Roadworthy Certificate

interested to know what these great lack of services are?
ive never been a member of RACQ but have been of RAA and RAC
(SA and WA) im now a gold member (years served is transferable)

I dont use the service alot but apart from one incident along the nullarbor ive never had an issue and ive called on them from all manor of places including near Arltunga east of alice and yulara as well
as Kalgoorlie, eyrepenninsula etc

Really?? I was stuck just short of the top of the Donovan Range to the north of Cape Tribulation when my auto gearbox lost some oil. Rang RACQ via satphone and while it took a couple of hours for the recovery vehicle to get to me from Mossman it was excellent service considering he had to get the ferry across the Daintree River and that the road from Cape Tribulation north is pretty ordinary to say the least.......especially for a 10 ton mercedes trayback recovery truck to negotiate. I am an NRMA member but the service delivered by RACQ was nothing short of top shelf IMHO.

I agree Batt's.....for goodness sakes annual roadworthy inspections a compulsory in NSW and not every workshop is a certified inspector. Queensland only has a roadworthy inspection requirement to get rid of a canary (defect notice) or when vehicle changes hands I believe so you would expect to see far fewer certified inspectors up there.

G'day Bantam

There is probably basis for a discussion as to whether a dealer should be able to recognise an unroadworthy vehicle, and if they do, whether they should advise the owner. I reckon most would, and do.

Possibly, folks who drive unroadworthy cars aren't folks who get regular servicing anyway. Wild generalization I know.

And then there's a good red herring in this discussion. The lady who's Golf ran out of power and she was killed by a truck following. Not the sort of thing any roadworthy check would pick up.

Cheers
John

Yes Bantam
Point taken about the issue of guard against breakdowns, Should have read insure for future breakdowns. My point is that both providers of services have at time advertised routine safety checks as a lot of other providers do, yet cannot issue a certificate of roadworthiness. I don't mind paying for the check, and have booked elsewhere. Obviously I expected more than my sorry donkey.

A "safety check" ( what ever that is) is a very different thing to a government mandated safety inspection and issue of safety certificate.

In the past mechanical workshops and indeed dealers provided a complete mechanical service.

These days there is a great deal sub-contracted out....many mechanical workshops and in particular dealers are capable of doing surprisingly little in house.

With what would have been considered fairly mundane things being done by off site contractors or on site by incomming contractors.

In the days when I was a boy ( just starting to drive), the men of the time would have been doing transmission and engine rebuilds in the dealerships....indeed some of the dealers had full panel shops.

These days it would be unusual for a diff, gearbox or engine rebuild to occur in any general machanical workshop, and I doubt that you would find a panel shop in any dealership.

A lot of these dealers would have neither the time, staff nor facilities to do any sort of serious mechanical work......mostly being limited to basic log book service and little else.

Unless that dealer had a large used car business, they are unlikly to have any reason to register an inspection station.

cheers

Again you are right. I served my mechanical indentures 65 to 70 when we did carry out full vehicle rebuilds ie engine, diffs, suspension, transmissions, chassis realign. I can't recall if there were roadworthy certificates in those days but we were responsible for the roadworthiness of the vehicles in our care, with at one time the workshop foreman contacting the police rather than allow a truck to be driven from the yard when the owner refused to have the brakes repaired. I still find it strange that a business that started as a recovery/break down and has moved into insurance, first vehicle then house and now pets has strayed from its original intent.

ken m4...Why house and pet insurance? Corporate greed. Pure and simple. Same as woolies and coles selling alcohol, petrol and opening sushi bars. Telstra getting into the home theater market, Service stations selling sporting goods. etc.etc. Its all about grabbing our money.
Then again I suppose that with many dogs getting skittled by cars each year, they maybe looking after their members.lol

I think you will find that RACQ don't actually run the insurance business under their brand....the brand is rented out to another insurance company.

I am not sure which insurance comany now underwrites and operates the RACQ insurance brand but it was at one time AAMI.

RACQ in a true sence is a club......it is far from unusual for "clubs" to engage in a variety of business activities to finance services for members.

Why do ya think bowls clubs run chook raffles, have pokies and sell beer.

RACQ is the largest club in QLD and I dare say a hell of a lot of their income cones from places other than membership fees.

That is how they can provide a basic and fairly wide ranging roadside breakdown service included in the membership fee for under $90 a year.

serioulsy folks...think about it.

cheers

i disagree bantam - while it is quite a while since I took vehicles in for sceduled services
certainly my family does
and from my recolection and from what they tell me, regular services DO concentrate on basic safety
a good service centre will do basic things like check and comment on or correct things like indicators/ brake/tail lights not working , cracked windscreens, tyres getting low on tread, refill wiper fluid, check the meat left on the brakes. evemn check and adjust tyre pressures
yes sure a cynic will say its all money making, but there are more than plenty of people driving that wouldnt even know where the bonnet catch is let alone what PSI the tyres should be
the only thing they know or care about doing with thier car is filling it with fuel and taking it for scheduled services

Most on here have a very keen intrest in thier vehicle but just because you do doesnt mean others do

I pay $300 a year for their platinum/top level service. Regardless of what I pay..I am sick and tired of seeing organisations break away from their traditional offerings in an effort to get more money and a bigger slice of the market, regardless if there is a small corner store or business nearby. Maybe Toyota can start selling diesel and include this in a warranty stipulation.

I believe in doing one thing as good as you can. Not doing heaps of things in a mediocre fashion.
Pure greed, plain and simple.

There has been a wide variety insurance offered under the RACQ brand for many decades...nothing new here.


SO..what is the problem...businesses widening their range of services or narrowng it.

or is it you just don't like change.

cheers

On the matter of dealers checking safety at the time of scheduled service.

YEH right
look at what is on the dealer service shedule and compare that to the list of things to be checked for a safety certificate inspection.

Just on the matter of brakes alone.
on most cars it is necessary to remove the wheel to properly check disk brake pads for wear, and it is necessary to remove the drum to check brake shoes.
Unless the service shedule indicates a tyre rotation, the dealer WILL NOT be removing the wheels.

Last time the handbrakes RAV was dealer serviced the tyres came back 15psi over inflated.

they would be more concerned about slopping on some tyre black than checking the tread depth or doing a propper tread inspection to check for imbedded objects......they wont be bothering with such things if they can't open the door and look at the tyre plackard for the correct inflation pressure......BTW.....the vehicle is not roadworthy without a tyre plackard....so they should have looked for it even if they where going to ignore what was written on it.

Most dealers will be turning round a minor service (including filling the washer bottle, blacking the tyres and changing the oil and filter) in half the time it would take for even a fast, safety certificate inspection.

AND, most of the time the service will be done by either an apprentice or a "lubrication technician" ( labourer).
The safety certificate has to be done by a fully qualified mechanic that has been acredited to do safety certificate inspections.


If you want a thorough safety inspection from any mechanic you need to specifically ask.

cheers

the roadworthy cert is required for a name change on ownership

Ken, they are called Safety Certificates in Qld............

"Selling or disposing of a vehicle

If you are selling or disposing of your vehicle to another person, you will need to give this person:

the original (blue) copy of the Queensland safety certificate or the original Queensland certificate of inspection that has not expired, or exceeded the 2,000km limit"