Evening all

Our Subaru Outback (55 plate) is due an MOT.

Halfords Auto Centre? What do we think?

Ta in advance.

A test is a test, no ? Your question is whether you trust them to conduct it honestly and not come up with whith work which surprisingiy they can fix. Wouod I take my car there no. I use a small independent I trust or the main dealer who will often do them for free as part of service.

I used one of their garages when I worked in the retail arm of the company & they failed my van on a set of brakes they had replaced 2 weeks prior to the mot…
That was back before the AA bought the garages though so no idea what they are like now. Suspect it’s more a case of what your local one is like than the chain as a whole.

Independant here, I’d never use a ‘chain’ centre.
(Ex motor fitter/mechanic)

I use a local independent but my other half doesn’t like him as he does his MOTs at night … but odd but it suits me as he’s a nice guy and I normally have a chat about mutual interests at the same time!

Result is her car goes to Halfords and it’s passed the last 3 with no advisorys, however it’s 6 years old and I replace things when they need doing rather than when it’s fails it’s MOT.

I’m going to guess that in a large chain like Halfords, the trustworthiness and efficiency of each branch will vary significantly. Your question is therefore pretty meaningless unless you can narrow it down to one outlet.

Last 4 tests all done at Halfords, only failure was a blowing exhaust which I knew was anyway but had got MOT date wrong.

This is on cars ranging from 13 to 16 years old.

NEVER AGAIN. The first and only time I used a Halfords autocentre, they failed the car on rear tyres, indicator bulbs (all of them…the side repeaters are LED FFS) handbrake and the headlight washers (they work on pressure from he screenwash bottle and it was low) and the rear wash-wipe.

Noting that the rear windshield wiper functionality is not a test item, I asked for the report and took it to the local council MOT testing station. It passed without advisory with the exception of the rear tyres which it said were at 2.5mm average.

I reported them to the local VOSA station.

All mine done at halfords, never had to have any work done and all MOT’s half price.

Trusted independent is always preferable.

I had a right do with kwik fit once, they failed my car, so I took it to my indie who did the work, and they failed it on retest.

In the end after lots or argy bargy the indie re tested it again for free and it passed.

Thread here if you want a read, lol

http://www.volvoforums.org.uk/archive/index.php/t-201855.html

Cheers all.

I’m in Inverness so any comments on the Halfords here, or a recommendation of an independent would be much appreciated.

Potential long shot.

Join a suburu enthusiast forum, forums are invaluable for cars and quite a few have trusted garage lists, or if not, someone fairly local can probably point you in the right direction.

Plus you’ll learn lots of little tricks and cost savers that you’d never know otherwise.

I use my local council testing centre, they can’t do any work on the car if it fails. I simply wouldn’t trust anyone else.

Check if your local council or even fire station do them. They wont do repairs purely mot test so no incentive to fail cars for work.

What McM says.

If no council option look for a independant test only station.

Had them change a tyre for me. First thing they did was rip out and destroy the sensor valve……..

I always use places that just do MOT’s and nothing else. Wouldn’t trust normal garages anymore for MOT’s

The service and quality of work does vary from centre to centre.
Used to work in the lease car industry and used them for some servicing and repairs.
Drivers seemed to either love them or hate them, but in the main few complaints compared to the volumes we were putting through them.

I had a service and MOT done there late last year.

Just don’t believe all the bullshit when they say it’s passed BUT you need x, y and z done and it will cost you £700.

They tried to sell me new discs and pads all round, even though they were well within the limits – they said it needs doing within in the next couple of months otherwise it will be illegal and dangerous.

Took it to a local garage and they just said change the pads, discs will be good for at least another year at least.

I check how much discs and pads all round would cost elsewhere and the local Vauxhall Dealer was about half the price of Halfords.

I regularly use the Liverpool one – never had a problem. Never had a failed MOT from them either.

Took my work van Transit Connect to Peoples Ford told need all new brakes. For convenience went to Kwik Fit few days later told nothing wrong with them! Depends on garage I’d say. If you’ve got one you trust lucky you.

I’ve used my local Halfords for both my main car and the MX5. They know that i fix anything myself and in most cases don;t even quote for anything that its failed on – Just put some yellow chalk on where it needs work 🙂 .

I’ve found them to be honest and passed everything bar where i had a massive hole in the chassis rail on the MX5 and two snapped springs

My local one has been great. I’ve used them for just over ten years, between 2 & 4 cars per year, never been unfairly failed. And they *always* have some kind of special offer.

Sandhurst, Berkshire FWIW. And I’ve used the one in Andover once, same experience.

It was the Inverness branch i mentioned in my earlier post.

It was the Inverness branch i mentioned in my earlier post.