MOT history check
See every MOT the vehicle has taken: the result, the mileage recorded on the day, and the exact wording of every defect and advisory the tester entered.
The history is then read for you. Faults that keep reappearing are grouped together, corrosion is tracked as it progresses, and advisories that were never acted on are pointed out, because an advisory ignored for three years is the useful finding rather than the advisory itself.
Free, and no account needed.
What you get
- Every test on record, newest first, with pass or fail
- Every defect, in the tester’s own words, with its severity
- Advisories, and whether they were dealt with by the next test
- The mileage recorded at each test
- Pass rate across the vehicle’s life
- Current MOT expiry date and days remaining
What the defect categories mean
The MOT changed on 20 May 2018. Tests from that date onwards record defects in graded categories, while tests before it used a simpler scheme. This matters when you read an older history, because the same fault can look more or less serious depending only on which side of that date it was recorded.
- Dangerous: a direct and immediate risk to road safety. The vehicle fails, and it is an offence to drive it away.
- Major: may affect safety or the environment. The vehicle fails.
- Minor: no significant effect on safety. The vehicle passes, but the defect is recorded and should be repaired.
- Advisory: something that is acceptable now but heading towards a fail. This is the category worth reading closely.
- Before 20 May 2018 there were only passes, failures and advisories, so a pre-2018 history cannot be compared like for like with a later one.
Why repeat advisories matter more than a single failure
A failure gets fixed, because the vehicle cannot be legally driven until it is. An advisory does not have to be fixed, so whether it was tells you something about the owner rather than the car.
The pattern to look for is the same advisory appearing at consecutive tests. Brake pads noted as wearing thin in 2023, and noted again in 2024, means two years of a known wearing part left alone. On the report those are grouped so the repetition is visible at a glance instead of buried in two separate test records.
Corrosion, and why it is tracked separately
Corrosion is the fault most likely to end a vehicle’s life, and the MOT wording for it is graded in a way most drivers never see spelled out. Slightly corroded is a note. Corroded but not seriously weakened is a warning. Seriously weakened is a structural failure and is often uneconomic to repair.
Because those phrases sit inside long defect text spread across several tests, the direction of travel is easy to miss. The report reads them as an ordered progression and tells you which way it is going.
When a vehicle needs an MOT
Most cars and light vans need their first MOT three years after first registration, then one every year. You can test up to a month before expiry and keep the same anniversary date, so an early test does not cost you any of the year.
Vehicles over forty years old are generally exempt, provided they have not been substantially changed. A gap in the history is not automatically suspicious, since a car declared SORN, stored, or off the road for a rebuild will show one, but it is always worth asking about.
Common questions
- How far back does the MOT history go?
- The DVSA computerised record covers tests from around 2005 onwards. Older tests exist on paper but are not in any online record, so a very old vehicle may show fewer tests than it has actually taken.
- Does an advisory mean the car will fail next time?
- Not necessarily. An advisory means a tester saw something heading towards a fault but not yet at the fail threshold. The useful signal is repetition. The same advisory at consecutive tests means it was noticed and left, which tells you how the vehicle has been maintained.
- Can I drive a car that failed its MOT?
- Only in narrow circumstances, such as driving to a pre-booked test or to a garage for repair, and never if it has a dangerous defect or its previous MOT has expired. A dangerous defect makes it an offence to drive the vehicle away from the test.
- Why is there a gap in the MOT history?
- Usually because the vehicle was off the road: declared SORN, stored, undergoing restoration, or simply unused. It can also mean it was tested before the computerised record began. A gap is a question to ask the seller, not a finding in itself.
- Is the MOT check free?
- Yes. The full MOT history, the defect analysis and the mileage plot are free, with no account required.
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