20/02/2024
TRUST ISSUES...
As the title suggests, I am hardly surprised that some people have trust issues when it comes to the motor trade(any trade for that matter!), the work that is carried out and the prices they are being charged in some cases, but this 1 really boils my blood tbh.
This vehicle had an MOT at a local garage, yep, a garage within the Dereham area! Unfortunately it failed on corrosion and this was the recified and the 'PASSED' its mot, which i wasnt aware of at this point
The vehicle came in to me as the customer wanted to get the front brakes done. Whilst the vehicle was in, the customer requested me to investigate a knocking noise. Upon investigation, i found that the inner steering rack had play in it. Now now this is where the story takes a turn....
The customer was present at the time and informed me that the car was MOTed in November, and asked me if i could see where welding repairs had been done, after its recent failure.
Upon investigation what we found was beyond belief really.. now the garage that done the MOT, also does repairs, so not only do they have a duty of care to test vehicles fairly, but they also know the rules regarding repair procedures, and despite myself not being an mot tester, i have to know the rules surrounding the repairs to make sure customers cars are repaired correctly.
Now the car in question.. if you look through the pictures u will see the following..
Failed - corrosion
Passed - advisory on brake discs (no mention of brake pads, inner rack joint) but more importantly.... it was passed by the MOT tester with an inadequate repair..
Any corrosion repairs need to and have to be welded(fully, not spot/patch welded unless repaired to manufacturers standard).
This car was repaired with.... Fibreglass filler... yep.. thats right... fibreglass!! And you can obviously see it in the pictures. Now just to remind you.. this was an mot centre that repaired and passed this car!!! 😳😳😳😳 The repair was not only repaired with fibreglass, you can see in 1 picture that the inner wheel arch doesnt even meet the repair! So not only wrong materials, inadequately repaired, it wasnt even done to a standard that almost try to hide the bodge, as lets face it, thats what it was!! Now you might say... but Ade.. that was back in November.. well for MOT failures/passes, you can appeal the decision within 3 month on corrosion, which it is still within. The car has also done 68miles...
This car was not failed on the brakes, the pads are virtually down to the metal(minimum required thickness for MOT is 1.5mm), ok they advised the discs, but thats not the point, they missed the pads and the inner rack joint shoupd have been advised as well as it had play.
As a summary.. it failed, then passed with an inadequate repair(which is a failure in itself), didnt have things advised that should have been..
Now i appreciate everyone has bad days, days where things go wrong, days where you are literally 1 snapped bolt away from a 5 minute job becoming a 5 hour one.. but seriously... this one takes the biscuit!
Its blatant disregard for the customer, their safety as well as the garages own responsibilities in which they obviously took advantage off this customer. I have had discussions with the customer with routes they can go, but ultimately, the garage has let not only this customer, their faith in the trade, but also themselves down, for what.... probably a quick bit of cash.
For a non biased MOT garage, i use Weathervane MOT Centre. They do zero repairs, so have zero incentive to pass, or fail your vehicle.
Pick your garages wisely people!!
Ade
