on their dinner".

The car was not cleaned as part of the service and paper mats weren't even left in it afterwards.

This was the Hyundai Peterlee Main Dealer.