Evora MOT's What do you do?

[Kimbers]

My MOT and RFL is up in April and I need to get it sorted. My choices are Strattons, Hanger 111 or Silverstone if I go the Dealer route. Strattons are a fortune, Hanger 111, though excellent are an hour away and Silverstone 3 hours away.

So my question is, do you get your Evora;s MOT'd at a local MOT centre? Do you trust them with your car? Or do you go that extra mile and take it to a Dealer?

I have loads around here who are cheap and reliable but just not sure about leaving my car with them..........

[Bravo73]

I often take it to the local council MOT station. (There is one at the Ketteringham Depot, which I think is reasonably local to you). 

That way you’ll know that they won’t find/make issues which you are then obliged to get fixed there. 

Otherwise, Highfield Garage in Swardeston has got plenty of experience MOTing Evoras. That’s where LMS used to send their cars to get MOT’d.  

 

[21gg]

Yep local mot place that I know and trust!

[pete]

Anyone who will pass it's

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Just stay and watch them do it. I do. If they're nice they might let you have a look underneath too. With my old Lotus Omega I used to stay in the car and operate all the switches etc. for them. I'd even drive it in to the brake tester and do the tests for them.

[Dave Eds]

Mine goes to Manchetts in Newmarket whilst I drink tea with Gerald at GST. 

[PaulCP]

You could also use ES Motorsports. They don’t do MOTs on site but take the car to their trusted MOT station nearby so they are used to Lotus cars little idiosyncrasies 

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Are you near the factory? They use Highfield Garage, Norwich Rd, Swardeston, NR14 8DW.

I know this, because the factory sent my GTE to be tested there just prior to my purchase. Apparently the tester was rather bemused as the car had all of 4 miles on the clock when it arrived! The distance from the factory to Swardeston? 4 miles! That must be some kind of record for an MOT on a car first registered 3 years previously.

[Bravo73]

10 minutes ago, LotusLeftLotusRight said:

Are you near the factory? They use Highfield Garage, Norwich Rd, Swardeston, NR14 8DW.

5 hours ago, Bravo73 said:

Otherwise, Highfield Garage in Swardeston has got plenty of experience MOTing Evoras. That’s where LMS used to send their cars to get MOT’d.  

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

Sorry, I didn't read past council MOT test station (I didn't know there was such a thing).

[Bravo73]

Every council in the country has one - in order to MOT all of the council’s vehicles. 

[Stuart Monument]

@JAWS aka mr Evora uses Stratton for MOT’s I think. He said they where good value from memory 

[Nelly]

Last year I pad the full £50 to have it done at Snows, my local dealer, but to be fair they are only 15 minutes away.

It was either that or pay £30 at the local tyre place and for some reason I didn't want to do that but probably will this year.

[JAWS]

14 hours ago, Stuart Monument said:

@JAWS aka mr Evora uses Stratton for MOT’s I think. He said they where good value from memory 

Yep, I use Stratton for the Evora. It's nice to go and see what cars they have while you wait and also grab a coffee.

The other option, which I use for my other cars is F1 Autocentre at the bottom of Grape's Hill. Book on line for about £25 and get a really early Saturday morning slot so it doesn't take too much time out of the day. 

[andydclements]

In some cases you may end up paying VAT on the MOT fee. If the garage don't charge for their services then it may be possible to just pay the MOT fee, but if they charge you a fee + MOT cost, then VAT (assuming they are VAT registered) should be applied to both, so effectively making the MOT £60. Just a weird bit about how VAT works.

[Barrykearley]

Mot tests are VAT exempt. You should not be paying vat on them

[andydclements]

Yes, but not if the garage (who are VAT registered) then pass on the charge, it then has VAT added.

[RichardC]

https://www.gov.uk/getting-an-mot/mot-test-fees

 

There’s a maximum amount MOT test stations can charge. This depends on the type of vehicle.

The maximum fee for a car is £54.85 and £29.65 for a standard motorcycle.

You do not pay VAT on the fee.

[andydclements]

But you do if the fee is the passed on by another service provider as part of VAT invoice.

[Barrykearley]

I’m really not sure about that. I’ve just had my old van done by a Vauxhall dealers - subcontracted out and tested at a different garage. 

Vat = zero.

strange

[eeyoreish]

I use a local small but classic friendly garage round the corner from me. My neighbour takes his '69 Beetle there too.

Always gets a fair test and they do free retests within 10 working days. Haven't needed that for the Esprit yet but they retested emissions on an Astra GSi I had twice on two separate visits FOC before eventually issuing the cert. Very fair.

[andydclements]

31 minutes ago, Barrykearley said:

I’m really not sure about that. I’ve just had my old van done by a Vauxhall dealers - subcontracted out and tested at a different garage. 

Vat = zero.

strange

Looking back, I'd not phrased my replies earlier correctly ( but the one of 11 hrs ago was correct).

If they don't charge you extra for the privileged, then that's right (don't add VAT to the MOT fee, simply pass it through), but if they made some sort of service charge/profit on the actual MOT cost (such as they get a discount but charge you the £54), then they'd have to add VAT. I guess that a brand dealer places value on being able to have customers' vehicles MOT'd at the same appointment as servicing etc (where they make a decent profit), so just pass on the cost and add nothing on top.