A promotion in which Halfords Autocentres marketed MoT tests as "now only £29.95 RRP £54.85" has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority.
The ASA considered that consumers would understand from the claim "MoTs now only £29.95 RRP £54.85" that £54.85 was the price at which it was recommended that MOTs were sold and that Halfords sold their own MOTs at a considerably lower price.
However it pointed out that although VOSA set the £54.85 maximum charge for car MoTs, that price was not the RRP and VOSA made no recommendations about the price at which tests should be sold.
Halfords said the £54.85 price was the price at which non-promotional MoTs had been sold at their 290 garages, but the ASA noted evidence was not supplied to demonstrate that this was the case.
Halfords claims did not support the argument that the £54.85 price was the price at which MoTs were generally available in the UK.
The ASA added: "Although we understood many garages decided to sell at the top VOSA price, we considered that this did not itself demonstrate that this price was an RRP or that this was the price at which MoTs were generally available.
"We considered that it was inaccurate and misleading to refer to the VOSA price as an RRP and therefore concluded that the ad was misleading."
As editor, Tim is responsible for the media content, planning and production of AM's multiple channels (AM print and digital magazines, website, social media and contributing to our events planning). He interviews and writes about as many franchised dealer groups and UK divisions of motor manufacturers as possible, to explore the issues facing UK motor retail and understand what solutions dealers and suppliers are using to overcome these.
JS - 12/12/2013 15:33
Much of Halfords advertising is dubious, usually suggesting to potential customers that Halfords offering is more attractive than franchised dealers. Generally, this compares apples with pears - is at worst wrong, at best unproven and never substantiated. Bluntly, these guys have form !!