I take my Ford Ka to the same garage (a Ford dealership) for a service and MOT once a year, every year. I cannot be certain, but I'm think they used to do the service first, and then the MOT. The last time or two, they did the MOT first, and then the service.

In 2008, the car passed the MOT without an advisory. In 2009 it failed on something very minor, was put right, and then retested.

Personally, I'm not worried that there is a record of the failed bits on electronic record. But I would have thought that doing the service first (and checking up on areas which might cause an MOT fail during the course of the service) would be better practice.

Always take your car to a MOT place which does not do repairs. You know it makes sence.

Thanks for that, DP. I must ask the Ford garage next time I take my car in why they don't do the service first.

"Always take your car to a MOT place which does not do repairs. You know it makes sense."

In theory, perhaps. But the dealer that services and MOTs my Ford does not seem to pick up much wrong in MOT tests, which indicates that they aren't looking for extra work. In addition, they give me a courtesy car for the day when they do the work, which is absolutely invaluable.

Edited by tyro on 24/03/2010 at 22:21

In 20 years I have never experienced an MoT (or iTV in Spain) failure.  My guess is that seeing a stack of MoT passes would fill me with confidence about a car, whereas a stack of MoT failures still attached would make me wary that the PO (or the garage!) has been less than dilligent.

My last UK car was a C class, and I found that they did the MoT 'whenever they could fit it in' - which 50% of the time meant before the service.

My car was still using the main dealer network at six years of age - and was probably considered an antique by the staff - I'll bet half of the 'technicians' had never seen a car that old before ;)