In a perfect world, an MOT test takes 60 minutes. But we usually ask customers to leave their car for a couple of hours to get everything done.

This means that there’s more time to get set up and move cars in and out of the test centre. It also means that you shouldn’t be waiting around waiting for us to finish.

Remember that if your car has a ‘dangerous’ fault then we may need to carry out additional repairs before you drive away. How long these repairs take will depend on the type of fault.

Many of our customers leave their car with us in the morning, head off to work and come to pick their car up in the evening. This means we have all day to test the car and gives us enough time to repair most minor faults.

If you don’t work in the city centre, then you’re welcome to wait in the test centre or you could grab a coffee, watch a movie or even throw some axes. Leave your car in our capable hands and we’ll give you a call when it’s ready to pick up.

Get a reminder when your MOT is due

Want a reminder when your MOT test is due? Simply fill in the form at the bottom of the page.

Located in the city centre, Duffy Motors is proud of its location. You will find us in an old railway arch between the Gmex Centre and Beetham Tower, our garage is only a short drive away from major road links like the Mancunian Way, Princess Road and Chester Road.

This convenient location also means that there is a lot to do while you wait for an MOT. If you are coming in over the festive period, make sure you check out some of these things to do.

Camp out at the office

The majority of our customers like to leave their car with us and head to work in the city centre. They drop their car off in the morning, head into work on foot or on public transport, and return later in the afternoon or the evening on their way home. You can leave your car with us all day if you want to. And avoid those expensive city centre car parking fees.

Light rail Metrolink tram in the city center of Manchester, UK. The system has 77 stops along 78.1 km and runs through seven of the ten boroughs

Christmas shopping

Whether you’ve planned well in advance or left it until the last minute, don’t worry. Located just next to Duffy Motors’ garage, is the Great Northern Warehouse which provides a fine array of independent shops to satisfy your friends and family. But it doesn’t stop there. Other great shopping areas are close by, including Spinningfields, King Street and the Manchester Arndale.

 

Christmas markets

The award winning markets are back again this year, winding through the city centre. There are over 300 free and accessible yuletide stalls and chalets for you to enjoy, offering crafted seasonal gifts, from handmade jewellery to bespoke Christmas products. Manchester’s Christmas Markets are famous for traditional bratwurst, but you can also treat yourself to Hungarian goulash, Spanish paella or a good old-fashioned hog roast.

Ice Village

The Ice Village has returned! Immerse yourself in a unique, frosty and festive atmosphere. The Ice Village offers you the opportunity to see these amazing ice creations up close, this years theme being Beasts and Fairytale Delights. Also, enter Manchester’s first ever Ice Tiki Bar, where you will be able to enjoy delicious cocktails such as: The Manc-ini , Manchester SeaFreeze or Sex on the Snow. A selection of Mocktails are available too. All set in a background of tropical sculptures including Easter Island ‘Moai’ ice statues and giant fruits. A free drink will be included on entrance to the bar – plus if you aren’t wrapped up enough, a thermal cape will be provided.

Hurl Some Axes

Not your typical festive activity, but what an experience. Unleash your inner Viking by throwing axes at wooden targets. Whistle Punks is within a stones throw of the garage in the Great Northern Warehouse. We recommend that you book in advance to secure a spot and prices range from £20 – £34.50 per person (18 or over only)

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Afternoon tea

Treat yourself to afternoon tea in Manchester’s most opulent champagne bar and restaurant; Cloud 23. Indulge in a selection of small sandwiches or satisfy your sweet tooth with handmade cakes and tarts, all whilst looking out to a spectacular view of the city.

Located in the Beetham Tower, just next to Duffy Motors there aren’t many other places better to wait whilst your car gets serviced.

Your MOT is your annual road-worthiness test that shows that your car is fit to drive.

But in a recent AA poll, more than two million Brits have been late renewing their MOT by up to a week, while more than a million have forgotten for up to a month.

With around one-third of all cars failing their MOT the first-time round, it’s so important that you stay on top of your car’s servicing.

The AA survey also revealed that around two million British motorists have been made aware that they were driving around with a serious fault after going in for an MOT.

Driving while your car is damaged can lead to more serious problems. And these could end up costing you further down the road.

Duffy Motors is committed to road safety and we want to see our customer’s cars in tip top condition. That’s why we have launched a new reminder service that will send an email or text one month before your car is due its next MOT.

Simply provide a few basic details including your email address, mobile phone number and car registration and we will do the rest.

We know that some larger garages like Kwik Fit and Halfords Autocentres already offer this kind of service, but we wanted to give customers the option of getting a reminder from a smaller, more reliable garage.

Independents are also cheaper than large franchised car fixers.

Duffy Motors has operated as an independent garage in Manchester City Centre for more than 50 years. We are the top-reviewed Manchester garage on the Good Garage Scheme, with 99%+ positive feedback from more than 900 customers.

[contact-form-7 id=”984″ title=”MOT Test Reminder Form”]

Can I drive without an MOT?

If you are caught driving without an MOT you could be liable for a fine of up to £1,000. A police officer may be willing to let you off with a warning, but you shouldn’t bank on it – especially if your car looks old and battered.

Van drivers have it even worse. If your van is deemed ‘unroadworthy’ then you could be fined up to £2,500 and get 3 points on your licence per dangerous problems. A couple of damaged tyres and a broken headlight could cost you your licence and mean that you lose out on work.

The only time you can drive without a valid MOT certificate is if you are on route to a pre-booked MOT. And you will need to have proof of this in case you get stopped en-route to your chosen MOT test centre.

Got a question about your MOT? You’ll find more information on our MOT page, or you can speak to a member of our team. Call: 0161 834 4168.

Modern cars are packed with sensors to make sure your vehicle is behaving as it should.

Even if your vehicle doesn’t have gadgets like heated seats and a Bluetooth-enabled radio, it will still have dashboard warning lights that will tell you if there is a fault with your car.

Unfortunately, not everyone knows what these lights mean. In fact, beyond a few basic indicators like the ‘check oil’ light, I would say that most people don’t know all of the warnings.

From our Manchester city centre garage, we are forever receiving calls from people trying do describe the illuminated symbols on their dashboard.

“There’s a steering wheel with a key underneath it,” they’ll say, or once, memorably, “it’s like a musical note rising out the sea”.

With so much obliviousness around, we thought we would have a bit of fun on our blog and set a short quiz for you to try.

And please, if any of these symbols look a little too familiar because they flash up every morning when you start your car, get it checked out by a professional. It could be an early indicator that something cataclysmic is about to go wrong on the inside of your car.

With low prices at your local independent garage, it may not be as expensive as you think.

Last year, less than half of the candidates that went for a driving theory test managed to pass. But evidence suggests that the test is getting harder. And some experts believe that only one-in-ten current drivers would be able to pass today’s theory test.

Why not see how you measure up with this quiz, which uses real Highway Code sample questions.

In the real driving theory test, candidates need to correctly answer 43 of the 50 questions. In this shortened version a passing score would be 18 out of 21 questions.

Personal contract purchase (PCP) is a popular way of financing a new car, with low monthly payments and the flexibility to keep or ditch the car after a short agreement period (usually two or three years).

But because the arrangement is quite complex, it means car manufacturers can be sneaky and charge their customers more across the lifespan of the finance deal.

One way of extracting extra money from customers is by forcing them to have the car serviced by one of their main dealers.

This is something that PCP buyers may not be aware of when they sign up, because it is often buried deep in the car finance contract.

But getting your car seen to by a franchised dealer is more expensive than using a reliable independent garage. The extra cost can add up to hundreds of pounds across the life of your finance deal.

What is PCP?

PCP deals look complicated at first, but when you break it down there are basically only three things you need to worry about:

  • The deposit – The car finance company will normally make you pay a deposit of about 10% of the car’s headline price.
  • What you borrow – You aren’t buying the car outright, so you don’t need to borrow the full value of the car. With PCP, the finance company estimates what the car will be worth once your two-or-three-year deal has expired and you borrow the difference (minus the deposit).
  • Guaranteed Minimum Future Value – This is the finance company’s future value estimate. You only need to pay this at the end of your PCP deal if you want to keep the car. If you don’t want to keep it, you can hand the car back without paying any more.

For example:

If a car has a ticket price of £20,000, with a deposit of £2,000 and the finance company thinks it will be worth at least £10,000 after three years, you will end up borrowing £8,000.

If you want to pay the Guaranteed Minimum Future Value at the end of the contract, then you can pay a further £10,000 to own the car outright. Otherwise you can hand the car back and walk away without paying anything.

Duffy Motors - MOT & Car Servicing in Central Manchester

Do I have to get a PCP car serviced with the main dealer?

Part of the appeal of PCP car finance is that the finance company guarantees the minimum value of the car in future, so if the value dips more than expected then you can walk away without paying anything.

But the finance company will put some restrictions on how you use the car to try and ensure that their future value prediction is met.

These requirements will often include:

  • You must not exceed the agreed mileage over the term of your contract
  • The car must not require repairs beyond normal wear and tear
  • The car must be serviced by the official dealer network

The finance company sets these restrictions because they want to retain as much of the value of the car as possible.

If you don’t stick to all these restrictions, then (in the finance company’s mind) the car will be worth less. So, they will either not honour the guaranteed future value or they will make you pay a penalty fee.

The service regime is an interesting condition.

We all know that if you don’t keep up with the manufacturer’s service plan then it will be worth less when you come to sell it.

EU competition rules mean that manufacturers cannot cancel a new car’s warranty if the car is serviced correctly by an independent garage, rather than an official dealer. But this consumer rights protection doesn’t exist for PCP finance deals.

So, the finance company can force you to use the main dealer, even though it is likely to be more expensive.

If the only difference between two three-year-old cars is that one has been serviced at an independent garage and one has been serviced with a main dealer, the gap between the real-world value of these cars is going to be very small.

But this doesn’t matter to the finance company. And it could mean that you spend hundreds more than you need to each year on having your car serviced.

How will it affect me?

Before you get a PCP deal, you should make sure you read the contract carefully and see what kinds of restrictions the finance company puts on your guaranteed future value.

If you are confused about anything, make sure you get to the bottom of it with the finance company. For example, you can ask for examples of what would be considered ‘normal wear and tear’ and what would be considered more serious damage.

You should also make sure you know what kind of dealers you can use for servicing and double check whether you can use an independent garage.

Ultimately, if you think that you are going to buy the car for the guaranteed future value after the PCP period, then it doesn’t matter where you get the vehicle serviced.

In this case, you can save yourself a few hundred pounds by getting your vehicle serviced with a local independent garage, which is almost always cheaper than a main dealer or a big chain.

Alternatives to PCP

There are lots of other ways that you can buy your next car, with different benefits and drawbacks. We will talk about a few of them and the restrictions on servicing below.

Hire purchase – With hire purchase, you are essentially borrowing against the cost of a car. You pay a deposit and monthly payments with interest. You don’t own the car until you make the final payment, but you can get the car serviced with whoever you like.

Personal Contract Hire – With this kind of agreement, you are basically leasing the car from a finance company. The car never belongs to you and you need to give it back after the agreement, but the best thing about this is that servicing and maintenance costs are included in the monthly price.

Duffy Motors is an independent garage in Manchester City Centre. To book your next MOT or service, get in touch today. Call: 0161 834 4168.

Anyone lucky enough to be attending Manchester International Festival’s Utopolis event this week may be paying a visit to our city centre garage.

We are pleased to say that Duffy Motors is playing a supporting role in Manchester’s premier city festival, hosting Utopolis participants as they travel across the city centre.

Utopolis is an interactive performance that sees small groups of people exploring some of Manchester’s less well-known buildings and attractions to get a sense of daily life in the city.

Participants examine how communities, society and democracy is built from the ground up and ultimately try to answer questions about how we can build a utopian state.

Our Deansgate garage hosted the first trial run last night and we will continue hosting groups on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week.

Our very own Lee Atkinson was interviewed as part of the performance, with his voice playing out of a loudspeaker when guests come and visit.

He said: “I’m no actor and hearing my voice coming out of the speaker was a bit embarrassing, but we are all pleased to play a part in this great festival and welcome people to our own little garage utopia on Deansgate.”

The smart motorway signs and cameras covering a large section of the M60 and M62 have been fully operational for a little over six months now. And many drivers may be getting used to the variable speed limits and lane closure signs.

But a new law could cost drivers money and points on their licence if it’s ignored.

From Monday 10 June, motorway drivers that ignore the ‘Red X’ lane closed signs on motorways will be slapped with an automatic £100 fine and three points on their licence.

This has always been the law and the penalty has always been the same, but now the home office has ruled that automatic camera can be used to boost enforcement.

The new rule will apply on all smart motorways including sections of the M6 and the stretch between Sale at junction 8 of the M60 and Rochdale at junction 20 on the M62. It will also apply to other smart motorway sections of the M62 and M56 when they are completed over the next few years.

A smart motorway map of the UK.

Replying to a Highways Agency tweet about the change, many drivers appeared to be positive about the change. Many highlighted fairness and safety concerns for emergency services, contractors and other people that may be stranded in lanes.

Are Smart Motorway Cameras Active When the Board Is Blank?

The £208m project covering the M60 and M62 was completed at the end of July last year, but the cameras were only switched on in January after the police finished commissioning work.

Something that has been confusing a lot of motorists is what happens when there are no variable speed signs above the motorway. Some rumours on the internet rumours suggest that the speed cameras are still operational and will flash anyone travelling over the national speed limit (70 MPH).

This is an example of one rumour that has been shared thousands of times by multiple accounts on Facebook. But parts of it at least appear to be false.

First, three points is the standard penalty for speeding. Six points are usually reserved for drivers travelling at speeds far in excess of the speed limit.

Highways England has confirmed that smart motorway cameras ‘are capable’ of enforcing the speed limit even when there’s no speed limit displayed on the boards.

But the agency also said that it is the decision of the local police force whether they pursue prosecutions for these detected offences.

Having spoken to several drivers who regularly use the smart motorway around the M60 and M62, it doesn’t look like the national speed limit is being enforced on this stretch of motorway.

But this could change and the police could easily hit drivers with a £100 fine and three points or a speed awareness course.

When driving on the motorway, we urge everyone to stay below the national speed limit and variable speed limits when in force.

Working from our Manchester City Centre location, we know how frustrating it can be to find cheap, reliable parking that’s close to your final destination.

Some city centre parking firms will cost you well over £10 for the right to leave your car in a multi-storey eyesore. Thankfully though, there are still some places where you can park at a reasonable price.

We have mapped out some of the cheapest locations and included a few details about them below. We want this map to grow over time, so if you know about any other cheap car parks in Manchester, please let us know on Twitter.

And if you ever need to get your car serviced or MOTd, remember that you can leave it in our Manchester garage for the day, free of charge. 

  1. Duffy Motors FREE*

Duffy Motors offers FREE City Centre parking to all customers that bring their cars in for an MOT or service. We have enough space to cater for several clients every day.

Drop your car off, get it serviced or MOT’d, and pick it up when you are finished at work. For more information about our car maintenance services, speak to a member of the team today. Call: 0161 834 4168.

Duffy Motors – 16-17 Watson St, Manchester M3 4LP.

  1. Red Bank £2.50

A hidden gem in Manchester, Red Bank Car Park is tucked away behind the NOMA development and Victoria train station. At £2.50 it’s almost definitely the cheapest car park in Manchester, but some of the online reviews warn about a few unsavoury characters and thefts.

There are a couple of car parks around the corner including Roger Street Car Park, which is about the same price, with friendlier attendants.

Parking Places – Red Bank, Faber Street, Manchester, M4 4HF

  1. Bridgewater Street £6.00

Castlefield is a popular side of town, with the Hilton, Bridgewater Hall and other attractions. But there are a few cheap parking spaces and patchy public transport links. Located next to Castlefield Urban Heritage Park, Bridgewater Street Car Park is a very happy find at just £6.00 for the day.

They also offer secure overnight and weekly parking – but it is cash only and manned by an attendant.

City Centre Parking – 28 Bridgewater St, Manchester M3 4NH

  1. NCP Manchester Palace £6.50

Tickets for the Palace? Maybe you are doing something else around Oxford Road. This secure multi-storey car park occupied an attractive red-brick building in a historic part of town. You can pay £6.50 for 12 hours of parking, but only if you grab an early bird ticket between 6.00 and 9.00AM.

If you are coming for an evening performance, then it might be a little more expensive. And you should watch out for the queues after the curtain has closed.

NCP Car Park Manchester Palace – Palace, Whitworth St, Manchester M1 6NE

  1. Rochdale Road £3.00

Located close to the Manchester Arena and around a ten-minute walk from the Northern Quarter, this is another cheap and cheerful car park on the outer rim of Manchester – just outside the ring road.

Run by Total Car Parks, motorists can pay £3.00 to park all day. The site is quite large as well, so suitable for drivers who work in the city.

Total Car Parks – 87 Rochdale Rd, Manchester M4 4HY

  1. NCP Piccadilly Gardens £6.00

Another early bird ticket, this time at the centrally located NCP Piccadilly Gardens, near the train station. Just like at the Palace, if you get to this large city centre car park before 6.00 and 9.00 in the morning, you can park for 12 hours for £6.00. Not a bad deal for the location.

And because it is a smart building run by a reputable company, you can be fairly sure that your car won’t be left on a pile of bricks.

NCP Car Park Piccadilly Gardens – Piccadilly, Chatham St, Manchester M1 3AY

Cheapest on-street parking in Manchester

It’s often easier to park on the street rather than in a car park. Manchester has a lot of on-street parking spaces, but it helps if you know where the cheapest areas are.

Motorists can park for up to two hours in zones one and two on the below map. But did you know that you can save 20 pence on a two-hour parking ticket if you find a spot in zone two compared to zone one?

Zones three and four are cheaper still. Two hours parking in zone three or four will set you back £2.50, less than half as much as the £6.00 it costs in zone one.

The max parking time in zone three is three hours while in zone four it is ten hours.

Map from Manchester City Council.

There’s a curse on Greater Manchester’s streets.

Roads in and out of England’s second city are pockmarked with more than 5,600 potholes, new research suggests.

The increase in potholes represents a serious risk of personal injury and car damage.

Using data from fixmystreet.com, the research shows that the total number of potholes across Greater Manchester increased by 6% in the nine months to January 2019.

The worst affected area was Manchester city centre, which saw a 90% increase from 931 to 1,771. Central Manchester was followed by Trafford (683), Bury (681) and Stockport (643).

In order to tackle the pothole problem nationwide, the Department for Transport this month announced proposals that would require utility companies that dig up roads to guarantee the road for five years.

In his Budget speech last year, Chancellor Philip Hammond promised an extra £420m to English councils to deal with potholes and damaged roads.

But the Asphalt Industry Alliance trade association estimates that it would cost £9.3bn to repair all existing potholes on British roads.

Pricey pothole repairs

Potholes can do some serious damage to cars. And pothole damage can be expensive to fix.

Last year, the Beast from the East caused widespread damage to roads. The AA claims that this ‘pothole epidemic’ cost drivers and insurers more than £1m per month in the first four months of 2018.

Hitting a pothole can cause serious problems for your car, including:

  • Buckled wheels
  • Cracked alloys
  • Popped tyres
  • Tyre lumps
  • Imbalances in tracking and wheel balancing
  • Suspension problems

If you hit a large pothole, or think that a pothole has done damage to your car, you should pull over straight away.

Serious pothole damage could make your car unsafe to drive. And checking damage straight away might make it easier to claim for the damage later.

Some damage may not be obvious, but you should watch out for small changes to driving and handling, such as unusual vibrations or tracking issues.

Claiming for pothole damage

If your car has been damaged by a pothole, you may be able to claim for the cost of the repair from the council.

To claim money back from the council, the offending pothole must be on a local road (i.e. not on a main road, main roads are maintained by the Highways Agency) and the council must have been informed about the pothole.

You can report potholes directly with the council, or by using a third-party website like fixmystreet.com.

Before you make a claim, you need to collect some evidence. If you have dashcam footage of the incident, great, this will be very useful.

You can also make notes about the pothole, photograph it and get the contact details of anyone who saw the incident.

To make a successful claim, a pothole needs to be at least 40mm deep. That’s the equivalent of two 20p pieces.

Get your car repaired by a trustworthy garage and make sure you keep all the invoices and quotes.

If you bring your car to Duffy Motors, we will gladly make detailed notes on the damage and do all we can to help support your claim with the council. Speak to a member of the team for more information. Call: 0161 834 0168

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