In line with a What Automobile? evaluation, a couple of in ten (10.7%) vehicles that handed their MOT final 12 months ought to have failed as a result of garages didn’t comply with authorities testing standards.
There could also be 2.9 million vehicles on UK roads with probably dangerous flaws, provided that 26.7 million used vehicles older than three years outdated are required to endure an annual MOT take a look at.
These numbers are from an annual Driver and Car Requirements Company (DVSA) report that had been obtained by means of a FOIA request.
A gaggle of DVSA professional examiners retested a pattern of 1487 used vehicles at random on the areas the place the autos had been first evaluated as a part of the 2023–2024 MOT Compliance Survey.
These yearly inspections are supposed to find out whether or not the suitable take a look at requirements are getting used. Nonetheless, in 13.7% of circumstances, the DVSA examiners disapproved of the MOT take a look at outcomes, stating that 11% of the vehicles that handed the take a look at ought to have failed and that 3% of the vehicles that failed had been really deserving of a go certificates.
The MOT compliance retesting performed in 2022–2023 yielded considerably increased outcomes than these ones, with an mixture disparity with MOT assessments of 14.4%. Nonetheless, slightly than an extreme variety of unroadworthy vehicles receiving a MOT go, the variety of vehicles that ought to have handed the take a look at however didn’t is increased in the newest spherical of retesting.
MOT take a look at error knowledge by 12 months
| 12 months | % of vehicles that handed MOT take a look at that ought to have failed | % of vehicles that failed MOT take a look at that ought to have handed |
| 2023-2024 | 10.7% | 3.0% |
| 2022-2023 | 12.2% | 2.2% |
| 2021-2022 | 10.1% | 2.1% |
Alarmingly, three issues that the retesters believed had not been precisely categorized had been current in 55% of the vehicles whose MOT take a look at outcomes had been contested. Of the remaining autos for which the MOT take a look at outcome was declared faulty, 20% had two areas of disagreement and 25% had one level of disagreement.
Tires, suspension, and brakes had been probably the most steadily disregarded MOT take a look at failure points; these are all important security parts. In 731 of the vehicles that had been inspected, or 53% of the circumstances, MOT examiners failed to use the suitable take a look at normal relating to the situation of the tires. 678 vehicles had suspension defects that had been misdiagnosed, and 629 MOT tester brake selections had been discovered to be mistaken.
Most typical areas the place DVSA disagreed with MOT take a look at station
| Defect class | Variety of defects disagreed |
| Tyres | 731 |
| Brakes | 678 |
| Suspension | 629 |
| Lights, reflectors and electrics | 392 |
| Non-component advisories | 157 |
| Visibility | 147 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 135 |
| Physique, chassis and construction | 127 |
| Steering | 59 |
| Car identification | 50 |
| Seatbelts | 40 |
| Wheels | 25 |
When it was found that sure garages weren’t adhering to the right MOT take a look at pointers, the DVSA took enforcement motion in opposition to them. It despatched 67 advising warning letters to different garages and initiated disciplinary measures in opposition to 14 companies. Nonetheless, not each MOT take a look at inaccuracy led to disciplinary motion, and in 123 cases the place the examiners thought the errors had been minor, nothing was carried out.
Concerning the report writer
For almost all of her greater than thirty years as a motoring author, Claire Evans has focused on client points. Within the Nineties, she wrote an recommendation column for Carweek journal, aiding homeowners of faulty autos in acquiring the suitable quantity of restore from automobile makers.
She additionally labored for Which? for six years, managing the group’s yearly used automobile reliability survey whereas she was there.
Since launching the What Automobile? Reliability Survey in 2017, Claire has assisted hundreds of shoppers in choosing probably the most reliable used vehicles, in addition to new vehicles and SUVs.
