Check any UK vehicle’s
MOT history, free
Every test, every mileage reading and every advisory since 2005. Cars, vans, motorcycles, HGVs and trailers. You also get an automatic buyer report that flags the things worth arguing about.
Type the registration as it appears on the plate. Spaces do not matter.
How to read an MOT history before you buy
An MOT record is written by the testing station, not by the seller. That makes it the most honest document you will see about a used vehicle, and it is free to read.
Mileage is the part that matters most
Every test records the odometer reading. Put those readings in order and you get a mileage history nobody can quietly edit. If the number ever drops, or jumps by an implausible amount, something needs explaining: a replaced instrument cluster, a keying error, or a clocked vehicle. This checker flags any drop automatically and draws the whole trail as a chart.
Context matters as much as the total. The UK average is roughly 7,100 miles a year for a car and about 3,000 for a motorcycle, so a car doing 2,000 a year deserves as much thought as one doing 25,000. Very low mileage often means short cold journeys, which are hard on the exhaust, battery and brakes.
Read the defects, not just the pass or fail
Since 20 May 2018 every defect carries a category. Dangerous and major are failures. Minor and advisory still pass. The pattern across years tells you more than any single result: an advisory that becomes a major the next year is normal reactive maintenance, but the same advisory repeated four years running is a fault nobody has ever fixed.
What the MOT does not tell you
It says nothing about the clutch, the gearbox, the engine internals, the air conditioning or outstanding finance. A car can pass its MOT on the morning its head gasket fails. For finance, theft markers and write off categories you still need a paid provenance check.
MOT guides
Frequently asked
Is the MOT history check really free?
Yes. No sign up, no payment and no limit for normal use. The data comes from the DVSA MOT History API, which is free to read. We pay for the server, not for the data.
How far back does the history go?
DVSA records go back to 2005, including the odometer reading taken at each test.
Does it cover Northern Ireland?
No. DVSA holds records for England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland MOTs are run by the DVA and are not in this dataset.
Why does it say no record found?
Usually because the vehicle is under three years old and has never needed a test, because the registration was typed incorrectly, or because it is a Northern Ireland or recently imported vehicle.
Do you store the registrations I look up?
No. Lookups are cached in memory for a few hours so that repeated searches do not hit the DVSA quota, and that cache clears when the server restarts. Your recent searches are saved in your own browser only, and the Clear button removes them.