Nice to have a choice.here in Northern Ireland the vehicle has to go to a test centre.
The fixed fee [at the moment] for a car is £30-50 and £18-50 for a retest.
we also have to display the MOT disc on the windscreen,which is a good idea.It's a pity displaying an insurance disc is not compulsory as well.
We recently had a guy in for an mot repairs quote that had failed at another garage. He was quoted £800 at the other garage. Not sure how much his mot was but I notice they offer a free mot with a service. We found it did not need any repairs, and our testers are pretty thorough. VOSA agreed with us. The other garage got away with a ticking off.
If you are concerned that a garage doing a MOT, is going to 'discover ' work that 'needs ' doing why not use a council MOT station . They have no reason for saying that work needs doing , when it doesn't
bertie wooster i was going to say that because mos are all they do, they dont do repairs, look online to see if one is near you i think they only charge £27.50 as well