M.O.T Advice

After 45+ years of caravanning and now on my own I decided to buy a 2017 Auto Sleeper Symbol about 9 months ago and have been extremely grateful for the help and assistance offered by members of this group.  After a few warranty issues, which were sorted, I set out to book it in for it's third ( 6year) service and M.O.T., at a local dealers, and discovered some of the trials and tribulations of owning a campervan.  My Symbol is actually based on the Fiat Ducato chassis as it has a Comfortmatic gearbox.

I have been given a quote for the work which is quite high as Fiat recommend brake fluid replacement and service kit, which contains cam belt and water pump, every 6 years or 120,000 miles which ever comes sooner.  In fact the quote is split into 2 with genuine Fiat parts for the service kit compared with non genuine parts and a significant saving.  Has anybody got any information about using non genuine parts for service kits, good or bad ?

My Symbol has a maximum weight of 3,300kgs and has been booked in for a class 4 M.O.T.  I assumed that class 4 was for vehicles up to 3,000 Kgs and vehicles from 3,000 Kgs to 3,500Kgs were class 7.  Am I missing something ?  Bill

Can't help with the parts issue but our van (3300 kgs) is a class 7 for MOT purposes.

Motor Caravans , as long as that's what's on your V5 is Class 4

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Are you using a local Fiat dealer or Motorhome dealer for your service as you may find a local vat registered  garage will be cheaper,

Paulmold wrote:Motor Caravans , as long as that's what's on your V5 is Class 4

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Interesting, I had a bit of a hassle when we had our last mot done at a main Peugeot dealership. They insisted that they couldn't do the test as they had no facilities for a class 7 vehicle   They did the service but sent the van elsewhere for the mot.

When our van was newer and we used a Peugeot dealer for service etc, they had to send the van out for the MOT to another local commercial garage, which handled a lot of Class 7 vehicles, simply because they (the dealer) didn't have a lift ramp capable of taking the height of the Pollensa. It was still always done as a Class 4 MOT though.

Our commercial Merc garage, if the van is in for a service and MOT, take it to an independent garage a couple of hundred yards away for the test.

Naturally if the Merc garage deals with the MOT then I get charged full price rather than the price I am charged if I take it to the independent garage myself - the few pounds difference is worth it as it saves messing about with two appointments and hanging about. I had considered having the independent garage doing the lot but the service cost at Merc was not much different.