Back in 2006 I wrote a rant about my local Kwik-Fit and what appeared to be a bad case of incompetence. Time for a new one.

I needed some new tyres on my very old and knackered Saab, and for once Kwik-Fit had the best price. On picking up the car, I was told that they had inspected my brakes – something I hadn’t asked them to do – and my front pads and discs urgently needed replaced. Note that “urgently”. They told me that the rear discs weren’t looking too clever either.

I don’t trust Kwik-Fit to do anything other than swap tyres, so I went shopping around and found a local mechanic who’d do the brakes for a good price.

He did my car today. He didn’t do the front discs.

“How many miles a year do you do?” he asked me. About 7,000, I replied. “You don’t need new discs this year. Might not even need them next year,” he said. “To be honest, you don’t really need to do the pads yet either.”

So much for “urgently”.