MOT failure rate by age: what the figures show

Our rate is the number of failed MOTs divided by all passed and failed MOTs at that age in 2025. Retests are included. A car that fails and passes a retest the next day adds one fail and one pass.

So it isn't the chance that a car fails its MOT. A fault fixed at the test station is recorded as a fail followed by a pass, so it adds one fail and one pass here.

The chart above includes light vans and motorbikes. Counting only cars gives slightly different figures. Our model pages use these cars-only figures when they show a national figure for cars of the same age.

Across all ages from 3 up, the cars-only rate was about 1 in 5 car MOTs (22.2%). That is 8,564,978 fails in 38,516,690 tests. Cars peak at age 19, at 31.4% (MOT Wise analysis of DVSA MOT results, 2025).

The mix of faults changes as vehicles age. We count the failure records among the commonest items at each age. At age 3, tyres and the view out of the car (wipers, washers and windscreen) make up over half of them. Older vehicles fail more on suspension, lights, and body and structure faults such as rust.

Tyres are 40% of those failure records at age 3 and 24% at age 7. They fall to 12% at age 12 and 4% at age 25 and over. Suspension goes the other way: 6% at age 3 and 26% at age 12 (MOT Wise analysis of DVSA MOT results, 2025).

Brakes stay at about 15% to 20% at every age. Lamps and electrical equipment rise from 14% at age 3 to between 21% and 23% from age 12 up. Body and structure, which includes rust, rises from 2% to 13% at age 25 and over.

The number of failure records per 100 MOTs rises from at least 13.9 at age 3 to at least 80.9 at age 20. That is roughly six times as many. These counts use only the 100 commonest items at each age, so the real numbers are higher.

Advisory records climb too. At age 3 there are at least 61.9 per 100 MOTs. At age 12 there are at least 174.4, and at age 17 at least 240.9 (MOT Wise analysis of DVSA MOT results, 2025, commonest 100 items). An advisory is something the tester noticed that may need work soon. These records include faults fixed during the test.

So MOTs on older vehicles usually record more faults than MOTs on young ones. That is a pattern across many MOTs, not a prediction for one car. For the commonest faults overall, see the most common MOT failures. Some faults turn up together: see MOT failures that come in pairs.

A dangerous defect is a direct risk to road safety. The car fails, and it is against the law to drive it until it is fixed^[4]. Dangerous defects become more common with age.

Across all ages from 3 up, about 1 in 15 MOTs (5.9%) had a dangerous defect. That is 2,111,855 of 35,809,272 MOTs. By age 15 the rate is more than double the rate at age 3 (MOT Wise analysis of DVSA MOT results, 2025).

Most dangerous defects are on tyres and brakes. DVSA says tyres are 60.1% and brakes 29.0% of all dangerous defects found in first-time tests of cars and light vans in 2024 to 2025^[1].

A first MOT taken a month or two before the third birthday counts as age 2. So it is left out of the age 3 bar in the chart. Counting each vehicle's first-ever MOT keeps those tests in.

Of the vehicles first used in 2021 or 2022 whose first-ever MOT was in 2025, 224,196 of 1,775,310 failed it. That is about 1 in 8 first MOTs (12.6%). This is for all MOT-tested vehicles (MOT Wise analysis of DVSA MOT results, 2025).

This differs from the age 3 figure (11.2%) for two reasons. The age 3 bar counts retests, which pull the rate down. It also leaves out first MOTs taken before the third birthday, which the first-MOT figure keeps.

The Department for Transport (DfT) says that the older a vehicle is, the more often it fails, up to about 14 years. After that the rate levels off^[3]. That matches the shape of our chart.

For the small number of vehicles over 20 years old, DfT says rates fall to some extent. It puts this down, anecdotally, to there being far fewer of them, with many kept as classics. Our figures show a fall too, but can't say why.

DVSA's regular tables don't break fail rates down by age^[1]. Age figures need its detailed open data.

For this, use DVSA's own series. It is one consistent set of figures for first-time tests of cars and light vans. We don't compare our own yearly figures, because they come from different sets of tests.

The first-time fail rate fell from 40.0% in 2013 to 2014 to 28.1% in 2024 to 2025. Since 2022 to 2023 it has stayed close to 28%. The figures can't say why it fell.

DVSA also publishes a final fail rate. It leaves out cars whose fault was fixed and passed at the test station. For 2024 to 2025 it was about 1 in 4 first-time tests of cars and light vans (22.7%)^[1], against 28.1% for the first-time rate.

Every figure on this page describes a group of MOTs. None of them says how one car will do. A 15-year-old with a clean record can pass, and a 4-year-old can fail.

A rate for an age, or for a model, isn't the chance that one car fails. A model's fail rate describes the model, not the car in front of you.

• Use age as background. Older cars usually have more faults recorded at their MOTs, more often on suspension, lights and rust than young cars.
• Then read the car's own record: which faults came up, whether they came back, and what was done about them.
• For a particular make and model, see our model pages. To see how we sum up one car's record, read how the risk rating works.
• For how long cars stay on the road, see how long cars last. For mileage at each age, see normal mileage for age.