Protyre News
MOT fails in England and Wales revealed
By David Sholicar
How prepared do you feel before your annual MOT test? You might call it a success if you have remembered to book your next MOT check before your certificate expires – something that is simple to do with our free MOT status checker and reminder tool. But what about getting your car ready ahead of the check itself?
There are many reasons why cars fail their MOT: broken exhausts, worn tyres, faulty electrics. Even easily fixed problems such as broken lightbulbs and damaged windscreen wiper blades are often the cause of cars failing their annual check-up.
We’ve created an interactive map showing the percentage of MOT fails in Wales, and regions of England, so you can see what the current trends are like in your area.
Whether you live in the region with the most MOT fails, or the least, there are some sensible steps you can take before your test so you can avoid being given a less desirable slip of paper: the VT30 fail certificate.
MOT failure hotspots
By analysing the data from our local garages, we have been able to put together a bigger picture of MOT fails across England and Wales. We looked at four six-month periods over the course of two years, beginning January to June 2017, through to July to December 2018.
MOT pass and fail rate in Wales
For the second time in a row that we’ve conducted this study, on average, more MOT failures take place in Wales than anywhere else on our map, at 17.2%.
An interesting observation from our data is that MOT fail rates have been decreasing throughout the two-year period, ending in an average of 13% for July to December 2018. A notable change occurred during May 2018, when the MOT test changed to take into account diesel car emissions, defect types and new test items.
MOT pass and fail rate in the Midlands
At an average of 15.7%, the Midlands has the highest percentage of MOT test fails in England. The averages are more stable across the four periods we calculated, ranging from 14.6% to 17.1%.
78.5% of people living in the East and West Midlands use their car to travel to work, and the average person in the East Midlands takes more trips in their car each year than any other region in England (based on 2017DVSAdata). The national average is 390 trips per year (per person, as the driver in a car or van), whereas the East Midlands has an average of 453 trips per year.
MOT pass and fail rate in the North East
On average, the North East is the best performer on our map, with 11.3% of MOT checks resulting in a fail. People in this region use their car for fewer journeys per year than most other regions, including East Midlands, the South, the East, the North West, and Yorkshire and the Humber.
Preparing for your MOT
18.3% of MOT test fails were for lighting and signalling defects in 2016/17; the largest percentage for any category of defect. Arguably, lighting and signalling defects are one of the easiest and inexpensive categories for a car owner to manage themselves ahead of an MOT.
This category is followed by suspension defects (12.2%), brake defects (10.0%) and tyre defects (7.4%), which may be familiar categories for you if your car has failed its MOT check recently.
You might not think about your next MOT during daily driving, but by being aware of road conditions, you could potentially reduce the risk of failing it. According toAIA, 1.3 million potholes were filled in England, 60,100 in London and 131,500 in Wales based on their last annual study.
Advice from theAAis to avoid the swerving or the urge to brake in order to avoid potholes. Spokesperson Simon Benson has advised that heavy braking compresses the front suspension which can place more weight and shock on the tyre and suspension as it strikes the pothole.
Further information on MOT tests and test centres at Protyre garages can be found onour resource‘All you need to know about MOT tests’, including details on fees, results and details about MOT testing for classic cars.
Sources: