Running a vehicle these days can often seem a persistent drain on your cash and resources, with annual road tax to pay, the ever rising cost of insurance, fuel and repairs to make due to the poor condition of many roads, its a wonder any of the working class can afford to run a car at all.

Whilst having a car is a necessity to many families and individuals and for some people it is actually the only way that they can get to and from work and sustain their job or business, this is not made easy due to the fact that every car on the road that is over 3 years old must pass an MOT inspection and test to be legally driven on a public road, and the test could conclude that even more parts need replacing or repairing. However how does one find a reputable, honest garage that you can trust not to exaggerate your vehicles faults in an effort to instruct you to have them make unnecessary repairs.

It is very unfortunate that the UK car servicing, repair, MOT and maintenance industry is in fact prone to a number of dishonest business people, or cowboys that do not actually operate in the best interests of their patrons, it's appalling but some garages will provide a very poor standard of services and repairs whilst others will add unnecessary extras to the work for no other motive than to boost their own profits. It's also not uncommon for some garages to give you a quotation for the work only for you to find that you are presented with a much bigger bill at the end when it comes to paying for the work and finding that your vehicle is being held for ransom until you pay . When getting a quotation for any type of work on your car or van it is always wise to be sure that the quotation you are given is just what you will be expected to pay and that there are no hidden fees or charges in the small print.

Its always advisable to do some research

The word that certain garages or service centres are providing a poor service or are overcharging usually travels rather rapidly so with just a little online or word of mouth investigation, you should be able to find out which garages you should consider, and which you should avoid at all costs.

A quick search online should be able to give you some idea about what you can expect from a garage so it is worth spending just a few minutes online to do a little research first. The best thing to do is to search for the service you require, and with vehicle repairs, MOT's, servicing etc, you'll need a local garage, so do a local search, if your wanting an MOT searching 'MOT' won't usually find you a local garage, if your from Manchester for example search 'MOT Manchester ', if your vehicle is a Minibus you'll need to search for class 7 MOT Manchester or class 5 MOT if you have a heavy goods vehicle. if your vehicle is needing repairs search 'Car Repairs Manchester' etc. Once you get a list of local garages note their trading names and then do a new search for the trading name, what your looking for are forums or review websites that can give you an insight to their reputation.

Once you have found a reputable garage, you should have nothing to be concerned about until your next MOT or service is due. Having to get your vehicle checked and maintained or repaired to be considered roadworthy and legal is something that cannot be overlooked, but at least you can help to reduce the cost to you and ensure that the money you spend is money well spent.