Scottish Elises

My friend with with a VX220 is struggling to get his car MOT'd at the moment, he tried kwik fit and they didn't want to do it for various stupid reasons, one being the tester said he couldn't get into the car.. he's also tried HQ garage in dalgety bay who had the car all day and are now saying their computer is broken so they cant test the car.

Are there any competent testers in the area people can recommend?

If he's in Dunfermline he'd be as well crossing the bridge and taking it in to https://www.craigmoncrieff.com/

Dan22h wrote: ↑

Fri May 17, 2019 5:06 pm

one being the tester said he couldn't get into the car..

“Computers broken” is an old one

Another vote here for CMC.

Or won’t his normal servicing place just arrange for him??

Falkland Performance centre in Glenrothes are used to dealing with Elise variants.

Has the Exige in there for MOT the past two years.

Generic chains like Kwik-fit have to be the worst place to take a specialist car like a Lotus.

Dan22h wrote: ↑

Fri May 17, 2019 5:06 pm

one being the tester said he couldn't get into the car..

Thats brillaint, what an excuse........

My wife has just put mine in for MOT on Wednesday (I work off shore), passed with a clean bill of health and on the way home some clown jumped lane on the round about and hit her Luckily a truck driver stopped to check the missis was ok and we have him as a witness.

There is no body damage apparently as the wheel of the 4x4 hit the drivers back wheel of the Elsie. Wheels had just been refurbished. Getting booked in to Craig Moncrieff to have it all checked out for any damage that might have happened to the suspension and a geometry set up again.

Very narrow escape then. Fingers crossed.

campbell wrote: ↑

Sat May 18, 2019 1:38 pm

Very narrow escape then. Fingers crossed.

Yes, fingers crossed indeed.

The missis did drive the car home and says it seemed fine but its worth getting checked out, its a new wheel at least (going by the pic she sent) and a geometry set up if I am lucky.

Stevoraith wrote: ↑

Sat May 18, 2019 8:34 am

Generic chains like Kwik-fit have to be the worst place to take a specialist car like a Lotus.

I'd say this applies to any car. I'm fortunate to have a guy I've been using for MOTs for around 28yrs but he's a good honest guy who just happens to be one of the most reputable Alfa Romeo specialists in Scotland, so always has a few interesting motors in for work

Go with a trusted local garage and you'll be fine

There’s two MOT places that I use locally:
Smeaton Coachworks in Kirkcaldy, Tom Wilson, his Dad before him, and, now his son have been MOT’ing my motors for years. Fair, no bullsh%t and copes with the Elise.
ALM, Andrew Lamont Motorsport in Kelty did my Caravelle and has a new MOT lane. Tester seemed pretty switched on and fair.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Seem to remember years ago Falklands Performance Centre was known as an Elise friendly MOT site it Fife. Never used them myself.


(just noticed Stevoraith post )

Halfords in Stirling have done my Vx220 for the last 4 or 5 years with no issues. Book online and they do weekends.

Scottish Scrutineer wrote: ↑

Sun May 26, 2019 8:33 pm

There’s two MOT places that I use locally:
Smeaton Coachworks in Kirkcaldy, Tom Wilson, his Dad before him, and, now his son have been MOT’ing my motors for years. Fair, no bullsh%t and copes with the Elise.
ALM, Andrew Lamont Motorsport in Kelty did my Caravelle and has a new MOT lane. Tester seemed pretty switched on and fair.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I’ve used Smeaton Coachworks in Kirkcaldy for getting on for 20 years as well. Tom is my mates uncle.

I wouldn’t exactly say they are Elise specialists but they’ve MOT’d my VX220 and brothers Elise and Exige with no issues.
The only thing is you may be asked to put it on the ramp yourself because “I’m no doing my back in getting in that bloody thing!”
They’re not cheap but 100% will not rip you off or do any unnecessary work.

My mother-in-law recently bought a banger Suzuki Alto to use as a dog car. Bought it from my sister-in-law so knew it was in need of some work.

For some reason she took it to Suzuki main dealer who quoted £1500 for a new clutch, 4 new brake lines and various other things.
I told her to take it to Tom and he stripped and cleaned the sticky release bearing on the clutch, cleaned up the brake-lines and charged her £80! So the car gets a stay of execution from the scrappy!