What fails the MOT on cars aged 10 to 14, and what to check before you buy one

The short answer

About 7 in 10 cars passed their MOT at age ten (68.9% of 10,798,230 first tests in 2021 to 2025). By age fourteen it was under 3 in 5. The faults that tip a car of this age into a fail are not exotic. A broken coil spring, a position lamp that has stopped working, tyre tread below the legal limit and a stop lamp out are the four items recorded most often, and every one of them can be seen or checked before you hand over money.

If you are shopping in this age range, read the MOT history first, then look at the items in the table below on the car itself. Most of them take a minute each.

What the data shows

Each row is one defect item from the DVSA manual, with the share of all first tests on cars aged ten to fourteen that recorded it as a fail. A test can record several items, so the rows do not add up to a fail rate. The test count behind every row is in the note at the foot of the page.

Three of the eight are bulbs. Two are tyres and wipers, which are consumables. Only the suspension items need the car in the air to confirm. Just below the table sit the split constant velocity boot (1.8%), washers that give too little fluid (1.8%), the number plate lamp (1.7%) and a track rod end with play in it (1.7%). The engine warning lamp, which is a fail if it is lit, is recorded under two headings in the manual (1.1% and 0.7%); they are shown separately here and are not added together.

How the pass rate slides through this age range

The pass rate does not fall off a cliff at ten. It eases down a point or three a year: 68.9% at ten, 65.8% at eleven, 63.2% at twelve, 60.8% at thirteen and 58.9% at fourteen. A three-year-old car, for comparison, passed 87.8% of the time, and the national figure for every age in 2025 was 72.3%.

What changes with age is not so much which items fail as how many cars record them. The same bulbs, tyres and springs appear in the younger bands; they simply appear more often here. For a buyer that is useful: there is no special category of fault to fear at twelve that did not exist at seven. There is just more wear, and more of it left unattended.

What to check before you buy a car of this age

1. Read every test, not just the last one. On GOV.UK check MOT history each test since 2005 lists what failed, what was advised and the mileage that day. A car that fails on the same spring or the same corroded brake pipe two years running has an owner who fixes the minimum.
2. Walk round with every light on. Side lights, dipped beam, brake lights with a helper, and the small lamp over the number plate. Three of the eight most recorded fails are bulbs.
3. Look at the tyres. Tread-wear bars level with the tread mean it is at the limit. Run a hand round the inside edge for cuts and bulges.
4. Wipe the screen. Run the washers and wipers. Smearing or a dry patch is a fail item on its own and cheap to put right, but it tells you how the car has been kept.
5. Listen on the test drive. A knock over bumps points at a spring or a worn joint. A pull to one side under braking points at a binding brake.
6. Check the dashboard after start-up. An engine warning lamp that stays lit is a fail, whatever the seller says about it.

Remember that a car with no MOT can only be driven to a pre-arranged test or to and from a place of repair; otherwise the fine is up to £1,000 (GOV.UK, getting an MOT).

What this does not mean

These shares describe tens of millions of tests, not the car in front of you. A well-kept fourteen-year-old passes; a neglected ten-year-old fails on four of the eight items at once. The data records what the tester found, not why, and it cannot separate age from mileage, use, climate or the previous owner's habits. Nor does it rank makes or models: this is the whole class 4 fleet in that age range. For a particular model and year, the MOT pages on this site give its own pass rate and its own most recorded items.

Sources and method

Each table row is the number of first tests on cars aged 10 to 14 (test year minus first-used year) that recorded the item as a fail, divided by all first tests in that age band: 44,980,002 tests, class 4, 2021-2025 pooled, across models with 500 or more tests. A test can record several items, so rows do not sum to a fail rate. The pass rates by single year of age are passes divided by first tests at that age (10,798,230 tests at age ten; 7,614,402 at fourteen). The malfunction indicator lamp appears under two manual headings with identical wording and is reported as two rows, never summed.

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

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.