MOT Test Standards

MOT Testing Standards

  • June 13, 2023

The most recently conducted MOT Compliance Survey reveals a disturbing MOT Testing Standards trend. In 2021-2022 1732 vehicles were subject of retesting by DVSA Vehicle Examiners.  The retests took place at the VTS where the vehicles were originally tested to establish if the correct standards were being applied.

DVSA examiners disagreed with the MOT test outcomes in 12% of the retests.

  • 2% of the cars failed by MOT Testers should have passed
  • 10% of the cars passed by MOT testers should have failed

As a direct result, potentially there are 1.29 million vehicles being driven on UK roads with defects.

The list below outlines the most common failure categories where DVSA disagreed with Vehicle Testing Station test results

Testing Category                              Number of Defects Disagreed

Tyres                                                     734

Brakes                                                  660

Suspension                                          642

Lights, reflectors and electrics        422

Noise, emissions and leaks               171

Body, chassis and structure             164

Visibility                                              142

Steering                                                 92

Vehicle Identification                         46

Seatbelts                                                45

Wheels                                                   27

On the positive side, the vast majority of MOT testers carry out testing to high standards.  To maintain high testing standards, it is advisable Testers complete their MOT and CPD training early in the training year and regularly review Tester Quality Information (TQI) and Tester failure and advisory patterns .  The statistics and information gleaned from the TQI and MOT Test Logs should drive the Quality Control (QC) examinations.

We regularly assist our clients by preparing individual Tester QC proformas based on TQI and MOT Test Log data.  Contact us now to see how we can assist your VTS to maintain high MOT Testing Standards Contact Us

For further information on the current MOT statistics see MOT testing data for Great Britain – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)