73 Auto Research · MOT statistics
Which MOT failures rise most as cars get older
Steering failures grow the most as cars age: 0.13% of MOT tests on 3-year-old cars fail on them, against 3.4% at 15 years, from 60,582,379 DVSA tests on cars aged 3 to 20 in 2023–24. Tyre failures change the least (4.7% to 7.7%).
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT data, 2023-01-01 to 2024-12-30 (n = 60,582,379 tests). Download the data (CSV)
Data to 2024-12-30 · Page updated 2026-09-28 · Publisher: 73 Auto
Key findings
- DVSA dataSteering failures rise the most with age: 0.13% of MOT tests on 3-year-old cars against 3.4% at 15 years, 26 times as often (DVSA data, 2023–24).
- DVSA dataTyre failures change least with age: 4.7% at 3 years and 7.7% at 15, because they depend on wear and upkeep more than on the car's age.
- DVSA dataAt 3 years old the most common MOT failure area is tyres (4.7% of tests); at 15 it is lights, reflectors and electrical (20.1%).
- DVSA data“Position lamp: not working” is 38 times as common on 15-year-old cars as on 3-year-old cars (5.96% vs 0.15% of tests).
At a glance
| Figure | Value | Basis | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steering: 15 vs 3 years | 26.2× | 0.13% → 3.4% | DVSA data |
| Tyres: 15 vs 3 years | 1.6× | 4.7% → 7.7% | DVSA data |
| Tests at 3 / 15 years | 3,907,416 / 2,510,983 | 2023–24 | DVSA data |
Official data
Counts and rates taken directly from DVSA's MOT records: 73 Auto counted them, but applied no model or adjustment.
Failure areas by age
DVSA dataShare of tests at each age with a failure in the area. Tests per age: 3 years 3,907,416, 5 years 4,808,669, 8 years 5,152,384, 10 years 4,163,623, 12 years 3,355,332, 15 years 2,510,983, 20 years 793,834.
| Area | 3 yrs | 5 yrs | 8 yrs | 10 yrs | 12 yrs | 15 yrs | 20 yrs | 15 vs 3 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steering | 0.13% | 0.50% | 1.5% | 2.4% | 2.9% | 3.4% | 4.4% | 26.2× |
| Body, chassis and structure | 0.32% | 0.73% | 2.1% | 3.3% | 4.7% | 7.4% | 9.4% | 22.9× |
| Suspension | 0.80% | 2.2% | 7.1% | 10.9% | 14.4% | 17.2% | 16.4% | 21.4× |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 0.67% | 1.2% | 2.3% | 3.0% | 3.9% | 6.3% | 7.4% | 9.4× |
| Lights, reflectors and electrical | 3.0% | 4.3% | 8.3% | 12.8% | 16.5% | 20.1% | 21.4% | 6.7× |
| Seat belts and airbags | 0.33% | 0.37% | 0.55% | 0.82% | 1.1% | 2.0% | 3.1% | 5.9× |
| Brakes | 2.1% | 3.3% | 5.4% | 7.2% | 9.0% | 11.4% | 13.9% | 5.5× |
| Road wheels | 0.16% | 0.23% | 0.33% | 0.43% | 0.52% | 0.60% | 0.41% | 3.8× |
| Registration plates and VIN | 0.20% | 0.22% | 0.26% | 0.33% | 0.41% | 0.54% | 0.75% | 2.7× |
| Driver's view of the road | 3.4% | 3.4% | 3.9% | 4.7% | 5.5% | 6.8% | 7.7% | 2.0× |
| Tyres | 4.7% | 5.5% | 6.8% | 7.0% | 7.4% | 7.7% | 6.3% | 1.6× |
Failures that rise fastest with age
DVSA data
| Defect (DVSA wording) | Area | At 3 years | At 15 years | 15 vs 3 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position lamp: not working | Lights, reflectors and electrical | 0.15% | 5.96% | 38× |
| Track rod end: ball joint has excessive play | Steering | 0.06% | 1.88% | 31× |
| Ball joint: ball joint excessively worn | Suspension | 0.09% | 2.51% | 28× |
| Coil spring: fractured or broken | Suspension | 0.14% | 4.03% | 28× |
| Service brake performance: excessively binding | Brakes | 0.06% | 1.55% | 28× |
| Rbt (sp): efficiency below requirements | Brakes | 0.09% | 2.45% | 27× |
| Joints: constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt | Body, chassis and structure | 0.11% | 2.82% | 25× |
| Catalyst emissions: Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits | Noise, emissions and leaks | 0.06% | 1.19% | 22× |
| Stop lamp: not working | Lights, reflectors and electrical | 0.21% | 3.96% | 19× |
| Pins and bushes: pin or bush excessively worn | Suspension | 0.11% | 2.18% | 19× |
Failures that hardly change with age
DVSA data
| Defect (DVSA wording) | Area | At 3 years | At 15 years | 15 vs 3 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyre pressure monitoring system: malfunctioning or obviously inoperative | Tyres | 0.30% | 0.00% | 0.0× |
| Reversing lamps: inoperative | Lights, reflectors and electrical | 0.06% | 0.03% | 0.5× |
| Condition: has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords | Tyres | 1.59% | 1.21% | 0.8× |
| Condition: has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure | Tyres | 0.47% | 0.44% | 1.0× |
| Wipers: does not clear the windscreen effectively | Driver's view of the road | 2.35% | 2.46% | 1.0× |
Method
Source: DVSA's anonymised MOT tests and results for 2023-01-01 to 2024-12-30, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. 73 Auto counted every record itself; no figure is taken from a secondary report.
Scope: class 4 vehicles (cars and light vans), normal tests only (retests excluded), vehicles at least 2.5 years old at test, whose make matches 73 Auto's vehicle catalogue: 65,477,892 tests in 2023–24.
First-time pass rate: the share of normal tests with the result Pass. A test where a defect was fixed at the station and the car passed the same day (PRS, pass after rectification) counts as an initial fail, as DVSA counts it.
Failure areas and items: a test counts once for an area or item if it had at least one fail-level (Major or Dangerous, or pre-2018 fail) defect in it, however many locations were affected. Advisories and minor defects are not failures.
Rates are direct counts at each age; the '15 vs 3 years' multiple is the ratio of the two rates. No adjustment is applied, since age is what is being compared.
Publication test: Areas with 10,000+ national failures; items with 50,000+ tests and a rate at both 3 and 15 years. Areas compared: 11 (minimum 6); Items with an age trend: 41 (minimum 20).
Limitations
Older cars are survivors, and they are driven fewer miles a year, so the rise with age mixes wear, corrosion and changing use.
Cars built before and after 2018 are tested against the same manual, but newer cars have more electronic checks (warning lamps, electronic parking brakes) than old ones could fail.
Citing this study
Cite as: 73 Auto, “Which MOT failures rise most as cars get older”, 2026-09-28, https://73auto.com/research/mot-failures-by-car-age. Based on DVSA anonymised MOT tests and results, Open Government Licence v3.0. The data behind every table is free to reuse with attribution.
More MOT studies
- UK MOT statistics 2023–24 · 28.5% of UK MOT tests in 2023–24 did not pass first time: 18,656,905 of 65,477,892 tests (DVSA data).
- Which car makes fail the MOT most? A ranking adjusted for age and mileage · Of the 21 car makes with over a million MOT tests in 2023–24, BMW cars failed 24% less often than comparable cars of the same age, mileage and fuel (73 Auto analysis of 3,694,719 DVSA tests).
- The cars that fail the MOT least and most, class by class · Of 190 models with 20,000+ MOT tests, the BMW M3 had the lowest failure ratio against cars of the same age, mileage and fuel (0.41, 31,544 tests, 2023–24).
- How MOT pass rates fall with age and mileage · 87.1% of 3-year-old cars passed their first MOT first time in 2023–24, against 67.5% of 10-year-old cars (DVSA data, 3,907,416 and 4,163,623 tests).
- The most common reasons cars fail the MOT · The most common reason for failing an MOT in 2023–24 was “Position lamp: not working”, found on 2.6% of all tests (1,684,901 tests, DVSA data).
- MOT failure rates by test area: brakes, tyres, lights and more compared · Lights, reflectors and electrical is the MOT area cars fail on most: 11.2% of all tests and 39.1% of failed tests (2023–24, DVSA data).
- Dangerous MOT defects: how many cars have them and what they are · 5,141,819 MOT tests in 2023–24 found at least one dangerous defect: 7.9% of all tests, about 1 in 13 (DVSA data).
- Petrol vs diesel vs hybrid: MOT pass rates compared · At ages 3–10, 85.6% of hybrid MOT tests passed first time, against 79.6% for petrol and 75.5% for diesel (DVSA data, 2023–24).
- Electric car MOT statistics: how EVs compare with petrol and diesel · 83.5% of MOT tests on electric cars aged 3–10 passed first time in 2023–24, against 79.6% for petrol cars of the same ages (DVSA data, 330,180 EV tests).
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Where these figures come from
- Anonymised MOT tests and results, 2023 and 2024 — Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA). Open Government Licence v3.0.
Figures labelled as 73 Auto estimates are our own analysis of these sources, set out in the methodology and data sources. To report a factual error, see corrections.