MOT Pass Rates by Area 2025: Where Cars Pass First Time

Which areas pass the MOT first time most often?

Across Great Britain in 2025, 72.32% of MOT tests on cars and on light vans up to 3,000kg ended in a pass at the first attempt. The lowest rate was at test stations in the KY postcode area, at 63.83%. The highest was in the IG postcode area, at 80.01%.

Those two areas had the same median car age, 8 years. Most areas don't line up that neatly. The age of the cars tested moves the pass rate a long way, so the table below shows age beside every figure.

One thing to remember. An area's pass rate describes tests at the garages in that area. It isn't a fact about any one car, and it says nothing about where the cars' owners live. The rest of our MOT and tax advice covers what the test itself looks for.

What these numbers count, and what they leave out

The figures come from DVSA's anonymised MOT test data, which it publishes under an open licence. Every row here is a query on that data. Nothing here is estimated.

The scope matters more than usual. Class 4 tests only, which is the test class for cars and for light vans up to 3,000kg. Normal tests only, so retests are left out. Tests dated in 2025.

A test counts as a first-time pass if the tester recorded a pass. If the tester found a fault, the garage fixed it on the spot and the car then passed, that's recorded as a PRS (pass after rectification at station). We count a PRS as a fail at the first attempt, because the car did fail its first inspection. Abandoned and aborted tests aren't counted at all.

These are tests, not cars. A car can have more than one normal test in a year. So the national total of 33,210,950 is a count of tests.

The area is the test station's postcode area. DVSA records where the car was tested, nothing about the keeper. We don't say where a car comes from, and neither should anyone reading this table.

Some tests have no usable area. So that no single test station can be identified, DVSA merges any area with fewer than five active stations into a code called XX, and 2,165 tests fall there. They're in the national figure but not in the area table. We also never publish an area with fewer than 500 tests, though every one of the 118 areas clears that floor easily.

You may have seen a different national fail rate elsewhere, including on our own site. DVSA's quarterly MOT testing data reports by financial year and combines test classes 3 and 4. This article covers calendar 2025 and class 4 only. Both are right for what they count.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The test data is Crown copyright, DVSA.

How a car's age moves the pass rate

Most cars need their first MOT by the third anniversary of registration, and the age table starts at 3. From there the pass rate falls steadily. At age 3 it's 87.81%. By age 8 it's 76.30%, by age 11 it's 66.94%, and at age 18 it reaches 57.09%, the lowest point in the data.

After 18 the curve turns back up. At age 22 it's 59.13% and at age 25 it's 63.76%. The data doesn't say why. It does show that far fewer tests are of cars that old: 83,595 at age 25, against 1,704,464 at age 3.

This is why age sits beside every area in the table. Two areas with different car ages aren't a like-for-like comparison on raw pass rate alone.

The full table: all 118 postcode areas

The table is sorted by pass rate, highest first. You can re-sort it by any column. "Expected from car ages" is the pass rate the area would have if each age of car in it passed at the national rate for that age. "Difference" is the area's actual rate minus that expected rate, in percentage points.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The test data is Crown copyright, DVSA.

The five lowest raw rates are KY at 63.83%, PL at 64.72%, EX at 64.78%, DD at 65.06% and TR at 65.11%. The five highest are IG at 80.01%, RM at 79.40%, UB at 79.26%, BR at 79.01% and SM at 78.99%.

The largest area by tests is B, with 1,038,789 tests and a pass rate of 76.03%. The smallest is ZE, with 12,372 tests and a pass rate of 69.16%. Both are well above the floor of 500 tests.

How to read the table without fooling yourself

Three cautions, then one useful move.

First, age. Median car age runs from 7 years in the ML postcode area to 11 in several areas, including PL, EX and TR. KY, at the bottom of the raw table, has a median age of 8.

PL, next to it, has a median age of 11. A similar raw rate can mean quite different things.

The age-adjusted columns are there to handle that. Of the 118 areas, 53 sit above the national rate on raw pass rate and 65 below it. On the age-adjusted measure, 55 sit above the rate expected from their car ages and 63 below.

The two measures don't always agree. SM has the biggest positive difference, at 7.72 points, from a raw rate of 78.99% against an expected 71.27%. KY sits last of the 118 on the adjusted measure, with DD at 117.

PL's raw rate is almost as low as KY's. On the adjusted measure it ranks 108, because the cars tested there are older. The expected rate for the ages of cars tested in PL is 69.92%, against 74.06% for those tested in KY.

Second, place. These are the test stations' areas. People cross postcode boundaries to work, to visit family, or because a garage was cheaper. A busy station near a border can test cars from both sides.

Third, why. The data shows the pattern. It doesn't show the cause.

We haven't measured roads, weather, garages or anything else, so we don't claim any of them. Any explanation you read for a particular area's figure is a guess until someone measures it.

That includes rust. Our separate article on regional corrosion and MOT failure uses a different dataset and a different measure, so its figures can't be set against these.

Now the useful move. If you're looking at a car, its own MOT history tells you far more than its area ever could. Our free MOT check shows every pass, fail and advisory on record, from just the plate. That's the record I'd read before I read any league table.

What to do with this if you're about to book an MOT

Nothing in the table suggests that booking at a garage in a "high" area would change your odds. The table measures tests on the cars that turned up, and the test is the same everywhere. Your car's chance rests on its own condition.

So spend the time on the car. Several of the things that fail most often are cheap to check at home. Our guide to common MOT failures lists them, and tyres now fail more tests than brakes. For a walk round the whole test, use our MOT checklist.

The one honest use of the table is context. If your car is 11 years old, the national rate for its age is 66.94%, not 72.32%. A fail at that age is common.

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