DVSA publishes its MOT testing data every year, and almost nobody reads it because it arrives as a pile of CSV files. This page pulls out the figures people actually look for, says where each one comes from, and says plainly where the numbers disagree with each other.
The MOT is one of the largest recurring inspection programmes in the country. In the 2025 test year there were 29.5 million class 3 and 4 tests, the classes that cover ordinary cars and light vehicles. Counting every class, DVSA processed 38.1 million test records.
To put that in perspective, that is roughly one test for every adult in Great Britain, every year, and it generates a public dataset going back to 2005 that includes an odometer reading for almost every test. That mileage trail is the single most useful free resource available to a used vehicle buyer, and it is why checking a registration before you buy is worth the sixty seconds it takes.
There are two different numbers in circulation and they measure different things, which is where most of the confusion comes from.
| Measure | Figure | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Overall pass rate | About 78.3% | Share of all tests ending in a pass |
| Class 4 initial failure rate | 27.24%, Apr to Jun 2025 | Share failing at the first attempt, before any repair and retest |
Those two do not add to 100 and they are not supposed to. The initial failure rate counts first attempts only. The overall pass rate includes retests, which mostly pass because the fault has just been fixed. If a headline says a quarter of cars fail their MOT, it is quoting the initial figure. If another says four in five pass, it is quoting the overall figure. Both can be right at once.
This is the most useful pattern in the whole dataset and the one most often left out.
| Vehicle age | Approximate initial failure rate |
|---|---|
| 3 years, first test | About 20% |
| 6 to 8 years | Rising through the 30s |
| 12 years and over | Over 50% |
Read that as a budgeting tool rather than a warning. A twelve year old car is not unsafe, but on the balance of probability it will need work at test time, and that cost should sit in your calculation when you compare it against a newer example. A car three years old still fails one time in five, which is a useful corrective to the idea that a nearly new vehicle is a certainty.
Worth knowing: the government consulted on moving the first MOT from three years to four and, in 2024, confirmed it would stay at three, on road safety grounds. The one in five first test failure rate is a large part of why.
DVSA groups defects into sections. The ranking barely moves from year to year.
| Defect category | Share of failures | Typical cost to fix |
|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 24.60% | £5 to £25 |
| Suspension | 20.65% | £120 to £300 per corner |
| Brakes | 12.99% | £90 to £350 |
| Tyres | High, varies by year | £45 to £80 per tyre |
| Driver visibility, wipers and washers | Moderate | £0 to £45 |
The uncomfortable finding is at the top of that table. The single largest category of MOT failure in Great Britain is lighting, and a bulb costs a few pounds and takes minutes. Close to a quarter of all failures are, in principle, avoidable in a driveway with somebody standing outside the car calling out which lights work.
Suspension in second place is a different story. That one is genuinely expensive, genuinely age related, and not something you can check yourself with any confidence.
Commercial vehicles fail far less often than private cars, and the gap is large enough to be worth explaining.
| Vehicle type | Initial failure rate, Q1 2025 to 2026 |
|---|---|
| Cars, class 4 | 27.24% |
| HGVs | 10.40% |
| Buses and coaches | 8.65% |
| Trailers | 7.56% |
The reason is not that lorries are better built. It is that commercial operators run scheduled preventative maintenance because an operator licence depends on it, and a roadside prohibition costs them money immediately. Private motorists overwhelmingly run reactive maintenance, which means the MOT is the inspection, rather than a confirmation of one.
That is the practical lesson buried in the data. The difference between a 27% failure rate and a 10% one is mostly a service schedule.
The maximum MOT fee is set in law, not by the garage.
| Vehicle | Statutory maximum fee |
|---|---|
| Car, up to 8 passenger seats | £54.85 |
| Motorcycle | £29.65 |
Those are ceilings. Many independents charge £35 to £45, and fast fit chains often discount the test heavily because it is a route to selling the repair. Neither is sinister, but it does mean a failure sheet is worth a second quote elsewhere.
Driving without a valid MOT can cost up to £1,000. Driving with a recorded dangerous defect can cost up to £2,500, three penalty points and possible disqualification.
Three things to watch for, including in our own writing.
Initial and overall rates get swapped. A quarter fail and four in five pass are both true and describe different measures. Any article using both interchangeably has not read the source.
Defect shares are measured differently by different publishers. Some count failures, some count individual defect items, some count the worst defect per test. That is why you will see lamps quoted anywhere between 11% and 25% depending on the source. We have used DVSA's own category share here and said so.
Age curves are averages across every make and model. They tell you what a twelve year old car does on average. They tell you nothing about the specific car in front of you, which is exactly what the MOT history for that registration does tell you.
Something wrong or out of date on this page? It is maintained by a person, not a content farm. Tell us and it gets fixed.
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MOT Check UK is a trading name of Jagat IT UK Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 17474995. Registered office: 164 High Street, London Colney, St Albans, Hertfordshire, AL2 1QF.