Money saving MOT tips – your complete guide | RAC Drive

Any vehicle that is more than three years old is legally required to take an MOT (Ministry of Transport) test every year to check that it is road legal and safe to drive.

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You'll need to take your vehicle to a garage, where a mechanic will carry out the test, which normally takes up to an hour.

If your vehicle passes, you'll receive a certificate with the test date and expiry date (when you’ll need to take the test again). This complete MOT checklist can help you prepare for the test.

There is no grace period with an MOT – once it is expired, you could face prosecution. You could receive a £1,000 fine if you drive your car after its MOT expiry date.

If you can’t find your certificate, then find out when your MOT is due with our free MOT checker. Simply enter your vehicle's registration to check its MOT expiry date and view its test history.

The myRAC app on the Apple App Store and Google Play lets you add reminders to each of your vehicles for important dates like your next MOT.

Check around for the best prices

This may be a simple piece of advice – but don't just accept the quote that the testing garage gives you! Although some of the big car repair chains may offer competitive rates, there are often smaller local garages that could provide the same service for less.

Since they rely on word-of-mouth and need positive feedback from customers more than the household names, smaller garages could give you a better deal and a better service.

Find an approved local garage near you.

Find a council MOT test centre

A potentially cheaper option when looking for an MOT is to try a Council MOT Centre.

Local councils across the UK own thousands of vehicles – all of which need an MOT test certificate to be road legal.

These garages purely focus on MOTs and not any repairs. Most do not perform any work on-site and must then be sent to a garage if any jobs need doing.

Council MOT test centres are also available to the public. They could be an alternative that may end up saving you money because these centres won’t benefit if any repairs are needed.

In principle, it means that the mechanic doing your MOT is likely to be more impartial over what work is needed to pass the test.

If you fail, see if you can retest for free within a certain timeframe

There are many reasons why a vehicle fails its MOT – some serious, and others just an easy fix away.

However, in some cases you can retake your partial MOT for free or a full one at a greatly reduced price. In all other cases, you will need to pay the full fee.

According to the Government: “You only need a partial retest if you leave the vehicle at the test centre for repair and it’s retested within 10 working days. There’s no fee for this.”

You will not have to pay for an MOT again after failing if you take it back to the same test centre before the end of the next working day.

Fixes that this applies to can include:

• Battery
• Bonnet
• Doors (including hinges, catches and pillars)
• Electrical wiring
• Fuel filler cap
• Horn
• Mirrors
• Registration plates
• Seatbelts (but not anchorages)
• Steering wheel
• Tyre pressure monitoring system
• Windscreen glass, wipers, and washers
• Wheels and tyres (excluding motorcycles and motorcycles with sidecar)

If repairs are needed, look online to compare prices

After you've had your MOT test results back, you may find that you need some repairs or replacement parts.

JOINWE contains other products and information you need, so please check it out.

If you now know what the issue is, have a look online to see if you can find cheaper parts (or labour) to get an MOT pass.

In some scenarios, you may find a better deal than what was on the initial quote from the garage.

Don't ignore previous advisories

Every year when you pass your MOT test, you'll get a list of ‘advisories’. These notes are given as warnings for future issues you may face with the vehicle.

Every driver who receives these at the end of their test should not ignore them – they could end up as a serious problem with a much larger bill at the end of it.

Advisories are a healthy reminder that something isn’t right – and leaving them until next year could end up leading to a failed MOT.

Address the problem now and save money in the long term.

Don't ignore dashboard warning lights

Fairly obvious one: but dashboard warning lights tell you that something's not right with your vehicle.

Look into what they mean, and what you need to do as soon as you can, but especially before your MOT is due. 

Check out our full section on car dashboard warning lights which includes manufacturer-specific guidance.

Consider splitting your MOT and service

If you're interested in getting an MOT and a service, then there are a few things to consider before booking.

Sometimes you can get money off by doing both at the same time, however in some situations, by leaving your car a whole year before getting it seen to by a professional can lead to problems developing into a costlier state.

The second option is to get your vehicle looked at midway through the 12 months of your MOT. Although this may be more expensive than combining them – it can catch any maintenance needed before they progress into a big issue.

It’s no secret that after a while, a worn-out engine is likely to burn some oil. But that shouldn’t happen in a well-maintained used car for at least 10 years, if ever.

Consumer Reports, however, has found that there are several models built within the last decade that are known to burn oil at any mileage.

For the most part, manufacturers fixed or discontinued the problem engines in later model years. But there are still a lot of individual vehicles on the road that burn oil.

Some, such as certain BMW vehicles equipped with twin-turbo 4.4-liter V8 engines, were never fixed by the manufacturer. Others, such as certain Chevrolet Terrain and GMC Equinox SUVs with 2.4-liter four-cylinder engines, received extended factory warranties in which oil consumption issues could be corrected.

If you’re looking at a used car that may be affected by this problem, make sure documentation and inspection show that it has been fixed, or that the car is still under the original or an additional factory warranty before you buy it. (Enough time has passed that many of these oil-burners are out of warranty now.)

Roomy and comfortable with a good ride and handling characteristics, the second generation of Acura’s three-row SUV suffered from oil consumption problems for a few years. About 211,000 Acura vehicles equipped with the 3.7-liter V6 engine were subject to a factory warranty extension—eight years and 125,000 miles. (As with all warranties, it’s whichever limit is reached first.) But most of those vehicles are out of warranty by now, so keep in mind that according to CR’s reliability survey, anywhere from 10 to just over 20 percent of MDX owners with 3.7-liter-powered vehicles complained of oil consumption, depending on the model year.

Buying a used Audi—especially one that’s a decade or more old—can be fraught with consequence due to worse-than-average reliability and higher-than-average repair costs. The tendency of the supercharged 3.0-liter engine in sporty S4 models to burn oil is just one more reason to buy something else. Audi issued a technical service bulletin (TSB) related to this problem, and the automaker urges anyone experiencing the problem to contact the dealer. Even the regular A4 had less-than-average reliability during this period. CR’s advice is to steer clear of these vehicles in the used car market.

The BMW 5 Series does many things well. It’s luxurious and comfortable; it’s powerful; and it has taut, sporty handling. The M5 kicks up performance and handling a few notches, making it hard to beat as a family-friendly driver’s car. Unfortunately, the twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V8 that is part of what makes this car so fun to drive is a double-edged sword. In CR’s reliability survey, this engine was the worst oil-burner on the list, generating a higher concentration of complaints from consumers than any other engine. For the model, for example, more than half of CR’s survey respondents reported oil consumption issues—disturbing in a car that cost about $90,000 new. Although complaints became less frequent over the years, BMW was never able to fully fix the problem, and CR’s reliability data shows that oil consumption was an issue in the 4.4-liter V8 as late as .

Contact us to discuss your requirements of Mobile Oil Tester (MOT) Kit. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.