The State of UK MOT 2026: pass rates, failure causes, advisory trends
Aggregated from DVSA records and our internal dataset of ~9.6 million model-test samples across 56 UK makes and 500 models.
Key findings
- The UK class-4 first-time MOT pass rate is 64% — effectively flat for five years. DVSA-published year-on-year movement has stayed inside a 0.8 percentage-point band (63.4% in 2021 → 64.2% in 2025).
- Lighting, suspension and brakes account for the bulk of MOT failures. Across the dataset, "lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment" alone drives 15.6% of model-level failure occurrences, with suspension at 14.1% and brakes at 12.2%.
- Tesla, Lexus and Toyota lead on brand pass rate; Land Rover, Vauxhall and Fiat lag. Sample-size-weighted across 38 eligible brands: Tesla at 89.2%, Lexus at 86.7%, Toyota at 84.8%. At the bottom: Land Rover 75.8%, Vauxhall 76.1%, Fiat 76.3%.
- Dangerous defects are rare — advisories are not. The weighted dangerous-defect rate sits at 1.74% (roughly 1 in 57 tests), but the retest rate is 13.5% — a near-10× gap. Most MOT pain is wearables, not safety crises.
- Vehicle age dwarfs every other variable. A 3-year-old car passes its first MOT around 86% of the time; that drops to 59% once a car is 13+ years old. Brand differences pale next to the age effect.
How we built this report
Two data sources, combined. First, the DVSA "Anonymised MOT tests and results" annual statistical release for Great Britain (the canonical source for headline first-time class-4 pass rates and the age-band tables that drive Section 5). Second, MOT Checkup's internal dataset of 56 UK makes, 500 models, and 9,577,500 approximate model-test samples — the same data that powers our /reliability and /mot-failure-rate programmatic surfaces. Brand pass rates are sample-size weighted at the model level (popular models dominate brand averages, not nameplate outliers), with a minimum 50,000 model-test samples per brand to qualify for the top-10 / bottom-10 ranking.
We do not invent any numbers. Every figure in this report links to either a DVSA / DfT public statistic or a reproducible aggregation of our internal dataset. See full methodology for the per-source weighting rules, the cohort definitions, and the data-cleaning logic.
UK MOT pass rate, year by year
The headline DVSA class-4 (car) first-time pass rate has barely moved in five years — staying within a 0.8 pp band from 2021 to 2025. The flatness is itself a finding: despite an aging UK car parc, more EVs entering the fleet, and the introduction of new ADAS-related inspection criteria from January 2026, the national first-time pass rate has held essentially steady.
| Test year | First-time pass rate | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 63.4% | DVSA Anonymised MOT tests and results, GB |
| 2022 | 63.7% | DVSA Anonymised MOT tests and results, GB |
| 2023 | 63.9% | DVSA Anonymised MOT tests and results, GB |
| 2024 | 64.0% | DVSA Anonymised MOT tests and results, GB |
| 2025 | 64.2% | DVSA Anonymised MOT tests and results, GB |
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The defect categories that cause most failures
Aggregated across every model in the MOT Checkup dataset, sample-size weighted. Percentages reflect each category's share of model-level failure occurrences and align with the DVSA top-5 defect categories from the published statistical release. See the MOT inspection manual for the underlying section reference.
| # | Defect category | Share of failures | Inspection manual section |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 15.58% | Section 4 |
| 2 | Suspension | 14.12% | Section 5 |
| 3 | Brakes | 12.15% | Section 1 |
| 4 | Tyres | 10.29% | Section 5.2 |
| 5 | Exhaust, fuel and emissions | 8.07% | Section 7 & 8 |
Lighting is the cheapest fault to pre-empt: a bulb test before booking the MOT removes the single largest source of avoidable failure. Brakes, suspension and tyres usually require workshop time, but each can be flagged at the prior year's MOT as an advisory.
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Brands with the highest and lowest pass rates
Sample-size-weighted across the dataset's 38 brands with at least 20,000 model-test samples (50,000 to qualify for the top-10 / bottom-10 chart). The amber dashed line is the DVSA-published 64% UK class-4 first-time pass rate.
| # | Brand | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tesla | 89.2% |
| 2 | Lexus | 86.7% |
| 3 | Toyota | 84.8% |
| 4 | Porsche | 84.4% |
| 5 | MG | 84.4% |
| 6 | Honda | 84.4% |
| 7 | Mazda | 83.6% |
| 8 | Hyundai | 82.9% |
| 9 | Kia | 82.7% |
| 10 | Subaru | 82.6% |
| # | Brand | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Land Rover | 75.8% |
| 2 | Vauxhall | 76.1% |
| 3 | Fiat | 76.3% |
| 4 | Citroen | 76.7% |
| 5 | Renault | 76.8% |
| 6 | Alfa Romeo | 77.2% |
| 7 | Ford | 77.5% |
| 8 | Peugeot | 78.5% |
| 9 | Mitsubishi | 79.3% |
| 10 | Dacia | 79.5% |
Inclusion in either list is a brand-average signal only. A well-maintained example of a "bottom 10" brand can outperform a neglected example of a "top 10" brand by an order of magnitude — always check the individual vehicle's MOT history before buying.
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Advisory burden: rare crises, common annoyances
Two near-paired metrics tell most of the story: the dangerous-defect rate (a defect serious enough that DVSA flags the vehicle as immediately unsafe to drive) and the retest rate (any defect serious enough to fail the test, requiring a second presentation).
Dangerous defect rate
1.74%
Weighted across the MOT Checkup dataset. Roughly 1 car in 57.
Retest rate
13.5%
Share of tests requiring a second presentation — 8× the dangerous-defect rate.
Derived grand pass rate
80.03%
Higher than the DVSA 64% national average because our dataset over-indexes on newer, higher-volume models and excludes the very long tail.
The practical implication: most MOT pain is wearables — tyres, brake discs, suspension bushes, bulbs — not show-stopping safety failures. That's good news for buyers, because every one of those wearables is visible in the advisory notices on a vehicle's MOT history before it ever becomes a fail.
How pass rate moves with vehicle age
Pass rates published by DVSA in the "Anonymised MOT tests and results" release, by car age (cohort-averaged across the per-year-of-first-use table). The relationship is almost perfectly monotonic — every additional age band drops the pass rate.
| Vehicle age band | First-time pass rate | Implied fail rate | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 years old (first MOT) | 86.1% | 13.9% | DVSA published |
| 4–7 years | 78.4% | 21.6% | DVSA published |
| 8–12 years | 67.8% | 32.2% | DVSA published |
| 13+ years | 59.2% | 40.8% | DVSA published |
Source: DVSA "Anonymised MOT tests and results", GB. See the live release at gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/mot-testing-data-for-great-britain for the latest per-year-of-first-use breakdown.
What this means if you're buying a used car
- Never skip the MOT history check. Every UK car has a complete free MOT history available by registration. It tells you every test, every advisory, and every mileage reading — far more predictive than brand averages.
- Check the advisories, not just the pass/fails. With a 1.74% dangerous-defect rate but ~13.5% retest rate, the vast majority of MOT-relevant problems show up as advisories first. A car with a multi-year pattern of suspension or brake advisories will become a fail; one with clean advisories is a much safer used buy.
- Some brands need extra scrutiny. The three lowest-passing brands in our dataset are Land Rover (75.8%), Vauxhall (76.1%) and Fiat (76.3%). That doesn't make a given example unbuyable — but it does mean the MOT-history premium on a clean, well-maintained one of these is higher.
For a per-make deep-dive, see our MOT failure rate by make index, or the Most Reliable Cars in the UK 2026 ranking which combines our MOT data with five major UK 2025 owner-survey indices.
Check any car's MOT history before you buy
Free, instant, official DVSA data. Enter a registration to see every MOT test, advisory and mileage reading on record.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the UK MOT pass rate in 2026?
The UK class-4 (car) first-time MOT pass rate sits at 64%, per DVSA published statistics — meaning roughly 36% of cars fail at first presentation. Year-on-year movement has been minimal, drifting from 63.4% in 2021 to 64.2% in 2025.
What are the most common reasons cars fail their MOT?
Across DVSA's defect category data and our internal dataset, the top failure reasons are: lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment (~15.6% share of model-level failure occurrences), suspension (~14.1%), brakes (~12.2%), tyres (~10.3%), and exhaust/fuel/emissions (~8.1%). Lighting alone is the largest single failure category — and the cheapest to pre-empt with a bulb check before booking the test.
Which car brands have the best UK MOT pass rates?
On our weighted dataset of ~9.6 million model-test samples, the top brands by derived first-time pass rate are Tesla (89.2%), Lexus (86.7%), Toyota (84.9%), Porsche (84.4%) and Honda (84.4%). These figures align closely with the published per-make pass rates we track on /mot-failure-rate.
Which car brands have the worst UK MOT pass rates?
The lowest-passing brands in our dataset are Land Rover (75.8%), Vauxhall (76.1%), Fiat (76.3%), Citroen (76.7%) and Renault (76.8%). Vauxhall and Renault appear in both our derived data and the per-make table on /mot-failure-rate, where Renault's published figure is 72.1% — the lowest of any volume make tracked.
How does the MOT pass rate change with vehicle age?
Sharply. DVSA's published pass-rate tables show a 3-year-old car (taking its first MOT) passes around 86% of the time, falling to about 78% for cars aged 4-7, 68% for 8-12, and just 59% for cars aged 13 and older. The MOT test isn't getting harder — older cars simply accumulate more wearable-component faults (suspension bushes, brake corrosion, tyre wear).
Are dangerous MOT defects common?
No — they're rare. Across our dataset the weighted dangerous-defect rate is 1.74% of all tests, i.e. roughly one in every 57 cars. Advisories — items that aren't yet failure-grade but warrant a fix — are far more common. The MOT retest rate (the share of cars needing a second test) is around 13.5% in our dataset.
Where does MOT Checkup get this data?
Two sources. First, the DVSA "Anonymised MOT tests and results" annual statistical release for Great Britain, which publishes class-4 first-time pass rates by year-of-first-use. Second, MOT Checkup's internal dataset covering 56 UK makes, 500 models, and 9,577,500 approximate model-test samples — sample-size weighted at the model level so popular cars dominate brand averages, not nameplate outliers.
How often is this research updated?
MOT Checkup refreshes this report twice a year, when new DVSA test-results data is published and when our internal dataset is re-aggregated. The next scheduled update is November 2026.
Methodology
Dataset: 56 UK makes, 500 models, 9,577,500 approximate model-test samples. Time range: covers MOT records of vehicles currently or recently in the UK class-4 fleet, cross-referenced against DVSA published statistics. All brand and category aggregates are sample-size weighted at the model level. Brands with fewer than 20,000 samples are excluded from category aggregates; brands with fewer than 50,000 samples are excluded from the top-10/bottom-10 ranking to suppress small-sample noise.
Year-band and age-band pass rates are taken from the DVSA "Anonymised MOT tests and results" release. The 64% UK headline figure is the DVSA class-4 first-time pass rate carried by /mot-failure-rate. Full methodology.
Sources
Every figure in this report is sourced. 13 citations below.
- 1DVSA — Anonymised MOT tests and results, GB (annual statistical release)Official government data · www.gov.uk
- 2DVSA MOT test results by class of vehicle (CSV)Official government data · www.gov.uk
- 3DVSA Open Data MOT PortalOfficial government data · open.data.dvsa.gov.uk
- 4GOV.UK — DVSA MOT inspection manual (class 4 cars)Official guidance · www.gov.uk
- 5GOV.UK — The MOT test (overview)Official guidance · www.gov.uk
- 6Department for Transport — vehicle licensing statisticsOfficial government data · www.gov.uk
- 7MOT Checkup — MOT failure rate by makeMOT Checkup data · www.motcheckup.co.uk
- 8MOT Checkup — Common MOT faults by make and modelMOT Checkup data · www.motcheckup.co.uk
- 9MOT Checkup — Reliability rankings by makeMOT Checkup data · www.motcheckup.co.uk
- 10MOT Checkup — MethodologyMethodology · www.motcheckup.co.uk
- 11MOT Checkup — Most Reliable Cars in the UK 2026MOT Checkup research · www.motcheckup.co.uk
- 12MOT Checkup — Free MOT History CheckTool · www.motcheckup.co.uk
- 13DVSA — Reasons for MOT failures (defect categories)Official guidance · www.gov.uk
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 State of UK MOT 2026: pass rates, failure causes, advisory trends'. Available at: https://www.motcheckup.co.uk/research/state-of-uk-mot-2026 (Accessed: 24 May 2026).
About this research
Published: 2026-05-18. Last updated: 2026-05-18. Geography: United Kingdom. Next scheduled review: November 2026. Author: Bertram Sargla, founder of MOT Checkup.
Conflicts of interest: MOT Checkup operates a free MOT history check service. It has no commercial relationship with any of the brands or surveys cited in this report.
Corrections: spotted an error? Email info@motcheckup.co.uk with the source and we will update the page within 5 working days.