The Real Mileage of UK Cars: Odometer Readings by Age and Model
Key findings
- A typical UK car reads 77,673 miles at ten years old — but the middle half of ten-year-olds spans 56,065 to 102,380 miles, and one in ten is above 130,346. “Average mileage” hides an enormous spread.
- Cars are driven hardest when new. Median lifetime average annual mileage falls from 9,790 miles at three years old to 4,074 at 24 — a car in its third year covers 2.4 times the distance per year of life of one in its 24th.
- The median diesel covers 39.5% more miles a year than the median petrol — 6,879 against 4,931, measured between two odometer readings on the same vehicle across 28,562,561 cars. On lifetime averages, which include how a car was driven when new, the same gap reads 49%; electric (8,007) and hybrid (8,048) sit between petrol and diesel on that measure.
- Very old cars show fewer miles than merely old ones. Median readings peak at 106,818 miles at 18 years and then fall to 97,769 by 24. High-mileage cars are scrapped first, so the survivors skew low — survivorship bias visible in a national dataset.
How we worked this out
Published “average annual mileage” figures for the UK come from the National Travel Survey, a household diary study of a few thousand homes. This page uses a different kind of evidence: the odometer reading an MOT tester types in at every test.
The source is DfT and DVSA’s Anonymised MOT tests and results dataset — the bulk open publication on data.gov.uk, which contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence and carries no registration mark and no VIN. We took every class-4 test between 2024-12-30 and 2025-12-30 — 42,728,066 rows — and kept each vehicle’s most recent, giving a current cross-section of the tested fleet rather than a historical average. That is 29,796,409 vehicles after cleaning.
Cleaning is deliberately conservative and applied before any figure is computed: odometer readings outside 100–400,000 miles are dropped (these are resets, typing errors and 999999 placeholders), and vehicles outside 3.0–25.0 years at test are excluded — below three there is no MOT, and above twenty-five the surviving population is too self-selected to describe anything general.
We report percentiles, not means. A mean odometer reading is dominated by a small number of very-high-mileage vehicles and describes no real car. The median (50th percentile) is the reading that half of cars at that age are above and half below; the 25th and 75th mark the middle half.
Two different annual quantities, kept apart. The “miles/yr” column in the age table and the fuel table are lifetime average annual mileage — odometer divided by age at test. That is a useful shape but it is not what a car did last year, and describing it as miles “a year” overstates the petrol/diesel gap. Where this page says a car covers so many miles a year it uses the true annual figure instead: (last odometer − first odometer) ÷ elapsed years, same vehicle_id, ≥300 days apart, computed across 28,562,561 vehicles that appear in both annual result extracts. Every table states which of the two it is.
For orientation rather than validation: DfT NTS0901a puts household diesel annual travel about 33.9% above petrol. Different universes — a self-reported travel diary including company cars and sub-3-year-old cars — so the direction and rough magnitude agree but the gap is not claimed as agreement. Every number here is produced by scripts/research/02-real-mileage.mjs and rendered directly from that script’s output.
What this data cannot tell you
- The percentile tables are lifetime average, not last-year, mileage. A car driven 20,000 miles a year for three years then parked for two appears in them as a moderate-mileage car. The only true annual figures on this page are the petrol and diesel medians, which are computed from consecutive readings on the same vehicle; everything else divides an odometer by an age.
- Odometer readings are self-declared by the tester from whatever the instrument cluster shows. A clocked or replaced cluster reads as genuine here. We drop implausible values but cannot detect plausible fraud at population level.
- The fuel-type gap is selection, not physics. Diesels show more miles because high-mileage drivers bought diesels, not because diesel engines cause driving. The same caution applies to the electric figures, where the fleet is young and skewed to specific use cases. The true annual figure is published for petrol and diesel only; the other fuels appear on the lifetime-average measure.
- Vehicles that are not MOT-tested are invisible. Cars under three years old, SORN vehicles and MOT-exempt historic vehicles contribute nothing to these figures.
- Model tables show only high-volume models. We publish a model and age band only where at least 5,000 vehicles fall in the cell, so specialist and low-volume cars are absent by design rather than by oversight.
Correction, 28 August 2026 — the diesel figure was the wrong quantity
Between 12 and 27 August 2026 this page said diesels do 55% more miles a year than petrols. That claim is withdrawn. It was a lifetime average — total odometer divided by the car’s age — presented as an answer to a question about a year. Measured the way the question is asked, between two odometer readings on the same vehicle at least ten months apart, the gap is 39.5%: 6,879 miles a year against 4,931, across 28,562,561 vehicles. The lifetime-average tables are still on the page, correctly labelled.
Every figure has also been re-derived. The earlier load was truncated — only 29.62% of the intended records were present — so the counts were computed on less than a third of the data and are now much larger: 29,796,409 vehicles rather than the 10.2 million originally stated. The shape of the distribution is largely unchanged; the median ten-year-old car now reads 77,673 miles. The source is DVSA and DfT’s open Anonymised MOT tests and results dataset, published under the Open Government Licence.
“Is that high mileage?” is the question everyone asks about a used car and almost nobody can answer with evidence. The usual reference point — around 10,000 miles a year — comes from a household travel survey and has not matched the used-car market for years. There is a better source sitting in plain sight: an MOT tester records the odometer at every single test, on every car in the country, every year.
We read 29,796,409 of those readings, from 42,728,066 class-4 tests in the twelve months to 2025-12-30. Here is what British cars actually show on the clock.
What the odometer reads at each age
The blue line is the median: half of all cars at that age read above it, half below. The shaded band is the middle half of the distribution — the range you should treat as “normal” rather than the single median figure.
| Age | Lowest 10% | 25th | Median | 75th | Top 10% | Miles/yr | Cars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 13,020 | 19,932 | 29,369 | 41,732 | 58,081 | 9,790 | 1,605,415 |
| 4 | 16,572 | 24,810 | 35,738 | 49,655 | 67,372 | 8,935 | 1,694,210 |
| 5 | 19,335 | 28,907 | 41,350 | 56,789 | 76,399 | 8,270 | 2,012,983 |
| 6 | 23,301 | 34,472 | 48,690 | 66,019 | 87,865 | 8,115 | 2,308,389 |
| 7 | 27,439 | 40,388 | 56,694 | 76,167 | 99,812 | 8,099 | 2,272,088 |
| 8 | 31,111 | 45,711 | 63,940 | 85,221 | 110,331 | 7,993 | 2,529,906 |
| 9 | 35,046 | 51,055 | 70,966 | 94,024 | 120,945 | 7,885 | 2,475,923 |
| 10 | 38,698 | 56,065 | 77,673 | 102,380 | 130,346 | 7,767 | 2,326,999 |
| 11 | 42,354 | 60,920 | 83,815 | 109,594 | 137,761 | 7,620 | 2,069,331 |
| 12 | 45,753 | 65,243 | 89,200 | 116,054 | 144,685 | 7,433 | 1,776,408 |
| 13 | 49,260 | 70,020 | 95,255 | 123,643 | 153,440 | 7,327 | 1,515,041 |
| 14 | 51,441 | 73,218 | 99,311 | 128,250 | 158,367 | 7,094 | 1,386,733 |
| 15 | 50,500 | 72,734 | 99,575 | 129,214 | 159,359 | 6,638 | 1,286,221 |
| 16 | 53,092 | 75,780 | 103,110 | 133,336 | 164,023 | 6,444 | 997,774 |
| 17 | 55,301 | 78,553 | 106,573 | 137,878 | 169,333 | 6,269 | 935,084 |
| 18 | 54,695 | 78,107 | 106,818 | 139,024 | 171,537 | 5,934 | 761,429 |
| 19 | 53,609 | 76,961 | 106,157 | 139,135 | 172,729 | 5,587 | 571,483 |
| 20 | 51,808 | 74,764 | 104,177 | 138,005 | 172,855 | 5,209 | 433,146 |
| 21 | 50,928 | 73,615 | 103,087 | 136,901 | 172,212 | 4,909 | 329,617 |
| 22 | 49,692 | 72,175 | 102,205 | 137,242 | 174,240 | 4,646 | 240,707 |
| 23 | 48,270 | 70,555 | 101,021 | 137,629 | 176,439 | 4,392 | 161,213 |
| 24 | 46,188 | 67,770 | 97,769 | 135,015 | 175,270 | 4,074 | 106,309 |
The spread matters more than the median
At ten years old the median is 77,673 miles, but the tenth percentile is 38,698 and the ninetieth is 130,346. That is a 3.4-fold range within a single model year. Anyone quoting a single “average mileage for a ten-year-old car” is describing a distribution so wide the average barely constrains it.
Why very old cars read low
The median climbs to 106,818 miles at 18 years and then falls — a 24-year-old car typically reads 97,769, less than a car six years younger. Cars are not un-driving themselves. The high-mileage examples have been scrapped, and what remains at that age is the low-mileage, well-kept minority. If you are looking at a twenty-year-old car with 60,000 miles, that is not a suspiciously good find — it is the normal profile of the cars that get that far. Our survival analysis shows that only 19.6% of the 2005 cohort is still being tested at twenty.
Every MOT test records the odometer — so the whole series is checkable
Check a car's mileage history for anomalies
We compare every recorded reading for that registration and flag readings that fall, jump implausibly, or sit far outside the normal range for the car's age.
- Every odometer reading DVSA holds, in order
- Rollbacks and implausible jumps flagged
- Compared against the real distribution for that age
Free. Official DVSA data. No sign-up.
Petrol, diesel, hybrid and electric
There are two different questions here and they have two different answers. How far does a diesel go in a year? is answered by measuring the same car twice: take its odometer at one test and at the next, at least ten months later, and divide by the elapsed time. On 28,562,561 vehicles with a usable pair of readings, the median petrol covers 4,931 miles a year and the median diesel 6,879 — a gap of 39.5%.
| Fuel | Lowest 10% | 25th | Median | 75th | Top 10% | Cars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Petrol | 1,317 | 2,708 | 4,931 | 7,849 | 11,185 | 14,875,442 |
| Diesel | 2,199 | 4,113 | 6,879 | 10,449 | 14,798 | 11,326,733 |
Miles covered in a year, measured between two odometer readings on the same vehicle at least 300 days apart. Petrol and diesel only.
How far has a diesel been driven per year of its life? is a different question, and the answer is a bigger number: 8,663 against 5,831, a gap of 49%. That is odometer divided by age at test, so it also carries how hard the car was driven when it was new. It is the right measure for judging whether a used car’s reading is normal for its age, and the wrong one for a sentence containing the words “a year”. Both are below; read this as a fact about who bought what, not about what the engines do.
| Fuel | Lowest 10% | 25th | Median | 75th | Top 10% | Cars |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electric Diesel | 5,743 | 7,618 | 10,071 | 13,148 | 16,981 | 65,891 |
| Diesel | 4,865 | 6,627 | 8,663 | 11,095 | 14,147 | 12,116,250 |
| Hybrid Electric (Clean) | 3,850 | 5,601 | 8,048 | 11,476 | 16,583 | 1,259,882 |
| Electric | 3,577 | 5,449 | 8,007 | 11,285 | 15,494 | 443,393 |
| Petrol | 2,867 | 4,185 | 5,831 | 7,670 | 9,628 | 15,895,800 |
The practical consequence for a buyer is the same on either measure: a used diesel of a given age will typically show far more miles than a petrol of the same age, and that is normal rather than a red flag. Judge a diesel against diesels. Our breakdown of diesel and petrol MOT pass rates covers what that extra distance does to the test result.
Mileage by model and age band
Median odometer reading for 20 of the most common UK models, by age band. Use it as the benchmark when you are looking at a specific car: a reading in the middle of the band is ordinary, one far outside it is worth explaining.
| Model | 3-5 yrs | 6-10 yrs | 11-15 yrs | 16-25 yrs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ford Fiesta | 33,500 | 54,500 | 84,500 | 93,500 |
| Ford Focus | 40,500 | 66,500 | 97,500 | 104,500 |
| Vauxhall Corsa | 34,500 | 56,500 | 79,500 | 86,500 |
| Vauxhall Astra | 40,500 | 68,500 | 96,500 | 104,500 |
| Volkswagen Golf | 42,500 | 67,500 | 105,500 | 125,500 |
| Volkswagen Polo | 33,500 | 55,500 | 81,500 | 93,500 |
| Nissan Qashqai | 36,500 | 65,500 | 101,500 | 120,500 |
| Toyota Yaris | 27,500 | 46,500 | 72,500 | 92,500 |
| Honda Civic | 38,500 | 61,500 | 97,500 | 114,500 |
| BMW 1 Series | 43,500 | 57,500 | 98,500 | — |
| BMW 3 Series | 49,500 | 85,500 | 115,500 | 124,500 |
| Audi A3 | 42,500 | 69,500 | 110,500 | 131,500 |
| Audi A4 | 47,500 | 80,500 | 125,500 | 137,500 |
| Mercedes-Benz C | 41,500 | 70,500 | 104,500 | 114,500 |
| Renault Clio | 36,500 | 56,500 | 81,500 | 89,500 |
| Nissan Micra | 24,500 | 41,500 | 62,500 | 78,500 |
| Nissan Juke | 35,500 | 58,500 | 87,500 | — |
| Kia Ceed | 40,500 | 68,500 | 97,500 | 104,500 |
| Skoda Octavia | 52,500 | 84,500 | 118,500 | 139,500 |
| Vauxhall Insignia | 58,500 | 88,500 | 115,500 | — |
Median odometer reading in miles. A dash means fewer than 5,000 vehicles fell in that cell, so we do not publish a figure. The full 834-row table, including every percentile, is in the CSV.
How to use this when buying
- Compare like with like. Judge the car against its own age band and fuel type, not against “10,000 a year”.
- Low mileage is not automatically good. A car that has covered 19,335 miles in five years has spent most of its life cold and short-tripping, which is hard on exhaust systems, brakes and batteries.
- Check the shape of the readings, not just the number. The MOT history holds every reading. A steady climb is reassuring; a fall, a flat spell followed by a jump, or a gap in testing is worth asking about. Our guide to spotting clocked mileage walks through the patterns.
Benchmarks are averages. The record is specific.
See every mileage reading for the car you're considering
Enter the registration for the full DVSA history: each odometer reading in order, anomalies flagged, and how it compares with the real distribution for that age.
- Every recorded reading, oldest to newest
- Rollbacks and implausible jumps highlighted
- Full MOT and advisory history alongside
Free. Official DVSA data. No sign-up.
Cite this research
harvardUse this citation when referencing this report in articles, papers, or blog posts. Refreshes the access date each time the page loads.
MOT Checkup (2026) 'The Real Mileage of UK Cars: Odometer Readings by Age and Model'. Available at: https://www.motcheckup.co.uk/research/real-uk-car-mileage-2026 (Accessed: 10 September 2026).
Download the data
The full The Real Mileage of UK Cars: Odometer Readings by Age and Model dataset is available free. MOT Checkup's compilation and analysis are released under CC BY 4.0 — reuse with attribution to MOT Checkup. That grant covers our aggregation and presentation, not the underlying source records.
Using this research
Journalists, researchers and site owners are welcome to reproduce any table or chart on this page with attribution to MOT Checkup. Our analysis, tables and charts are released under CC BY 4.0. They are computed by MOT Checkup from the DVSA/DfT “Anonymised MOT tests and results” dataset published on data.gov.uk, which contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The CC BY grant covers our aggregation and presentation; the underlying records remain under the OGL. If you need a cut of the data we have not published — a specific model, a different age band, a regional split — email hello@motcheckup.co.uk and we will run it.
Frequently asked questions
What is average mileage for a car by age in the UK?
A typical UK car shows 29,369 miles at three years old, 41,350 at five, 77,673 at ten and 99,575 at fifteen. These are median odometer readings taken by MOT testers on 29,796,409 vehicles in the twelve months to 2025-12-30, so half of all cars at each age read above the figure and half below.
Is 100,000 miles a lot for a used car?
It depends entirely on age. At ten years old, 102,380 miles is already the 75th percentile, so a 100,000-mile ten-year-old is a high-mileage example. At eighteen years old the median reading is 106,818 miles, so 100,000 is completely ordinary. Mileage on its own is a weak signal — the pattern of MOT advisories tells you far more about condition.
How many miles does the average UK driver do per year?
Measured properly — between two odometer readings on the same vehicle, at least ten months apart — the median UK car covers 4,931 miles a year on petrol and 6,879 on diesel, across 28,562,561 vehicles with a usable pair of readings. Lifetime average annual mileage, which is odometer divided by age, runs higher for a young car (9,790 miles at three years old) and falls to about 4,074 for a 24-year-old. Cars do not cover a constant distance every year: they are driven hardest when new and least when old.
Do diesel cars really do more miles than petrol cars?
Yes. Measured between consecutive odometer readings on the same vehicle, the median diesel covers 6,879 miles a year against 4,931 for the median petrol — 39.5% more, on 11,326,733 diesels and 14,875,442 petrols. (Comparing lifetime averages instead makes the gap look larger, 49%, because it also picks up the fact that diesels were bought newer and driven hard early. The 39.5% figure is the one that answers the question as asked.) Either way it is a selection effect rather than a property of the fuel: high-mileage drivers bought diesels, which is exactly why a used diesel of a given age typically shows a far higher reading.
Why does the median mileage of very old cars go down again?
Because high-mileage cars are scrapped first. Median odometer readings rise to 106,818 miles at 18 years, then fall back to 97,769 by 24. The oldest cars still on UK roads are disproportionately the low-mileage, cherished ones — the hard-worked examples have already gone. This is survivorship bias made visible in a national dataset.
How do I check whether a car's mileage is genuine?
Every MOT test records the odometer reading, so a car's history contains a series of readings you can check for consistency. A reading that goes down between tests, or a sudden implausible jump, is evidence of clocking or a replaced instrument cluster. A free mileage check by registration compares every recorded reading and flags anomalies automatically.
How often is this research updated?
We refresh it when a new MOT records snapshot is loaded. The next scheduled review is February 2027.
Sources and further reading
- 1.DVSA/DfT — Anonymised MOT tests and results (the open bulk dataset these odometer readings come from) — Primary data (Open Government Licence)
- 2.Open Government Licence v3.0 — Licence
- 3.Department for Transport — National Travel Survey (the survey-based comparison) — Official statistics
- 4.Department for Transport — road traffic statistics (TRA tables) — Official statistics
- 5.DVSA — recording the odometer reading at MOT — Reference
- 6.MOT Checkup — free mileage and clocking check — Tool
- 7.MOT Checkup — free MOT history check by registration — Tool
- 8.MOT Checkup — how long UK cars actually last — Related research
About this research
MOT Checkup publishes original analysis of UK vehicle data. Every figure on this page was produced by a script committed to our repository and run against the source records described above — we do not publish estimates, modelled figures or numbers we cannot reproduce. Where an analysis did not hold up, we dropped it rather than soften it. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct the page and note the correction.
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