Without wishing to be a doom-monger, I’d never trust an outfit like Halfords or Kwikfit to touch any of my cars. With all due respect to their employees they’re not fully trained and qualified auto technicians. If they were they wouldn’t be working for those companies but other mainstream garages. I recall being told of the scams that one of these ‘instant drive-in’ places used to pull. They’d squirt some oil on a damper, show the sucker (sorry customer) and tell them they needed new dampers all round. You don’t have to use main dealers with their leather sofas, free coffee and inflated hourly rates because there are plenty of genuine, reliable privateers out there who genuinely care about what they do. For example, my family has had a succession of Audi A3s, S3s and TTs that we take to a super specialist 45 minutes’ drive away. And we’ve never been disappointed. Just saying, the first isn’t always the best…
Which is why I did the work myself! 
and really the point of the thread in the first place. I too am not a trained auto technician but have maintained the majority of the families cars and motorcycles for nigh on 50 years! However, some things are best left to the experts, including Mrs B’s A6 Avant, I would not know where to start TBH 
Barrie
You’re right there Barrie most modern cars are far to technical for a lot of us nowadays.
When I needed tyres last year, the cheapest price for what I wanted was kwik-fit. It was a decent saving so I swallowed my prejudice and booked it in.
When I arrived, I cheerfully and politely asked them to set the pressures to 29 PSI, only to be sternly told “We know the correct pressures, Sir”. Slightly narked, I went and sat down.
About 45 mins later (for 2 tyres?!), another customer came in, looking extremely annoyed. Long story short, he had come in to complain that having had his front pads changed, he steadily lost all braking force on the way home until he suffered total brake failure.
The chap was, luckily, very near to his main dealer so he nursed it there for inspection, to apparently be told by the shocked looking technician that the front bleed nipples had both been left open (for a pad change?! They mush have opened them to bodge re-seating the pistons!) and so each application of the brakes was just loosing him more and more fluid!!
The bloke at the KF’s response? To phone Honda to validate the blokes story, only to then say “well we will refund you the fee but I hope you know the mechanic will loose his job and livelihood now…” Some apology.
Another hour later (still for two tyres), my car was ready. Once home, I checked the nut torques and was not entirely stunned to learn they were well over-torqued.
Not using again!!
I would never use Quick Rip for anything ,bunch of cowboys.
Hmmm,
Used Kwik Fit last month at Bath (I’ll name and shame them) for 4 new tyres as at the best fitted price.
I foolishly ticked the free tracking check! 
Of course it needed doing and they wanted £82.
I wasn’t allowed to look and discuss.
I declined and then they get all huffy and aggressive.
Well, go to the Volvo dealer then and it will be a lot more expensive the manager informed me.
Volvo charge £80 for 4 wheel alignment.
Tyre pressures well off too.
Found a really great local independent 4 wheel alignment at £42, really nice people and took the time to show me and do it properly.
Good independent garages every time for me (if I can’t do it myself).
I will never use Kwik Fit again even though the tyres may be cheaper and on a deal.
Well done Barrie on saving the offspring loads of money. (I seem to be doing it a lot as well). 
Morning! Yes, it seems to be a popular thing! 
TBH, if this car can get through a test that will be great, even if a bit more needs to be spent to do that. Still far cheaper than seeking out a replacement car. Should know later today how it fared in the MOT. 
With 3 kids of our own, we share our time and resources as best we can between them to help them along.
Barrie
I’m in the same camp as you Barrie. I’ve been fixing cars for 50 years (where does the time go?) and have collected plenty of tools on the way. Happy to play with the Mazda and don’t want to pay for things like brakes and springs etc and like others on here have saved daughter and son in law plenty. Bit tricky now as they have moved to Canada. Often help various friends with jobs too. For my Audi, I can sympathise. I’ll do the basics, but my A3 started leaking coolant. Couldn’t see anything obvious so I booked it into my local trusted independent garage. One thing I don’t have is a cooling system pressure tester. They rang shortly after starting work to tell me it was a leak from the water pump housing. Really awkward to access, for me at least. Done within the day and I’m sure it would have taken me much longer than the 2 1/2 hours it took them. On collection the first words of the service manager were ‘All done and road tested John, and here’s the faulty seal to show you what caused the problem’. You don’t get that in the shiny Audi showroom and there were no ‘extra’ charges for antifreeze etc.
JS
Wife’s on her fourth Audi now, 2 x A4 avants and 2 A6 avants, all 2.0tdi’s of varying power outputs. The first was a company car in 2014. This was maintained by an independent from new by the leasing company (their choice) that went back when she was made redundant. Bought our own and got Sytner Leeds to work on it. Got the (big) service price down to that of independent but we than had cambelt, waterpump etc and MOT done at same time. Not cheap! Previous A6 got written off recently, before we had to have any service/maintenance done and same with current one at the moment. Not sure what we’ll do when work is due. What i do know though is neither myself, KwikFit or Halfords will be doing it! 
Barrie
So, the big reveal!
The car failed its MOT 
Not too bad though in the end. Most of brake pipes corroded, track rod end, new CV boot (I never got round to attempting to change it myself) so new fluid in, tracking/alignment redone etc, £280 plus cost of MOT so I’m very happy with that! At least all the stuff I did passed muster! 
funny that neither Halfords or KwikFit picked up on the corroded brake pipes or the track rod end? They both said that rear tyres were absolutely fine but they’ve come back as an advisory too! That and an insecure battery (but not likely to move) go figure. Anyway, I’m going to pick it up shortly. Thank you for all contributions on this thread, it makes irrelevant stuff like this, worth posting!
Barrie