Does where you live affect your MOT pass rate? A 23-point gap across Britain

We split 34 million MOT tests by postcode area. Outer London tests 20+ points better than parts of Scotland and the South West, even on the same model.

MOT DATA · 5 min read

A fourth cut of the same dataset

Age, mileage and fuel type all move the pass rate. DVSA's own test records carry one more dimension nobody had looked at yet: the postcode area of the test itself, on 28.9 million of the 34.08 million first-time tests nationally, 85 percent, wherever a model had at least 200 tests recorded in that specific postcode area. Group those by the 118 postcode areas DVSA actually records, keep the 114 with at least 30,000 first-time tests so no area is a small-sample fluke, and rank them.

The gap, in real numbers

East London (E) tops the table at 87.3 percent first-time passes, from 232,171 tests. Southall (UB), Ilford (IG), Enfield (EN), Romford (RM), North London (N), Dartford (DA), North West London (NW), South East London (SE) and Croydon (CR) fill out the rest of the top ten, all between 84.3 and 86.6 percent, all outer-London or the immediate commuter belt. The bottom of the table is Kirkcaldy (KY) at 63.6 percent from 158,786 tests, then Dundee (DD) at 64.0, Truro (TR) at 66.5, Plymouth (PL) at 67.2, Aberdeen (AB) at 67.7, Exeter (EX) at 68.1, Torquay (TQ) at 68.2, Salisbury (SP) at 68.3, and Perth (PH) and Bristol (BS) tied at 69.4. The gap between the best and worst area that clears the sample threshold is 23.7 points, more than four times the 3.5-point petrol-versus-diesel gap our fuel piece found, on a national average of 77 percent.

It is not just which cars get tested there: the same model shows the same gap

A regional table like this could just mean different areas test different mixes of cars. It does not fully explain this one. Taking single models and comparing the same registration across areas: a Ford Fiesta tests at 83.9 percent in East London against 58.8 percent in Kirkcaldy, a 25-point gap on 6,621 and 8,353 tests respectively. A Vauxhall Corsa runs 82.0 percent in Southall against 54.6 percent in Dundee, a 27-point gap on thousands of tests each side. A Volkswagen Golf runs 87.2 percent in Southall against 69.0 percent in Kirkcaldy, an 18-point gap. The exact same car, tested in different parts of the country, passes at meaningfully different rates.

What 'region' means here, and what it does not prove

DVSA's postcode_area field records where the test was carried out, the testing station's postcode area, not the vehicle keeper's home address. The MOT record does not know where the owner lives, only where the car was booked in. That matters for what this data can and cannot show: it is a real, repeatable, large-sample pattern in test outcomes by area, not proof of why it exists. Three honest candidate explanations, none of which this dataset can isolate on its own: genuine differences in vehicle condition between areas (road salt and coastal exposure accelerate corrosion, a leading MOT failure category), differences in the average condition of cars that get driven into a given test centre's catchment, and variation in how strictly individual testing stations apply the same rules, which DVSA itself monitors as testing-station pass-rate variance. All three are plausible. None is confirmed here.

What this means for a buyer

Do not read a seller's location as a verdict on the car. Cars get bought, sold and re-tested in a different postcode area from where they started, and a car's own MOT history, not the map, is what tells you whether a specific vehicle has been looked after. Where this table is genuinely useful is context: if you are buying at a distance and the car's local test centre sits in one of the lower-scoring areas above, it is one more reason to lean on the actual MOT record and a proper inspection rather than assume the listing photos tell the whole story.

Check the actual car, not the postcode

Wherever a car was tested, its own MOT and mileage record is the real evidence. Run the registration through our free Vehicle History checker before you buy, and if it is a salvage lot, paste it into the Analyzer so the repair estimate is based on what the photos actually show.

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