Sex discrimination, or simply taking the p**s

[poledark]

My wife took her Jeep to a dealer as Chrysler had advised a recall for the brake discs. As her MOT was nearly due she asked them to do the MOT at the same time. At the appointed time she drove the car in, handed the keys to reception and walked out to meet me waiting outside in my van.

 

A couple of hours later she had a phone call to say it was all ready but had failed the MOT due to a "cracked exhaust manifold"

 

She passed the phone to me and I listened to the bloke on the other end and said "do nothing, I will come and have a look myself"

 

Me and the wife turned up and the manager and the MOT tester lifted the bonnet of the car, the tester shone a tiny pencil torch on to the manifold and said, "the welding has cracked all the way round the join" Well, I looked and could see no crack (I have done quite a bit of welding).

 

So I said I could see no crack and neither could I see any evidence of a "blow" nor could I hear any blowing. The MOT guy got narked and said, "well I can see a crack and hear a blow" and not wanting to call him a liar I simply said that I could not afford the £600 notes for a new manifold and he stalked off.

 

We drove home and I crawled all over that manifold and could see nothing wrong, so I took it to a Quikfit depot and asked them to check it out, I think they suspected something and 4 guys came and had a look/listen/feel and reported no faults.

 

My next step was to take it to another place and had it MOT'd which it passed with no comments.

 

My wife is a bit pee'ed off about this, she thinks, rightly I think, that they were trying it on. I have been advised that I would find it very dificult to make any sort of case as the mechanic will simply say that the manifold had been replaced since he tested it.

 

There is more to this story... about 15 years ago my wife had a Datsun Cherry, bought new, done only 9000 miles and she took it in for its first MOT and when she went to pick it up they said they had had to fit a new exhaust. I was shocked as I had checked it myself and it was OK before she took it in.

 

I went flying round to this garage and asked to be shown this exhaust, I was sent in the wrong direction but eventually collared the mechanic who showed me the "old" exhaust which was literally broken in two, with nice shiny metal on the break line!!

 

So you see me and the wife were not at all surprised when the Jeep "failed"

 

Den

[loonyl]

Here in Wales,

they have a free MOT center.(@Hafod,Swansea)..

..drive up, wait your turn & get a free MOT certificate or a list of what needs fixing. (1 wk to fix the stuff on the list without another full inspection)

Normal wait is an hour but it's a great way to talk to people in the trade/network.

 

Personally,

I get the list then bring the car to a nightclass, (£15 for 10 lessons).

The's tutor has 19 years experience as a rally mechanic. (flippin brill is an understatement)

& the college's garage looks exactly like like Kwik Fit/Halfords, (ie 5 ramps, computerized tuning, welding facilities, sprayguns, wheel balancing, brake cleaners, etc etc.)

Recently, the college has been sponsored by Jaguar (with a few engines donated for the students to strip)

& atm, they're making a car from scratch for the Paris/Dakar rally

 

Flippin good & cheap way to fix whatever needs doing.

 

Might be an option to look into?

 

Liam

ps I brought the mini

(which, alas, is no more after a scuffle with a coach on the motorway )

to Kwik Fit coz the brakes wern't too hot....£350 estimate. But at the college, all fixed in half an hour! ...£1.50

[Dan]

I use the Exeter LEX Auto centre, if it fails there are no retest fees and I do all the repairs myself, Ive never had to replace something that wasnt broke! If I were you I would contact the Local DfT (used to be DoT) Vehicle Inspectorate and report it, even if they dont do anything this time they might next if any one else reports them, they stand to lose a lot if they get their licence taken away.

Dan

[Alan Fawcett]

A friend of mine used to work for a well known nationwide company as a tester, he quit when he was told "if an old un or woman comes in fail the car cos we need the work, tell them its to dangerous to be driven away".

 

For obvious reasons i can't name the company on here but i can tell you that "you CAN get better than ......one of their fitters"

[DMCA]

Slightly off the point but some years ago I had a car to sell. It was due for MOT so I had it done (almost nothing wrong) and advertised it. Some woman came with a couple of other people who examined the car fairly cursorily, had me drive it up the road and back and then she said she would have it. She paid and went off with the car. A week later I get a call to say the car is a deathtrap, she had it looked at by some 'mobile garage' for some unknown reason, who in the process of examining made the engine fall out and told her it was unroadworthy! She wanted her money back. I contacted the guy who did the MOT and the mechanic who actually did the work. Both said the car was/had been fine. In the end the MOT man (years and years in the business) went out to the woman's place to see the car as he couldn't believe he'd missed whatever was wrong with it. Never heard any more about it and never got to the bottom of it! However, she was a woman and they were a 'mobile garage'...

[Cranfield]

My daughter went to have two tyres fitted to her car at a national tyre/exhaust centre.

She was told that her car needed new suspension and the "inspector" refused to let her drive the car as it was dangerous.

 

She called me on her mobile phone and I turned up with a friend who is a mechanic.

The "about-turn" by the "inspector" when challenged was pitiful.

He couldn,t justify his findings at all and disappeared out the back of the garage.

 

My fear in these instances is not, having to pay for work that doesn,t need doing, its that the incompetent idiots couldn,t spot something that was REALLY dangerous.

[dave_h]

I remember a story i read a few years ago about a multi-millionaire in New York who Owned the last car that a well known gangster had been shot up in by the FBI (i think i remember the gangster being Dutch Shultz ?) it had bullet holes in the doors and seats and had blood staines on the upholstery and the tommy gun holder under the dash was hanging off where he had made a dash for his gun.

Well his wife had run out of ideas to buy him for his birthday "what do you buy a man who can have everything" she said.

So she arranged to take te car down to the garage to have the car mended!

She then presented the car to her husband with bullet holes filled in,upholstery cleaned with blood staines removed, and tommy gun holder replaced!!!

Now thats what you call depreciation!

And did the garage rip her off!! or is that business!!

You decide?