A London booking company, not a national workshop chain
ClickMechanic Ltd is registered in England and Wales under company number 08297894, with a listed office at 86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE. Andrew Jervis and Felix Kenton built the platform in 2012 after Jervis’s research at the University of Manchester on why drivers distrust quotes. Independent mobile mechanics and local garages accept jobs; ClickMechanic calculates a suggested price, takes the booking, and collects payment on the mechanic’s behalf through Adyen. You are not hiring a ClickMechanic employee. You are hiring whoever accepts the diary slot. The company’s terms say the repair, parts, diagnosis, and inspection are the mechanic’s responsibility, not the platform’s.
The site is aimed at UK car and van owners who want an upfront figure without ringing three high-street bays. Coverage is described as nationwide, including most rural postcodes, with bookings offered seven days a week between 8am and 8pm. Customer service on 020 3322 9988 is listed Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. If the clutch is fitted badly, the warranty claim is against the mechanic who fitted it. Read the Auto Service Terms before you treat a quote as a manufacturer promise.
How a quote becomes a van on your driveway
You enter the vehicle registration, the postcode where the car will sit, and the job. The quoting engine uses industry labour times and parts data, then shows a price before you commit. If you proceed, you add contact details, availability windows, and a card. ClickMechanic describes the hold as similar to a hotel reservation: the amount is typically reserved about 24 hours before the visit, and the mechanic invoices through the app only after you agree the work is done. You can ask for a mobile mechanic, for garage collection and return if the car is drivable, or for a self-drop. Keys can be left with a neighbour if you will not be present.
The booking is offered to vetted independents nearby. Acceptance depends on diary space and whether parts can be sourced in time. The company asks for about a day’s notice; same-day or next-day slots exist when the network is free. You should get an email naming the mechanic, plus a call before arrival. On the day they confirm the booked work, do it on site or take the car to a workshop, then talk through the invoice. Extra work is not a silent add-on. If the diagnosis differs, the mechanic can charge a diagnostic inspection for the visit and send a separate quote for the correct repair. You approve that quote, or you do not.
- Type the registration and postcode, then pick the job: repair, service, MOT, diagnostics, tyres, or a pre-purchase inspection
- Compare the instant quote with a dealer figure for the same labour description, not with a forum guess
- Choose mobile attendance, garage collection and delivery, or self-drop while the car is still drivable
- Keep the 24-hour cancellation window in mind; late changes can cost £20, or £40 once the mechanic is travelling
- Approve any extra work through the platform before parts are ordered for a second job
- Keep the emailed invoice; warranty claims later will need the booking record and mileage
Driveway jobs versus ramp jobs
The catalogue is broad: brake pads and discs, clutch replacement, cambelt change, alternator, air-conditioning regas, engine oil change, interim, full and major servicing, tyre fitting, diagnostics, MOT with collection, and used-car pre-purchase inspections. For most of those, the platform offers the job to both mobile mechanics and independent garages. Work that cannot be finished at the roadside is steered to a garage. If the car is not drivable, the routing goes the other way, toward a mobile mechanic. Collection and delivery is usually inside the quote for repairs, diagnostics, and servicing with MOT, provided the car can be driven. If it cannot, some garages may quote a recovery fee; you can refuse that extra cost.
A franchise garage still has tools the marketplace does not copy: a dealer ramp, manufacturer scan software, and a parts desk that can talk to the brand’s warranty team. That matters for a software update, a campaign, or a fault that only shows on an OEM laptop. A ClickMechanic cambelt or clutch is ordinary mechanical work with new parts the mechanic supplies. An MOT is a legal test at an authorised station. The site lists an MOT at £19 when bundled with an interim, full, or major service including collection, or £98 alone with collection. Service prices move with make, model, location, and parts; your registration quote is the number that matters.
Enter your registration and postcode, then compare the fixed-looking figure with a dealer invoice for the same job before you hold a card.
Get a ClickMechanic quote →Parts, extras, and the 12-month / 12,000-mile warranty
Mechanics on the network must supply new parts that match the vehicle. There is no labour-only booking with your own pads or a used gearbox, because the mechanic has to warrant materials as well as workmanship. The Auto Service Warranty Requirements ask every mechanic to cover defects in parts and labour for 12 months or 12,000 miles, whichever comes first, on booked services other than inspections and diagnostics. Those two are snapshots of the car that day. Customer-supplied parts sit outside the required warranty. Abnormal use, skipped manufacturer servicing, and claims where the mechanic is not allowed to inspect the fault can weaken a claim. Individual mechanics may add their own process.
The quote is sold as fixed, yet the booking policies also treat quotations as estimates if the car is not in the assumed condition. A seized bolt or a second leaking pipe can change the bill. Extra work needs your acceptance. Cancel after work has started and you can be charged labour already done, parts already fitted, and labour to put the car back, subject to a minimum of 0.9 hours at a rate the policies currently put between £34.44 and £75.30. Cancel or reschedule with at least 24 hours’ notice and there is no fee. Inside 24 hours, a late fee of up to £20 can apply; once the mechanic is travelling, that can rise to £40. Use the resolution centre rather than a text message.
ClickMechanic is useful when the job is a known mechanical task and you want a price before anyone opens the bonnet. It is the wrong tool for a dealer campaign, a software flash, or a warranty stamp only the brand’s network can issue.
— Sophie Winters
Recalls, software, and jobs that still belong at a dealer
Safety recalls and manufacturer service campaigns are not marketplace jobs. In the UK the producer, through its dealer network, handles recall repairs, usually at no charge. An independent mechanic cannot close a recall in the brand’s system or update the manufacturer record the way a franchised dealer can. If a recall is outstanding, book the dealer first, even if a ClickMechanic clutch quote looks cheaper. The same logic applies to bulletins that need OEM diagnostic software, control-module coding, or a gateway password some independents still cannot access.
Hybrid high-voltage work, airbag modules, and some dual-clutch jobs sit in a “check credentials” bucket. Vetting is not a manufacturer EV qualification. Ask, before the van arrives, whether the person has isolation training and the right scan tool. Pre-purchase inspections are a separate product: a basic check from about £79 (86 points), a standard from about £95 (136 points), and a premium from about £137 (185 points, car raised, plug-in diagnostic, photos, follow-up call). Those starting figures were published against AA and RAC bands as of February 2024. They are not a structural engineer’s report, and write-offs in categories A, B, S, or N are refused.
Who should book, and who should skip the marketplace
Book here if you have a conventional petrol or diesel car, a known job such as pads, a clutch, a service, or tyres, and you want the work done at home or with collection. It suits people who cannot sit in a waiting room, households with one car, and buyers who want a used-car inspection at the seller’s kerb. It also suits owners tired of open-ended “we’ll know more on the ramp” estimates, provided they accept that extra work still needs a second approval. Rural drivers are not automatically excluded; coverage is described as nationwide, though mechanic density still decides how fast a slot appears.
Skip it if a recall or software campaign is open, or if you are determined to supply your own parts. Skip a motorway hard-shoulder rescue; this is a booked service, not the AA. Skip labour-only jobs on a used engine you found online. Skip a Category S or N write-off you hoped to have “checked over”; those inspections are refused. A trusted independent you already know can still beat a marketplace on continuity. A main dealer remains the rational desk for campaigns, coding, and goodwill claims.
- Dealer or franchise: recalls, software updates, warranty goodwill, brand-specific coding
- ClickMechanic: pads, discs, clutches, cambelts, services, tyres, MOT collection on a drivable car
- Specialist independent: dual-clutch mechatronics, classics, high-voltage EV repairs with documented training
- Recovery club: roadside breakdown, not a booked ClickMechanic slot
- You: whether a cheaper quote is worth losing dealer-stamped history on a nearly new car
FAQ: quotes, MOTs, diagnostics, and cancellations
Is the price on screen actually fixed?
It is fixed for the job you selected, on a car assumed to be in normal condition, with the mechanic supplying new matching parts. The booking policies still allow extra charges when seized hardware, corrosion, or a different fault appears, and they describe quotes as estimates in those cases. Extra work needs your approval. If the mechanic finds that the booked repair is the wrong diagnosis, you may pay for a diagnostic inspection instead of the original job and receive a new quote. Compare that process with a franchise garage, which often works the same way, only with less visibility before the car is booked in. Read the invoice line by line before you tap to pay.
Can I use ClickMechanic for an MOT without a service?
Yes. An MOT with collection and delivery is listed at £98 when booked alone, or £19 when added to an interim, full, or major service. The test still happens at an authorised MOT station; a mobile mechanic cannot print an MOT in your driveway. Failures generate a repair quote. If you approve the repair through the platform, the mechanic can retest without a second MOT fee according to the current MOT pages. An MOT is not a service. Fluids, filters, and wear items can still be due even if the test passes. Bundle the two only when both are actually due, not because the £19 add-on looks like a bargain on a car that was serviced last month.
What if I do not know what is wrong?
Book a diagnostic inspection rather than guessing a starter motor. The mechanic attends, tests, and reports. Diagnosis is excluded from the 12-month parts-and-labour warranty because it is an opinion about the car at that moment. If the fault is intermittent, a single visit may not catch it. You then decide whether to approve the quoted repair. That is slower than a dealer who already has the car on a ramp for a day’s investigation, but it is cleaner than authorising a clutch because a forum said the pedal felt high. Ask what scan tool will be used on your make before the booking is accepted if the car is a recent premium model.
Do I pay if I cancel the day before?
Cancel at least 24 hours before the earliest scheduled arrival and the policies say there is no fee. Inside that window a late fee of up to £20 can apply. If the mechanic has started travelling, the extra-late fee can be up to £40. After work has begun, labour, fitted parts, and putting the car back can be billed, with a minimum around 0.9 hours. Use the in-account cancellation or resolution centre so there is a timestamp. A verbal cancel is not a substitute for the platform record. If a card hold lingers after a cancel, contact support with the booking number.
Will a dealer still honour a manufacturer warranty after this work?
Block exemption rules in the UK and EU generally allow independent servicing without automatically voiding a manufacturer warranty, provided matching-quality parts are used and the schedule is followed. That is not a blanket shield. A dealer can still refuse a goodwill claim on a related system, and a recall remains a dealer job. If the car is on a finance or lease contract that names a dealer network, read that contract. Keep invoices that show the parts used. For a nearly new car with remaining manufacturer cover on the powertrain, many owners still prefer the selling dealer for anything that could become a dispute, and use ClickMechanic for consumables such as brakes and tyres.
If the job is a service, clutch, or MOT collection on a drivable car, run the quote and keep a dealer figure beside it before you confirm the slot.
Compare a ClickMechanic booking →Verdict: a priced middle lane between DIY videos and the main dealer
ClickMechanic is a UK marketplace with a clear booking path, a card hold instead of cash on the drive, and a required 12-month or 12,000-mile parts-and-labour warranty on most repairs and services. It is not a garage chain, not a recovery club, and not a substitute for a manufacturer recall desk. For pads, a cambelt, an interim service, tyres, or a used-car inspection at the seller’s house, the model is coherent. For software, campaigns, and high-voltage systems, stay with the people who can stamp the brand’s record. Price the job, read the extra-work rules, and only then decide whether a mobile mechanic is convenience or compromise.
