73 Auto Research · MOT statistics
How MOT pass rates fall with age and mileage
The MOT first-time pass rate falls from 87.1% for 3-year-old cars to 67.5% at 10 years and 56.1% at 18, across 60,582,379 DVSA tests on cars aged 3 to 20 in 2023–24. Higher mileage lowers the pass rate at every age, and age lowers it at every mileage.
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 data87.1% 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).
- DVSA dataThe biggest one-year fall in the MOT pass rate came at 9 years old: 3.5 percentage points lower than a year younger (DVSA data, 2023–24).
- 73 Auto analysisThe pass rate bottoms out at 56.1% at 18 years old and then levels off: the oldest cars still on the road are the better-kept survivors.
- DVSA dataAmong 7- and 8-year-old cars, those with under 40,000 miles passed 84.0% of MOTs first time; those over 120,000 miles passed 68.1% (DVSA data, 2,851,042 tests).
- DVSA dataAt 40,000–80,000 miles, cars aged 3–4 passed 82.0% first time and cars aged 16 or more 62.9%: age matters even at the same mileage (DVSA data, 2023–24).
At a glance
| Figure | Value | Basis | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pass rate at 3 years | 87.1% | n = 3,907,416 | DVSA data |
| Pass rate at 10 years | 67.5% | n = 4,163,623 | DVSA data |
| Lowest (at 18 years) | 56.1% | n = 1,392,716 | DVSA data |
| Largest one-year fall | 3.5 pp at 9 years | consecutive ages compared | DVSA data |
Official data
Counts and rates taken directly from DVSA's MOT records: 73 Auto counted them, but applied no model or adjustment.
Pass rate at each age
DVSA data
| Age at test | Tests | First-time pass | Change on a year younger | Dangerous defect | Median miles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 years | 3,907,416 | 87.1% | — | 4.2% | 27,425 |
| 4 years | 4,633,623 | 85.3% | -1.8 pp | 5.0% | 34,156 |
| 5 years | 4,808,669 | 83.0% | -2.3 pp | 5.8% | 41,995 |
| 6 years | 5,056,332 | 80.3% | -2.7 pp | 6.4% | 49,970 |
| 7 years | 5,283,534 | 77.4% | -2.9 pp | 6.8% | 57,571 |
| 8 years | 5,152,384 | 74.1% | -3.3 pp | 7.4% | 64,981 |
| 9 years | 4,706,087 | 70.6% | -3.5 pp | 8.1% | 72,232 |
| 10 years | 4,163,623 | 67.5% | -3.1 pp | 8.8% | 78,788 |
| 11 years | 3,650,413 | 64.8% | -2.7 pp | 9.4% | 85,277 |
| 12 years | 3,355,332 | 62.3% | -2.5 pp | 10.0% | 91,427 |
| 13 years | 3,175,830 | 60.1% | -2.2 pp | 10.4% | 94,794 |
| 14 years | 2,802,860 | 58.4% | -1.6 pp | 10.6% | 97,930 |
| 15 years | 2,510,983 | 57.3% | -1.2 pp | 10.9% | 102,592 |
| 16 years | 2,298,708 | 56.6% | -0.6 pp | 11.0% | 105,327 |
| 17 years | 1,826,895 | 56.2% | -0.4 pp | 10.9% | 106,165 |
| 18 years | 1,392,716 | 56.1% | -0.1 pp | 10.8% | 105,613 |
| 19 years | 1,063,140 | 56.2% | +0.1 pp | 10.5% | 104,328 |
| 20 years | 793,834 | 56.9% | +0.6 pp | 10.1% | 103,387 |
Age and mileage together
DVSA dataFirst-time pass rate, with the number of tests in brackets. Read across a row for the effect of mileage at the same age, down a column for the effect of age at the same mileage.
| Age (years) | under 40k | 40k-80k | 80k-120k | 120k+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3-4 | 88.3% (5,858,609) | 82.0% (2,295,508) | 76.9% (300,169) | 75.4% (84,413) |
| 5-6 | 86.1% (3,860,511) | 79.9% (4,770,359) | 74.6% (927,600) | 73.4% (301,254) |
| 7-8 | 84.0% (2,139,686) | 75.8% (5,452,914) | 70.1% (2,123,511) | 68.1% (711,356) |
| 9-10 | 81.7% (1,033,300) | 70.7% (3,896,302) | 64.8% (2,786,340) | 62.9% (1,145,008) |
| 11-12 | 79.5% (506,178) | 67.2% (2,372,324) | 60.2% (2,590,938) | 58.4% (1,527,318) |
| 13-15 | 76.8% (459,900) | 63.6% (2,265,632) | 55.9% (3,175,733) | 54.6% (2,564,400) |
| 16+ | 75.3% (491,341) | 62.9% (2,235,966) | 55.7% (3,205,504) | 53.9% (3,450,355) |
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.
Every figure on this page is a direct count: no adjustment is applied, because age and mileage are the things being compared.
Publication test: Every single age shown has 100,000+ tests; age × mileage cells below 10,000 tests are not shown. Smallest single age (tests): 793,834 (minimum 100,000); Age × mileage cells shown: 28 (minimum 12).
Limitations
Older cars on the road are survivors: cars in poor condition are more likely to have been scrapped, which flattens the curve after about 15 years.
Recorded mileage is the odometer reading entered at the test; a small share of readings are missing or implausible and fall outside the bands.
Each age mixes many makes and models; a single model's age curve is on its /mot-reliability page.
Citing this study
Cite as: 73 Auto, “How MOT pass rates fall with age and mileage”, 2026-09-28, https://73auto.com/research/mot-pass-rate-by-car-age-and-mileage. 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).
- 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).
- Which MOT failures rise most as cars get older · Steering 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).
- 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.