Maybe it’s because I go to the local garage, where everybody knows the mechanics, but I’ve never felt taken advantage of. As above, the price for the pre-check, cleaning, and time taking the car to the inspection is quite reasonable. Plus, the owner sends me an Autobahn vignette in his Christmas card every year. There are a few advantages to living in a small village.
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My car failed a year and a half ago for two reasons:
- engine bay not clean enough
- stone chip (which according to the insurance company was too small and outside of the driver view to require a change of windscreen… )
The process is pretty straight forward. If the car fails, depending on what, they will refuse to let you drive it home (they keep the grey card). In my case I was forced to call TCS to bring the car to the nearest carglass type place (then argue with the insurance company).
Yeah, we have a small stone chip on the passenger side which I did point out to the garage as I wondered if it might require changing the windscreen, part of the reason for getting the car checked out early in case that needed to be done. Just 
that they don’t fail it because of that.
AFAIK that is usually a reason to fail. Get carglass to fix it (if it’s small it won’t need a new screen). Probably covered by your insurance as well, most people have glass insurance included.
Get it fixed.
In theory, the letter of the law states that if it’s not in the driver’s line of vision (there’s a measurement of this), and under a certain size - then they can fix it with a vacuum pump and some epoxy. If not, it needs a new windscreen.
I can tell you that the center in Aargau was adamant that they would not accept an epoxy fix - but weren’t able to tell me why. I ended up getting this in writing, and my insurance company (eventually) accepted it to pay the replacement of the windscreen.
Apart from the MFK it should be fixed anyway. Otherwise come winter and a cold day (remember those?), you will put your heater on and that little chip may well suddenly become a huge crack the full length of the windscreen.
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How long does the test usually take? I’m guessing about half an hour or so.
Not even as long as that, around 15 minutes in my experience.
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Sounds a bit rushed, but if that’s the case …
I watched them do my last MFK… the tests are not rushed, but boy the testers work fast! In Zurich the centre is set up like a production line; you leave your car at the start and it progresses through station to station on all the test machines until finished. All the tools and equipment laid out ready, no waiting. Swiss efficiency in action.
In the UK it takes them 15 mins to get your car on and off the lift. In Zurich the tester is in a pit underneath and the car just drives overhead.
Kind regards, Ian
It’s not rushed it’s just very efficient.
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In Luzern you have to do half the work - you drive it over the pit yourself and do the brakes, steering wheel wiggle etc yourself.
wow that’s very surprising to read, i had an impression at my MFK they just drove for 10 minutes and may be looked somewhere, but overall i thought it was just a formality check as long as a car drives and breaks, but after reading to what extent you worried about details…very surprising. I do have though that book where an official maker garage stamps all services, so probably was good enough for them.
Never seen a tester get a car to drive overhead while in the pit. Must be a new method!
It was always driven over a pit by myself in ZH, asked to hold steering wheel, then invited into pit to look underneath the car, then move to brake & suspension test followed by headlights on a wall, then quick spin round a circuit to check speedometer & onto a hill to check handbrake. Then it’s over!
It was always like that in Zh, during Covid they changed the procedure, you hand the car over and they take it through that process and hand it back to you afterwards, not sure which procedure they use at present
That’s how it is in Neuchatel now, I suppose it changed due to Covid.
You used to have to drive it through parts of it yourself.
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Total opposite in Aargau. Test is run like a Swiss clock. First it goes on a lift, while one guy sits inside the car. Both have a clipboard, and they do some checks.
Total check time was 20-30 minutes or so, and was much more thorough than a UK MOT.
TBH I think it’s almost identical to the UK or France, other than not having a dirty car. The first time I took a car I was worried as I had heard horror stories, however it was quite easy to get a Ford Sierra with 180,000km through in Zurich.
Having owned >20 cars in the UK, and having gotten all sorts of stuff through the MOT, I would strongly disagree!
Give you some examples:
- in the UK, having mud on a brake line means that they cannot remove it, and thus not check the brake line for corrosion. This is (was?) a “pass” as not being able to check it is a pass
- I got a W202 past, literally without 2x doors (front and rear passenger) as I was waiting for doors from a breaker
- A mini had “structural paint” (the floor was so rusty if you kicked it, you would see the road), this eventually failed after a few years when the paint collapsed and there was a 4-5 inch hole i the passenger foot-well
- a mitsubishi shogun, which I took to the devils pit. It had mud/clay almost a cm thick all over the outside and inside. The wheels were smaller, and the tires MUCH bigger. MOT tester commented that I needed to be careful as the speedo would mis-read. Second year, same car, had the interior stripped (so bare metal doors on the inside) and still passed
- The ford probe I eventually drove to / moved to CH with had a minor leak on the water pump - that was a pass for 3-4 years, I just had to top up the water every few days…
Here, they will check that the wheel/tire sizes are within the specification of the manufacturer. If not, it’s a fail.
Oil on the shocks? Fail
Dirt encrusted on your brake lines? Fail
Dirty engine? Fail
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