About Pass Your MOT

Pass Your MOT analyses official UK MOT test data from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) to show you pass rates, common failures, and reliability data for every car in the UK.

Whether you're buying a used car and want to check its MOT track record, or preparing your car for its upcoming test, we provide the data you need to make informed decisions.

Data Source

All data comes from the DVSA's anonymised MOT test results dataset, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

The dataset covers all MOT tests conducted at authorised testing stations in the UK. We currently use DVSA test data spanning 2005–2024, covering over 470 million individual tests.

Methodology

Failure Rate Formula

Our primary metric is the initial failure rate:

This represents the percentage of cars that didn't pass clean on their first inspection. "Pass after Rectification at Station" (PRS) counts as an initial failure because the car did fail on first inspection, even though it was fixed and retested on the same visit.

Test Filtering

We only include Normal Tests (NT) — standard MOT inspections. We exclude retests, partial retests, appeals, and other test types to ensure like-for-like comparison.

The pass rate is the inverse of the failure rate:

Minimum Data Threshold

• Fewer than 30 tests: Data is not displayed
• 30–1,000 tests: Displayed with a "Limited data" warning, page noindexed
• 1,000+ tests: Displayed normally and indexed

Make & Model Normalisation

Raw DVSA data contains many variations of the same make and model name (e.g., "GOLF S", "GOLF SE", "GOLF MATCH" are all grouped under "Golf"). We use a curated mapping for the most popular models and automatic trim-level stripping for the rest. Performance variants (GTI, RS, ST, etc.) are kept as separate models where data volume is sufficient.

Data Freshness

We currently use DVSA datasets spanning 2005–2024, covering all 20 years of available data. Data is updated when new annual datasets are published by the DVSA, typically once per year.

Disclaimer

Pass Your MOT is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) or any UK government body. We are an independent site that analyses publicly available data.

Contact

Found an error or have a suggestion? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected].

See our Privacy Policy for details on how we handle your data.

Version

Version 1.0.0 · Build 233 · Built 20 June 2026 · Data: 470.8M tests from 2005–2024