Glad that you seem to be up and running, one comment amused,"Apart from one of my testers smart card not working correctly, all seems to be well." This is a major problem that my local station is suffering and whenever they get onto VOSA via the helpline another fault is introduced !
As to the price of the MOT becoming uniform , I doubt that will ever happen, picture two MOT stations in the same locality, surely one or the other would try to undercut to get the business?, or am I being naive?
My personal opinion is that the UK should be like Ireland where all the MOT stations are government run, private garages do not do MOT's over there, so at least that ought to result in some sort of continuity,like the LGV side here,one thing I do know is that us third party MOT presenters are facing a real headache due to the time increase in the new version of the test, I fully appreciate the view that this will weed out the "poor stations" but i don't think it will, they will find ways round the system and the most obvious is to issue a pass when the vehicle should have had a fail and then do the work on premise later ! I am now looking for a fourth MOT station , I already use three, but with my MOT throughput 3 stations would not be enough taking into account time required for the re-test issue. On the re-test issue,what happens if your next available slot is two weeks away, that means an unroadworthy vehicle if privately presented could be in a dangerous condition and may remain so for some considerable time due to Joe Punter not bothering to get re-tested?, I would certainly baulk at paying the full test fee as has been advocated as I think trade work brings a lot of work to a lot of outlets that they would not normally see anyway, I really do hope that all this forced, rushed, unproven system eventually works but I have to say I doubt it, it smacks of big brother, hope I hav'nt offended, my views only,