Sometimes, you've just got to trust people; the difficulty with this scenario, and any form of citizen journalism, is that it's unregulated and subject to whim, dishonesty or the foibles of the citizen involved.

For example, Suspicious Simon takes his crappy old banger to MOT City, worrying about all the episodes of Rogue Traders he's watched and fully expecting the mechanic to diagnose lots of problems that don't exist; Mike the Mechanic duly carries out the MOT on Simon's old banger, fails it and presents him with the customary list of reasons it's failed, with an estimate for the requisite repair work to be carried out.

Simon huffs and puffs in disbelief and runs to the forum to let us all know that MOT City are a bunch of crooks, failing to mention that his car is a 1976 Vauxhall Chevette, with more filler than body and an engine that leaks more fluids than a chelsea pensioner.

MOT City suffer a downturn in business, their reputation is damaged and meanwhile, Simon creeps off to another garage, has another MOT, gets the same advisories and has all the work done; he fails to post that on this forum.

Just one of the many and varied reasons that I hate the general public. And the internet. And cars.

good initiative in principle , big risk if complaints arise .

The only flaw in this is Mr MOT City, is a member of the general public and does cars and stuff, do i trust him or not?
Otherwise very true!!!!

I would suggest yes, until he gives you reason not to; contrary to my usual mantra of misanthropy I know, but I'm feeling quite upbeat today.

I don't expect it to last.

The problem with the MOT is that a lot of it is subjective...i.e down to the MOT testers opinion. Whilst some items cannot be argued with...i.e. blown bulbs, broken springs, bald tyres, etc. a lot of other things are down to the testers judgement, and how desperate for business they are.

I used to be a mechanic, and still do a lot of servicing and mot preparation for friends on my days off, so am well used to the foibles of the MOT tester. One example a few years ago, was a friend who bought a £400 Vauxhall Cavalier, and when it came to MOT time a few months later, took it to a certain well known garage on Northgate (rhymes with Farley Clowns), who in turn sent it to a certain garage on Cross Lane, who failed it on various items and told him it would cost £600 to get it through. He then brought it down to me, it cost £40 for the relevant parts and about 2 hours labour, and he then took it to another garage and it sailed through. My nephew has just had an identical experience with the same 2 garages, but ended up scrapping his car, when told it would also cost £600.......coincidence ?????....conspiracy ???????... make your own mind up.

Another friend has just had a similar experience with a NATIONAL ly recognised TYRE fitting garage on Ings Road..she put it in for the MOT, but a headlight bulb had blown so they changed it for her....the bulb costs about £3...they charged her £12...plus 15 minutes labour (it takes 1 minute)....plus VAT...total cost - £30 !!!

The moral of the story is, find a decent garage that doesn't rip you off, and stick with it !!

Wont change the garage I use well happy with them ok pay full price for the test but Know that hes honest if anything needs doing.

Sadly, very little in life is FREE. I suspect that one way or another the fee will be 'extracted'
Better sticking to a known garage that charges but doesn't go on a fishing expedition. I'm not saying the odd car won't go through but garages cannot afford to give anything for free!

I'd rather carry on using the 2 garages I use in wakefield Illingworths and mint garage services in horbury, these were recomended by a friend who's a mechanic himself and never had a problem with either. Saying that i dont get the work done at garage my friend does that for me. Use the ones you trust otherwise you may get ripped off.

I'll stick to my usual garage Ali's auto's myself my wife and my son all use him I've used him for years, a fair job for a fair price, the only trouble his he's too busy, you don't get owt for nowt nowadays, stick To what you know !!

Presumably, you could always take it to your local/preferred garage if not satisfied after the freebie at MOT City?

I'll stick to my garage I use, never has he gave me any concern for over work, has twice not charged us for looking for faults that we thought we had and they are friendly to boot

and local

So its not just players and coaches who don't get a chance before they are HD&Q on here

The thing about this Garage it's not exactly local to Wakefield

Thanks for the comments everyone. I guess I'm just suspicious of what's in it for them if they pass it first time!

As someone said, it's hardly local. I have used the WMDC place at Newton Bar in the past - they don't do any work so no 'incentive' on them to find any problems.

Will have to give it some serious thought - were it local I would be more inclined to take a punt.

Yes, I've used Illingworth's for years, very reliable cheap place to go, never had a problem there.