A.A. tests

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32665, 22 July 1971, Page 14

A.A. tests

Sir, —The unreliability of A.A. reports was demonstrated to me recently and I feel both the public and the dealers should be warned of the pitfalls. A colleague of mine submitted a popular family car for an A.A. test, but the tester found many faults, minor and major, which led him to believe the car was in poor condition. The following day the same vehicle was resubmitted by another prospective buyer and received a good report at the hands of a different tester, with only a few minor points which were then rectified by the seller at no extra cost. The second man naturally bought the car. Perhaps a more reliable method should be adopted to ensure a more uniform report: e.g., two independent tests, finally summarised by the chief vehicle tester.—Yours, etc., DISENCHANTED. July 16, 1971. [Mr E. S. Palliser, general manager of the Automobile Association (Canterbury) replies: “If ‘Disenchanted’ would care to drop his cloak of anonymity and place his specific complaint before me, I shall have it investigated immediately. All motor vehicle inspections for A.A. members, either on their own cars or on cars which they are contemplating purchasing, are undertaken by highly competent A grade mechanics. The tests are as standard in form as it is humanly possible to make them and are closely supervised by the chief technical officer and his deputy. A not inconsiderable proportion of the nearly 7000 new members who have enrolled with our Association in the first' 11] months of our current financial year have joined in the first place to obtain the benefit of a competent and im-: partial inspection. Such has been the demand for our technical services that the staff of the department has increased from one to eight since we entered our new headquarters building in 1961 and contemplated future demands can be met only by the construction of a new technical services centre at Sydenham, working drawings and planning of which are currently in the hands of our architects. Such developments would tend to indicate that the motoring public at large do not share ‘Disenchanted’s’ view that A.A. motor vehicle inspection reports are ‘unreliable’.’’]