Topic

Miss Margarita went in for her MOT yesterday and apart from having the hand break adjusted (and emissions being an issue ) she passed with flying colors. Anyway, when the car came back I started chatting to Chris who took her for the MOT.
After last years mot the car had a list of advisories, but this year nothing. Chris said all the advisories from last year were BS. What's that all about? Is the mot so open to interpretation that mechanics are advising people to get things fixed when no fixing is required? It seems like a legal scam. I am just glad I've found a guy who is honest and open about work needed on the cars we have. (He's done some work on our zafira lately at a fraction of other quotes we've had). I am all for knowing that cars are safe to drive etc but it just seems that the mot is an open invitation for garages to potentially rip people off.

Because the MoT is done by humans, everyone has a different idea of what is getting near to the end of its life and what isn't.

An advisory is just that. Advice. It is something that the car owner can take or leave. There will be a few garages that will tout for work using it, but the majority of garages will be honest and it will be the tester's opinion.

As I do the majority of work myself, I look over the advisories and check things out. If I find something that I don't like, then I'll deal with it. I appreciate that most people won't maintain their cars themselves but entrust it to a company. Whether it is at the MoT or just during a service/inspection, then you're at the mercy of their honesty (or lack thereof)

Advisories? As cj correctly says, and very often BS.

I got one on my Jag for ' wear ridge on front discs' : no $hit Sherlock. That's what spinning bits of metal do when stopping a heavy car: wear.

I pointed out that a wear ridge is normal and that I'd micrometered the disc thickness, which was well in excess of Jags minimum thickness by several mm. Too late, it's on the MOT certificate.