Having MOT early could save motorists £2billion a year on servicing
GETTY UK motorists could be wasting up to £2billion a year on servicing costs
Car services are one of inevitable annoyances that can be expensive for car owners. Motorists can however save themselves from landing an outrageous bill by having their MOT test done ahead of their service. Research of MotorEasy’s database of 20,000 vehicles revealed that 80 per cent of faults found in service procedures would be flagged in the MOT test anyway. This would render the service completely unnecessary, duplicating work and labour costs.
An average MOT test takes around an hour, meaning that an hour’s worth of labour could be saved in any subsequent service. Last month, MotorEasy revealed that the average UK hourly labour rate is £77. According to this research, if every motorist got an MOT test before their service and every car required one hour’s worth of work, the amount of money saved would total staggering £2,227,742,905.
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MOT testers are also twice as likely to pass a car that should have failed (19.3 per cent) than failing a car (eight per cent).
If you get your car serviced before your MOT, you are potentially wasting money MotorEasy founder, Duncan McClure Fisher
This means that if a motorists vehicle fails the tests it is more like to have a genuine fault that needs remedying. MotorEasy founder, Duncan McClure Fisher, said: “If you get your car serviced before your MOT, you are potentially wasting money. "The majority of faults that could be picked up in the service would have been identified as part of the MOT anyway.
GETTY 80 per cent of faults found in service procedures would be flagged in an MOT test
“The problem is that, even if you get faults repaired as a result of the service, you’ll still have to pay for the MOT anyway because that is a legal obligation for all vehicles. "So, when booking the two together, you should always request that the MOT is done first so that there is less work to carry out on the service. “While we know that not every single car will require work at every service or MOT, there’s a good proportion of motorists who are needlessly doubling up on costs. With better planning and organisation of your car’s maintenance schedule, those costs could be avoided.”