Graham Butcher

I'll just leave this here.

@Rooted I was applying the same thought process and logic as that is typically what happens in England, large houses, being brought and converted to flats and let for profit, the same is happening with office blocks.

That's a good point, my Skoda garage charge £45 a test but the council charge the full amount but there is no conflict of interest.

Could be construed either way, We used to have a council run station whose main role was maintaining the ambulances so they took in MOT as well and were fair they could not do any repairs a car would only fail and or get advisories if it was not fit to pass the test on the day or it would not pass next time unless the advisories were attended to. I always used to use that service and always passed. The site where they were was redeveloped and it was thought that they were no longer doing MOTs. Well after some digging on the old net today, it seems that are still doing MOTs but on the other side of the city, but as ambulances have been privatised, they now only do the council's dustcarts and MOT's for those in the know. I'll be taking my car there next time.

What, you think the implication of a low rate of advisories suggests that the station is allowing to pass then?

Surely, if an item is continually appearing year-on-year as an advisory then it should not have been flagged as such in the first place, I thought the idea was that at the time of the test the item was not bad enough to fail, but warranted attention before the next MOT as it would fail that unless it was done. As a potential buyer and you saw something keep appearing year-on-year as an advisory, then that would suggest to me that it was more than likely the garage trying to upsell something that did not really need doing in the first place, otherwise it would not have passed the test. My old Superb had an advisory on it that the O/S/F coil spring was rusty, and that was the only advisory the car had ever had. I checked the spring, and it did have slight surface rust on it, and I left it because so did the N/S/F spring but not mentioned. My Superbs have all been serviced and tested at the same garage and the car sailed through the next 3 years MOTs with no mention of that spring or any other advisories. The conclusion I can make from that is that either they were trying to upsell the first time, or that on the other occasions it was a different person doing the testing and deemed the spring to be OK?

I was a bit miffed as it failed because of the warning light being on, but after the glow plug/sensor was replaced, it passed but with the advisories, the retest was seamless and FOC so no worries. I have to admit that I'm really struggling to understand why people seem so upset about having advisories recorded, it makes not a jot of difference to the car being legal or its subsequent value, so no worries in opinion.

Nah, most decent garages will do a free retest if its within x days of the original test.

Still begs the question why put it in for a MOT when they know that it would automatically fail because of the wiper blades? Like mine, an automatic fail with an warning light on the instruments lit up (I never listed that as it passed the 2nd test) but with cars being tested and serviced at the same garage, it just makes (to my mind) double the work load retesting the car?

Judging by the fact that is in fact 6 flats, it has all the hallmarks of it once being a rather grand house in what was once a posh part of Edinburgh but has since been encircled by the riff raff and a property developer has purchased the house and converted it into 6 identical flats and with 6 tenants almost impossible for them each to have an EV and home charge anyway. The aerial view shows space available is somewhat limited and the close of the door clearly shows the 6 door intercoms for the flats and this shows the problems that many are facing, or will be facing with car ownership and home charging.

If anyone has any doubts that the air quality we have in London and in fact anywhere in the UK is actually far better today and that has nothing to do with ULEZ and other similar schemes should watch this short 3 minute film of a road trip to Heathrow airport, shot in the 1960s. Observe the clear uncongested road, bugger all traffic but look at the air, the pollution is there, highly visible, hiding in plain sight.

Exactly that, loads of traders and salvage rebuilders do just that. in the case of salvage, they repair the accident damage first, then take it for an MOT prior to selling it on, that way they only have to do what was noted, if anything. For those that thought I should have checked the car over prior to the MOT, I did check the tyres, lights, wipers, horn etc anything that did not involve getting under the car because I have trouble in getting down on the ground and up again, and I'm 75 years old with some mobility problems, so that kind of rules out doing a full inspection myself. I always used when I was younger, and I also did all my repairs except for welding, I can gas weld but not arc weld. Also, the car was booked in for a replacement oil pressure relief valve and also a number 3 cylinder glow plug replacement as on this car that also has a pressure sensor built in, and it was giving a faulty reading, so there was an engine management light lit on the instrument cluster which an automatic MOT failure in its own right. The sensor had to be ordered and was on back order. The car was booked in for the repair and then the MOT on the same day, but the tester took the car to their section before the workshop was ready to do the repair, so they had to retest the car again because their co-ordination was wrong. The wiper fault was there because the car had been parked on the forecourt on a windy day and a twig had been blown of a tree and had lodged itself, out of sight under the back of the bonnet recess and that ripped the blade when the tester tested them. The discs are not rusty, they are lovely and shiny, as already stated, they were new only 6,500 miles ago and no high spots are visible from the outside and the brakes feel and behave perfectly. Yes the advisories are recorded on the car's record, for all to see, that being said, I fail to see the problem with it, it shows the car has at least had a proper test and when they no longer appear at the next test it shows the problem has been dealt with The cut in the N/S/R outer wall, I cannot find one anywhere, so that is a mystery.

News just in. Electric vehicle prices set to match traditional car prices by 2025 | Regit

Well that is certainly at odds with the info I was given. They asked me for my reg or VIN then when I gave it they checked their records and came back with the correct car details, then they went and checked with their technical team and came back with the 140,000miles figure 🤔. Either way, that will roughly another 13 to 17 years away, so I'm not too bothered 😃

@RootedTotally agree, I always keep my servicing and maintenance upto date, you only ever get one life so never cut corners on servicing, it could be your last corner. My local Skoda garage told me that the dreaded cambelt and water pump change every 5 years is no longer, as of 1st July 2023 they are now saying that is purely miles based at 140,000 miles, so that a huge saving right there, it used around the £700 a time mark. I just had it confirmed by Skoda UK as well.

You know what, I just Googled and it seems that the council in my city still do MOT's, albeit £10 more than Skoda, but it might be worthwhile going there next time.👍

I think so as well, I'm not aware of the council still doing MOTs. Years ago they used to service the ambulance fleet and they also did MOTs which is where I used to go all the time. Then the ambulance service was privatised and all of that stopped. And no it was not a cheap cut price test centre I went to, it was the main Skoda service centre for my area.

I can now confirm that this tester is in fact pretty good for casual user and would seem to be pretty accurate, mine has arrived and tested it, works perfectly and it seems that my fluid has 1% water content, which is pretty normal for fluid 1 year old. When they reseat the O/S/F shock absorber, I'll ask them to bleed that disc again and check on the fluid that comes out for excessive dirt etc.

How about this report? Porsche driver's infuriating act at electric vehicle charging station (msn.com)

No that happens sometime later.

They do tend to treat their cars as such, it highly likely that their cost is just small change to them over there.

Yes it did drive out, but the battery is supposed to be fitted with breathers and water will enter through them. In the floods of New Orleans EVs were burning due to battery corrosion from the flood water getting in.

How screwed is this person going to be in a while when they find water has got into their battery pack.

@J.R.The standard way of addressing someone directly on a forum like this is as I have done in this reply with @ and the username because it is an open forum rather than a direct message or an email thus anybody could post a message between your post and my post making keeping track of the conversation flow rather difficult if not impossible. That does not however mean that others cannot chip and make a point, even if it's clearly addressed, like in this post, because it is in the open where all members can see it, anyone is free to chip whenever they feel like it. This is how I believe forums work, is it not?

Geez, I'm not, it was an open question to anyone who might know the answer 😉