Common MOT failures
This page will show which parts of the car fail MOTs most often, built from DVSA's published MOT record. There are not yet enough coded tests on record for the figures to mean anything.
Real DVSA defect codes
Every category comes from the official MOT Inspection Manual section code DVSA attaches to each defect, not guessed from keywords.
Choose a make or model
Filter the chart below to one make or one specific model, and it updates without leaving the page.
The whole national record
Built from DVSA's published MOT data for Great Britain, not only from vehicles looked up here.
See the breakdown for one make or model
Defaults to every make on record.
Not enough data yet for every make on record
So far 366,828,208 tests for every make on record on record can be categorised this way. That is too few to state real percentages without one or two vehicles skewing the picture, so this holds off rather than show numbers that would not mean much.
The page fills in on its own as DVSA publishes more tests. Try a make or model with more behind it.
How this is worked out
Since the MOT test was overhauled on 20 May 2018, every defect DVSA records ends with a
reference to the exact clause of the official MOT Inspection Manual it was raised under, for
example (5.2.3 (e)) for a worn
tyre or (1.1.13 (a) (ii)) for a
worn brake pad. The number before the first dot is one of DVSA's own fixed categories, brakes,
steering, tyres and suspension, and so on. This page reads that code from
every test on record and counts it, rather than
guessing a category from keywords in the free-text description.
Tests from before that date do not carry the code and are left out of these figures entirely, which is why the total for any make or model here is smaller than the number of vehicles on record. As DVSA publishes each new extract, the breakdown is rebuilt from it, so the picture stays current for every make and model, not only the site-wide total.