Does mileage affect the MOT pass rate? What the odometer says once you hold age steady

The short answer

Yes, mileage matters, but less than age does, and it stops mattering much once a car is past about 90,000 miles. Among cars aged three to five, about 9 in 10 with under 30,000 miles on the clock passed their MOT (89.7% of 17,057,972 tests in 2021 to 2025), against about 3 in 4 with 150,000 miles or more. Among cars aged ten to fourteen the gap is wider, from 82.7% at under 30,000 miles down to 57.9% at 150,000 and over, which is under 3 in 5.

For a buyer the useful part is the shape of the table, not any one cell. Low mileage helps at every age. Beyond 90,000 miles the pass rate flattens out, so a car with 150,000 miles is not much more likely to fail than one with 90,000. And a low-mileage older car can out-pass a high-mileage young one.

What the data shows

Each cell is the share of first tests that passed, for cars in that age band with an odometer reading in that range. Pass after rectification counts as a fail, which is the GOV.UK convention. The test counts behind each cell are in the note at the foot of the page.

Read down a column and you see mileage at a fixed age. Read along a row and you see age at a fixed mileage. Both move the pass rate, but the drop from the top row to the bottom row is steeper in the older columns than in the young one, and in every column the last three rows sit within a point or two of each other.

Which matters more, age or mileage

Compare two cells. A car aged ten to fourteen with under 30,000 miles passed 82.7% of the time. A car aged three to five with 90,000 to 119,999 miles passed 76.1% of the time. The older, low-mileage car did better. Now compare a different pair: at 60,000 to 89,999 miles, the three-to-five-year-old passed 78.8% of the time and the fifteen-plus car 59.3%. Same mileage, very different results. Age has the bigger pull.

The national pass rate for 2025 was 72.3% (33,210,951 tests). By age alone it runs from 87.8% at three years to 68.9% at ten and 57.6% at fifteen. The mileage table does not replace that curve; it tells you where within it a particular car is likely to sit.

Why does mileage flatten out? The data does not say. A reasonable reading is that the wear items a high mileage brings, such as tyres, pads, bushes and bulbs, are the same items the MOT finds at any mileage, and once a car has been through a few sets of them its result depends on how it has been kept rather than how far it has gone. That is a reading, not a finding.

What to check when you are weighing mileage

1. Read the history, not the headline number. On GOV.UK check MOT history every test since 2005 lists the mileage recorded that day. A steady trail that climbs by a similar amount every year is a different car from one that did half its miles in two years and then nothing.
2. Match the mileage to the advisories. A low-mileage car with suspension and corrosion advisories has sat around. A high-mileage car with none has probably been looked after.
3. Ask what the miles were. Motorway miles are kinder to a car than the same distance in town. The record cannot tell you; the previous owner can.
4. Look at the tyres and brakes yourself. They are what high mileage uses up, and they are what the test finds.
5. Treat a flat odometer with suspicion. A reading that goes down, or barely moves for years, is a question for the seller before it is a bargain.

What this does not mean

These are pass rates for very large groups of cars. They say nothing about whether one car in the top mileage band will pass next month. A well-kept high-mileage car passes; a neglected low-mileage one fails. The data records what the tester found, not why, and mileage travels with age, use and upkeep, so none of the differences above can be put down to mileage alone. Tests with no odometer reading, or a reading under 100 or over 400,000, are left out (365,505 of them).

Sources and method

Cells are passes divided by first tests for cars in each age band (test year minus first-used year) and odometer band, all class 4 first tests 2021-2025 pooled. Tests behind the all-ages rows: 26,600,371 under 30,000 miles; 46,854,046 at 30,000-59,999; 38,743,438 at 60,000-89,999; 25,624,193 at 90,000-119,999; 13,642,202 at 120,000-149,999; 10,324,562 at 150,000 and over. The smallest cell quoted is cars aged 3-5 at 150,000 miles and over, 118,093 tests; the largest is cars aged 3-5 under 30,000 miles, 17,057,972 tests. Tests with no reading, or a reading under 100 or over 400,000, are excluded: 365,505 tests.

• DVSA anonymised MOT results, class 4 first tests, 2021-2025
• GOV.UK: Check the MOT history of a vehicle

This article is general information drawn from published test records. It is not professional, mechanical or legal advice, and an MOT pass or a clean MOT history does not guarantee that a car is roadworthy today. If you are unsure about a car, have it inspected by a qualified mechanic. You can check any vehicle's MOT history free on the official GOV.UK MOT history service.