So I was finally able to get my E30 project (see blog) to the MOT station last week. Now I am bad enough at the best of times trusting anyone with the keys to a car of mine, even less so when I have spent half of the last year swearing underneath the thing, with three knuckle scars and a pissed off girlfriend to show for it.

However, the original brief was to build a car that was purely for road and track driving pleasure - for as little money as humanly possible. Ok so it went over budget by about, erm, double, but still the opportunity to save £27 on a half price MOT voucher from Autotrader and Nationwide MOT centres was not to be sniffed at and would bring the spreadsheet final figure down a touch (geek alert).

So what do we think of Nationwide Autocentre? Well, good in some respects, one large headache on the other. I booked the test two days in advance at the site that was literally one minute up the road. Ideal I thought, although they were not the friendliest the last time I paid them a visit, it can't be that bad can it?
I normally find that the larger chain outfits such as these are popular with folk who either have a company car (and therefore really don't care as long as they can still get paid whilst drinking 80's themed Klix coffee) or just want piece of mind as they are known, well, nationwide.

First thing to frustrate me was the booked centre to ring three hours before my alloted time and say that they are having work done, can we change it to another day. Great. Must have been anthrax related I suspect, otherwise it is simply impossible to know the day in advance of your entire business being shut for the whole day. No "sorry" by the way.
After trying two other centres in the area, desperately waving my voucher (to myself, I was on the phone) and being impolitely told that they could only do today if I left it with them (even though I said I didn't mind waiting for the whole afternoon) I managed a booking at a Nationwide at least 20 minutes away. I did rather enjoy the stereotypical sucking of the teeth from one employee however.

It was about as far as I would like to drive to a booking really, otherwise I run the risk of having to explain all of the above to a traffic officer who would undoubtedly use the word 'yourself' instead of 'you' and try to tell me that "removing your carpets doesn't turn you into Jason Button you know son."

But I made it with no drama. So do I now trust the larger repair establishments? Yes, but I won't be going back in a hurry.
My first alert was pulling into to the MOT bay. I could have popped a Momo steering wheel and some Minilites in the blubber of a killer whale and one guy wouldn't have looked any more confused. "I don't think he'll even start the test mate, you have no back seat belts."
I have no back seats, you didn't think I was just guessing at the MOT rules did you?

But sure enough, once I had entertained with the party trick of a bonnet that comes off and explained that I fitted in the seat ok without kidney pain the tester himself was very thorough, explaining technicalities of the rules and what a properly anal tester (don't laugh on either count) could in theory fail upon.

So did it fail? Well of course. Headlamp alignment, a slight blow from a loose manifold downpipe nut and the fact that I have a sunstrip which has inappropriate infringement on the sweep of my wiper. Ooh err. I don't like it either, but there are no sunvisors so it is essential (and lighter).

The next day I set off for my pre booked afternoon retest, all 10 minutes of rectification carried out (1 minute if I didn't have to fabricate Blue Peter style headlamp alignment geometry) and driving Westbound like a good boy scout, saluting all the way to hide the sun.

I know the test is thorough and it makes me happy know that no corners are cut when it comes to UK road safety (except it being ok to be blind en route) but a typical trusted local station could/would have just tweaked the alignment there and then in a matter of seconds, I even offered to remove the offending vinyl in situ but no, a retest tomorrow was the only way.

So, in petrol that was four trips of over 20 minutes plus a fair amount of test idling twice. Oh yes, and a new tinted screen top. Nowhere near £27 that, no way.

 If you are feeling brave you can print off a voucher here to use before the end of the July.
Don't say I didn't warn you..
Do email andtell me all about it..