My own, one and only experience with that particular fast fit establishment was a salutory one.

I had a Mk2 Ford Escort estate at the time, second car after passing my test, and was in the process of helping my sister in law clear her deceased father's house.

He'd been employed in heavy engineering for decades, and in his shed had amassed a huge collection of nuts, bolts, brackets and other hardware, much of it in Imperial sizes. She told me to take anything I fancied and the rest I took to the scrapyard in a box in the back of my Escort.

On the way, a rear leaf spring snapped with an audible bang. Off I went to K and F, and the young chap there put my car on the lift, raised it, took a look at the spring, which had snapped clean and was bent upwards, and said "Can't see anything wrong with that".

Anyhow, Daft 'aporth here, fully aware that the chap was talking cobblers but not taking that as a warning that I ought to go elsewhere, left my car in their tender care, and lo and behold, they did their usual thing. A phone call later that day, telling me that the car needed a full set of shocks, springs, brakes back and front, the flaming lot. There was nobody I could call on at the time to advise me otherwise, I wanted the car back on the road soon as, so it never occured to me to get a second opinion.

This was back in about 1980, and cost me around 400 nicker even then.

Never been near the place since.

I must correct that date in my post above.

It was 1990, not 1980, otherwise I'd have been driving an almost brand new Escort Mk2 estate, which a) SURELY wouldn't have given up a spring so easily? and b) would have been way beyond my pocket at the time.

It's quite a handy tool because you can avoid vehicles that have spent too much time in Scotland and the North, where excess salt is used.

I was looking (not to purchase, just out of interest) at a Landcruiser like mine, low mileage 70k and underpriced by about £4k, an underpriced LC has something wrong with it thats a given, but trader's description was rosy, arn't they always, so MOT history perusal here we come.

History showed several MOT's with barely legal tyres and various warnings of worn brake pads so a neglected car, but more worrying several warnings of corroded brake pipes and other corrosion probs far too early in life, first rust warning at 36k miles at first MOT, sure enough first few MOT's were in Sotland, subesequent MOT's from further south but the damage is done now, anyone looking underneath is going to see some nasty sights.

Edited by gordonbennet on 01/10/2017 at 21:26

Same here...no test location.

Yes indeed-complelely disapeared. Somone in the public sector alarmed about "something".?