- Thread starter kingkenny
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Paul.
Moderator
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Apart from the investment in kit, such as approved ramps, exhaust analysers, brake testers, beam setters, computers and links to DVLA, training of testers, regular calibration of equipment, wages, etc. etc. a mate of mine has just spent upwards of £30k setting up a test bay to the latest required VOSA standard.
IMO I would avoid any of the national chains doing cheap MOTs as they might be more inclined to fail on borderline issues to make money on repairs. I would rather pay full whack (£57 odd for a class 7) if I knew I was getting and fair test a putting the money in the pocket of a trustworthy local guy
Thats like saying the profit is huge in welding cos a pack of rods is only a tenner and they last agggges?
Thats like saying the profit is huge in welding cos a pack of rods is only a tenner and they last agggges?
Drains
Yeah, nah.
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I don't know why anybody ever pays for anything. All the world is a thieving b*stard, obviously. Property is theft, up the revolution.
pedrobedro
Man at Matalan
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£30 for MOT at our local centre, no retest fee either and they don't tout for jobs if it fails.
marknotgeorge
Doing sums for a living since 2009.
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The old Vauxhall dealers in the village down the road does 'em for £30. They've been in business for donkey's years, and they're a Masterfit dealer, so I know that even if it does fail, the parts they fit will be decent ones.
steve202
ǝlʇıʇ ɹǝsn ɯoʇsnɔ
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Yeh, i hope to be doing it myself in a couple of years, i think it's great.
Im actually with you on this one Steve, it is a rip off. Of course it cost to set up and pay people but no where near as much as my works has cost me and many others out there. My set up has cost well in excess of 200k that's equipment alone. I cant charge anywhere near the 50 quid an hour mark, lucky to get half of that these days when the skills we have are deserving of a lot higher hourly rate per investment.
Quick calculation puts it into perspective take a good case scenario for 1 MOT bay:
Up to 3 cars an hour for MOT x 8 hours = 24 cars per day x 6 days (for a lot of garages) = 144 cars a week x 52 weeks = 7488 cars per year x by lets say 50 quid (as this is best case scenario) = £392,200.
I would say that's a pretty good crack for a 30k set up all your money back in the first year and very big profits in my book. Halve it for worst case scenario even so its not a bad crack in my book for a 30k set up fee
I based this a small local set up having 1 MOT bay and 2 guys doing the mots working out of a old shed type brick building with low rent Plus they are throwing out as mentioned 3 MOTS per hour at peak.
Sorry, to me that's a damn good crack and really a lot of profiteering going on.
Same as everything in this world they charge what they do because they 'can' that don't mean its right or good value or worth the charge.
Kind regards,
Scott (ward eng)
peterd51
happy to be here!
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Hi,
and would they be advertising to get that number of cars in?
I'd guess that in an average sized town like Scunny the smaller garages might do half-a-dozen MOT's a day. They make most of their money on the repairs, so it's in their best interest to fail cars on minor but easy repair jobs. Like a dodgy tyre, or brakes pads, etc.
It'd have to be very bad to fail on welding, as there's not much money in that for the garage.
Regards
Peter
and would they be advertising to get that number of cars in?
I'd guess that in an average sized town like Scunny the smaller garages might do half-a-dozen MOT's a day. They make most of their money on the repairs, so it's in their best interest to fail cars on minor but easy repair jobs. Like a dodgy tyre, or brakes pads, etc.
It'd have to be very bad to fail on welding, as there's not much money in that for the garage.
Regards
Peter
I know its true in the bike world, not so sure if the car places do this yet but I cant imagine they dont.
The mot station has x minutes to complete each sequence of tests, and has to click a mouse after a allotted time saying that section is complete. So even if the garage work fast, or tried to skimp on testing, there'd be no point, since they HAVE to take the required alloted test time to complete an action.
IIRC it IS about 45 minutes for a car...
The fee is based around the labour charge for a hours work, which by the time the vehicle is loaded into the bay/removed and the paperwork completed and the new cert printed off, is about right. Bike tests are cheaper because they dont take as long (according to VOSA timings) so theresfore not as expensive.
So your really buying a hour of garage time from them. MOT's are a good source of income because its a steady stream of known work, theres no hidden timesinks when the replacement parts are the wrong ones etc but it does involve a huge investment in equipment. I think that 30k figure is for UPGRADING a bay from old specs, not for a whole new set of equipment.
The other facet is the security around the certs, and the fact that you are painting a target on your business for said items. Its not uncommon to come into work and find the overnight safe battered and dented where some scallies came in the night and tried to dig it up for the books.
Throw in to that random spot checks by the ministry, having to go on courses to become a certified tester and other overheads, and its not so expensive after all. And every day is spent testing things which people try their best to hide the faults, and if you find said hidden faults they stamp their feet and have a hissy fit too. People are already tense from the whole build up to the TEST, they do have a tendancy to go off like a bottle of pop when confronted with a faliure sheet...
I like the french way of doing it, which is the testing stations all have to be dedicated to testing, there is no garage attached to mop up the jobs neatly. So you tend to get less failiures because they want to just do a quick repair for you. Still have to pay for it myself though...
The mot station has x minutes to complete each sequence of tests, and has to click a mouse after a allotted time saying that section is complete. So even if the garage work fast, or tried to skimp on testing, there'd be no point, since they HAVE to take the required alloted test time to complete an action.
IIRC it IS about 45 minutes for a car...
The fee is based around the labour charge for a hours work, which by the time the vehicle is loaded into the bay/removed and the paperwork completed and the new cert printed off, is about right. Bike tests are cheaper because they dont take as long (according to VOSA timings) so theresfore not as expensive.
So your really buying a hour of garage time from them. MOT's are a good source of income because its a steady stream of known work, theres no hidden timesinks when the replacement parts are the wrong ones etc but it does involve a huge investment in equipment. I think that 30k figure is for UPGRADING a bay from old specs, not for a whole new set of equipment.
The other facet is the security around the certs, and the fact that you are painting a target on your business for said items. Its not uncommon to come into work and find the overnight safe battered and dented where some scallies came in the night and tried to dig it up for the books.
Throw in to that random spot checks by the ministry, having to go on courses to become a certified tester and other overheads, and its not so expensive after all. And every day is spent testing things which people try their best to hide the faults, and if you find said hidden faults they stamp their feet and have a hissy fit too. People are already tense from the whole build up to the TEST, they do have a tendancy to go off like a bottle of pop when confronted with a faliure sheet...
I like the french way of doing it, which is the testing stations all have to be dedicated to testing, there is no garage attached to mop up the jobs neatly. So you tend to get less failiures because they want to just do a quick repair for you. Still have to pay for it myself though...
Or Northern Ireland where the test centres are run by the government and, like the French, do not do repairs. No vested interest in either passing or failing a vehicle - just a fair test.
