Booked an MOT online, they then called to cancel it, said they'd refund my payment but never did. So I rebooked with them for another day, they said they'd use the payment they'd never sent back for this appointment. I had my car checked by a master technician before taking it to Halfords, he told me the only thing wrong was the back brakes. Halfords failed the MOT, citing the brakes (as expected), apparently my oil was also pale, overfilled and full of water, plus leaking heavily. They couldn't test the emissions due to the brake problems, as far as I know, if you can't complete the MOT in full, you can't fail the car, all you can say is it can't be MOT'd at all, but I digress... Was told it would cost £3-500 to fix the back brakes, that they'd need to take the back end of the car apart to find the fault and with it being an old car they probably wouldn't be able to put it back together. They said the cost of the repairs would be more than my car is worth, hinting that I should scrap it. My husband is a mechanic, he called them and suddenly they're saying oh yeah it's an easy fix really, just back brakes and drums etc etc. Whereas to me it seemed a lost cause. I decided to have it towed home and have my husband do the work, once I said this, the woman on the phone became short with me, ringing me up asking for payment, which had already been agreed, and giving me one word answers. When the car came home, the battery was dead, odd for a car that's never once failed to start. The 'pale, watery oil' is black as ink and between min and max on the dipstick, the excessive oil leak is a small drip, nothing like the pooling river it was made out to be. And the parts to repair everything amount to £100. Big price difference there if you do it yourself! The tow guy said they probably saw my car, 19 years old with very low mileage and a solid engine, thought they'd exaggerate the faults so I'd think its too much hassle, then they could have taken it as scrap, MOT'd it and sold it for a profit. I don't know how true this is, but it's definitely suspicious. I'll take it somewhere else for the retest.