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MOT fail rates by area · 2025

Where cars fail their MOT mostNo. 1 of 118 areasKirkcaldy

36%

of cars tested here failed. In Ilford, it was 20%.

Great Britain average 27.3% · from 29,678,681 DVSA MOTs
Find your area
Aberdeen: 31.5%St Albans: 23.9%Birmingham: 23.7%Bath: 32.8%Blackburn: 24.1%Bradford: 25.6%Bournemouth: 31.5%Bolton: 24.6%Brighton: 32%Bromley: 20.7%Bristol: 33.6%Carlisle: 27.4%Cambridge: 28%Cardiff: 31%Chester: 29.9%Chelmsford: 24.1%Colchester: 28.1%Croydon: 22.1%Canterbury: 28.6%Coventry: 24.9%Crewe: 27.1%Dartford: 22.1%Dundee: 34.4%Derby: 24.8%Dumfries: 25%Durham: 26.1%Darlington: 29.7%Doncaster: 27.5%Dorchester: 32.6%Dudley: 25.8%East London: 22.2%Edinburgh: 29.8%Enfield: 21.5%Exeter: 34.3%Falkirk: 29.3%Blackpool: 31.8%Glasgow: 27.7%Gloucester: 30.2%Guildford: 27.4%Harrow: 21.4%Huddersfield: 28.7%Harrogate: 25.6%Hemel Hempstead: 24.5%Hereford: 27.6%Outer Hebrides: 28.4%Hull: 30.6%Halifax: 28.8%Ilford: 19.9%Ipswich: 28.6%Inverness: 28.3%Kilmarnock: 29%Kingston upon Thames: 21.4%Kirkwall: 28.1%Kirkcaldy: 35.8%Liverpool: 25.9%Lancaster: 28.4%Llandrindod Wells: 33.5%Leicester: 25.5%Llandudno: 29.4%Lincoln: 31.6%Leeds: 27.9%Luton: 25%Manchester: 27%Medway: 25.3%Milton Keynes: 25.5%Motherwell: 28.9%North London: 23%Newcastle: 26.5%Nottingham: 28.5%Northampton: 29%Newport: 30.8%Norwich: 28.9%North West London: 21.2%Oldham: 25.4%Oxford: 27.6%Paisley: 30.1%Peterborough: 26.5%Perth: 29.8%Plymouth: 34.7%Portsmouth: 32%Preston: 27%Reading: 25%Redhill: 25.8%Romford: 20.6%Sheffield: 24.5%Swansea: 30.8%South East London: 24.5%Stevenage: 25.4%Stockport: 26.6%Slough: 21.4%Sutton: 21%Swindon: 28.8%Southampton: 28.5%Salisbury: 33.4%Sunderland: 30.3%Southend-on-Sea: 23%Stoke-on-Trent: 28.2%South West London: 22.8%Shrewsbury: 27.9%Taunton: 32%Galashiels: 28.5%Telford: 28.1%Tonbridge: 27.5%Torquay: 33.7%Truro: 33.9%Middlesbrough: 28%Twickenham: 21.4%Southall: 20.8%West London: 22.3%Warrington: 26.4%Watford: 25.8%Wakefield: 26.1%Wigan: 29.3%Worcester: 26.6%Walsall: 27.9%Wolverhampton: 25.5%York: 28.9%Shetland: 30.1%Bromley: 20.7%Croydon: 22.1%East London: 22.2%Enfield: 21.5%Harrow: 21.4%Ilford: 19.9%Kingston upon Thames: 21.4%North London: 23%North West London: 21.2%Romford: 20.6%South East London: 24.5%Sutton: 21%South West London: 22.8%Twickenham: 21.4%Southall: 20.8%West London: 22.3%LondonKirkcaldy 36%Ilford 20%
20%27.3% average36%Share of cars that failed their MOT, from 19.9% to 35.8%.

Ranking

Where cars fail most

  1. 01KY postcodesKirkcaldy35.8%Fails most on broken coil springs
  2. 02PL postcodesPlymouth34.7%Fails most on worn tyre tread
  3. 03DD postcodesDundee34.4%Fails most on broken coil springs
  4. 04EX postcodesExeter34.3%Fails most on headlight aim
  5. 05TR postcodesTruro33.9%Fails most on headlight aim
  6. 06TQ postcodesTorquay33.7%Fails most on headlight aim
  7. 07BS postcodesBristol33.6%Fails most on headlight aim
  8. 08LD postcodesLlandrindod Wells33.5%Fails most on broken coil springs
  9. 09SP postcodesSalisbury33.4%Fails most on damaged tyres
  10. 10BA postcodesBath32.8%Fails most on damaged tyres

Ranking

Where cars fail least

  1. 118IG postcodesIlford19.9%Fails most on damaged tyres
  2. 117RM postcodesRomford20.6%Fails most on damaged tyres
  3. 116BR postcodesBromley20.7%Fails most on damaged tyres
  4. 115UB postcodesSouthall20.8%Fails most on headlight aim
  5. 114SM postcodesSutton21.0%Fails most on damaged tyres
  6. 113NW postcodesNorth West London21.2%Fails most on damaged tyres
  7. 112HA postcodesHarrow21.4%Fails most on damaged tyres
  8. 111SL postcodesSlough21.4%Fails most on headlight aim
  9. 110TW postcodesTwickenham21.4%Fails most on damaged tyres
  10. 109KT postcodesKingston upon Thames21.4%Fails most on damaged tyres

Ranked from the lowest. Ilford is No. 118 of 118.

The pattern

The coast and Scotland fail more. London fails less.

16 of 16

London postcode areas fail less often than the Great Britain average.

5 of 7

areas with the highest fail rates are in the South West: Plymouth, Exeter, Truro, Torquay and Bristol.

14 of 16

Scottish postcode areas fail most on broken coil springs. Elsewhere, that's true of 11 of 102.

All 118 areas

Find your area

#AreaFail rateFails most onMOTs
1Kirkcaldy KYFails most on broken coil springs35.8%Broken coil springs165,590
2Plymouth PLFails most on worn tyre tread34.7%Worn tyre tread290,737
3Dundee DDFails most on broken coil springs34.4%Broken coil springs120,337
4Exeter EXFails most on headlight aim34.3%Headlight aim318,201
5Truro TRFails most on headlight aim33.9%Headlight aim168,614
6Torquay TQFails most on headlight aim33.7%Headlight aim144,940
7Bristol BSFails most on headlight aim33.6%Headlight aim509,342
8Llandrindod Wells LDFails most on broken coil springs33.5%Broken coil springs23,275
9Salisbury SPFails most on damaged tyres33.4%Damaged tyres140,530
10Bath BAFails most on damaged tyres32.8%Damaged tyres247,865
11Dorchester DTFails most on headlight aim32.6%Headlight aim112,325
12Portsmouth POFails most on damaged tyres32.0%Damaged tyres413,973
13Brighton BNFails most on damaged tyres32.0%Damaged tyres355,915
14Taunton TAFails most on headlight aim32.0%Headlight aim187,425
15Blackpool FYFails most on damaged tyres31.8%Damaged tyres127,028
16Lincoln LNFails most on damaged tyres31.6%Damaged tyres165,861
17Bournemouth BHFails most on damaged tyres31.5%Damaged tyres306,609
18Aberdeen ABFails most on broken coil springs31.5%Broken coil springs222,098
19Cardiff CFFails most on worn tyre tread31.0%Worn tyre tread478,748
20Swansea SAFails most on headlight aim30.8%Headlight aim359,948

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Questions

MOT fail rates by area

Which area has the highest MOT fail rate?

Kirkcaldy (KY postcodes). 35.8% of cars tested there failed their MOT in 2025, against 27.3% across Great Britain.

Which area has the lowest MOT fail rate?

Ilford (IG postcodes), at 19.9%. All 16 London postcode areas are below the GB average.

What is the average MOT fail rate?

27.3% of cars failed their MOT in Great Britain in 2025. That's about 1 in 4.

Why do cars fail more in some areas?

This data shows where cars fail, not why. Car age and mileage both raise the chance of failing, and we haven't adjusted for them, so areas with older cars will rank higher.

How we worked it out

Every normal car MOT in 2025, grouped by the postcode area of the test centre. A fail includes cars fixed and passed on the same visit, which is how DVSA counts the first result. Each area has at least 9,255 tests. We haven't adjusted for car age or mileage.

Use this data

Free to use with a credit and a link to this page. Download all 118 areas (CSV). Questions from journalists: kickthetyres.uk@gmail.com.

Source: DVSA anonymised MOT tests and results, 2025. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Map boundaries from Wikipedia's postcode maps (CC BY-SA). Kick the Tyres is not linked to DVSA. Find an MOT centre

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