BMW MOT check for £109

[soupdragon1]

I'm from N Ireland so our MOT rules are slightly different than GB. The test is carried out at specific MOT centres and costs about £40 if you book it in yourself.

My car (BMW X6) is 4 years old in September and we bought it last October at 3 years old. I have AUC warranty as well as service pack and MOT protect - only issue being that MOT protect isn't applicable in N Ireland.

My local BMW garage contacted my saying that for £109 - they will call at my house/workplace, give me a spare car, take my X6 for 2 days, check it over, MOT it, and then bring it back to me. Hastle free.

Now, I've seen this movie before....but with Land Rover. I took up their similar offer and got stung £90 for new wipers front and back window. Ripped off!

My instinct is to just take it to MOT myself but then I though, the car is under warranty. If I fill the washer bottle, change the wipers myself, check all the bulbs etc....there should be nothing to do. For BMW to make it worth their while, they may end up changing some parts that aren't totally ready to be changed - just to get their moneys worth....and with the car being under warranty, I won't be charged. At least I get some new parts that I won't need to replace once the actual warranty runs out.

What do we think? Should I or should I not?

[bmwmike]

Based on my recent experiences they are more likely to pull a move whereby they'll tell you something needs replacing but is not covered by warranty. You'll challenge that and they may concede that they were wrong/lying but is it worth the risk?

[mon the fish]

An MOT is barely worth it financially for a local garage, for a main dealer it's probably done at a loss. Unless of course they think they can make easy money out of people of course....

I would always try and avoid MOTing at a main dealer, and that is from personal experience from a Glasgow dealer a few years ago

[eybic]

Take it for an MOT with plenty of time left on the warranty to ensure there are no issues with the warranty expiring before they get chance to fix/ diagnose.

[tonymor]

Personally I would go to a small garage for m o t where they are usually fair and helpful and are not " working on daily targets".
Off subject slightly but I'm not paying to further extend my BMW warranty as overall opinion is it's best to keep the same money in a piggy bank in case of ?

[soupdragon1]

Thanks for the replies.

The good thing about N Ireland is that the MOT check is done by an independant government body, in specific MOT centres.

So if BMW tell me I need new bushings (I'm not sure if AUC warranty would cover that?) I can still say to the BMW garage, 'no thanks, just send it through the check anyway' and that way, the independant MOT test will tell me the 'true' picture.

A lot of people here in NI don't send the cars to a garage for MOT checks, they simply take it to the MOT centre, see what the MOT centre says and if it fails, then they repair only what needs done (rather than what a garage might 'think' needs done)

Because our MOT centres are an independant body and don't actually carry out any work on the cars, they are totally impartial when they look at a car as they don't make any money out of repairs- the only thing they actually do is observe/check over the cars for faults and give you a report at the end and off you go.

[Hamster69]

Speaking as an MOT tester (admittedly not in NI), who works in a main dealer I can't see the difference between an MOT in a dealer or a small specialist. Yes we have targets at work, but that has never affected what I recommend on a car or not. In fact I know my boss would have a real problem if I recommended something that didn't need doing.
On the other hand a small garage, no matter how friendly and helpful needs to make as much money as possible to survive. I am not suggesting for one second that they are bent! But I have also worked in smaller garages where the "are we going to make enough money to pay the rent this month" chat with the boss was a common event. That doesn't really happen now I work for a larger company. Yes I'm encouraged to be productive, but I don't feel like the company relies on me selling everything possible.
I find on most forums now dealers "stealers" get very bad treatment, but I know the number one thing where I work now and when I worked for Mercedes was customer satisfaction.

As far as the MOT goes though, yeah take it yourself. You are basically paying double for it to be picked up. If on the other hand your dealer ever offers you a free health check, take it! There are plenty of things on a modern car not touched by the MOT. Also remember an MOT is minimum standards for safety. A car on the verge of breaking down will pass an MOT so long as the emissions are not affected.

[4rephill]

Gotta love the theory that a main dealer carrying out an MOT is automatically going to make stuff up and try to fleece you, whilst "Joe Bloggs autoshop and MOT centre" will be totally trust worthy!

I've taken My E36 and E46 BMW's to My local main dealers for their MOT's for years now, and it's actually been incredibly rare for either of them to fail the test (And on the rare occasions that they have failed, it's never been for something expensive that would make it worth the main dealers effort to make it up)

[Mike335i]

I had mine done at the dealer and have no qualms about their work. £39 and no mucking about.

[mmm-five]

4rephill said:

Gotta love the theory that a main dealer carrying out an MOT is automatically going to make stuff up and try to fleece you, whilst "Joe Bloggs autoshop and MOT centre" will be totally trust worthy!

I no longer trust most main dealer or garages to do an MOT, I usually take mine to an MOT-only place (commercial or council one usually). I have been using a local one who has just started doing car repairs (was a commercial one), but they understand that any work will be carried out elsewhere anyway.

I've had stuff mentioned on MOTs at the dealer that has been covered by my 'mot insurance' on my insured warranty - only for the dealer to 'change their mind' when I told them about the warranty.

For example, I had one dealer MOT changed from a fail for 'OSF EDC damper leaking' to an advisory for 'OSF EDC damper misted'. Their excuse was that after speaking to BMW GB (after I'd pointed out my MOT insurance) they understood that a light misting was not an issue. I pointed out that if it was not an issue, then it shouldn't even be an advisory.

Got it checked out independently anyway and it was in fact just the standard misting they all get, so the dealer was obviously out to try and make some easy cash.

It also pisses me off the look that you get when you tell them you'll take it away to get it fixed elsewhere...as they obviously don't have enough experience with the car in question to do a proper job, and no point paying 3x the labour rate for someone to 'learn' on my car.