How to Read a Car's MOT History Before You Buy

Getting the history

Type the registration into GOV.UK's MOT history check, or into the box at the end of this page, which reads the same DVSA record. You do not need the seller's permission or the V5C, only the plate from the advert.

What comes back is every test since 2005: the date, pass or fail, the mileage on the day, the reasons for any failure and every advisory the tester wrote. A car under three years old has no tests yet, because the first MOT falls on the third anniversary of its registration. That is normal, not a gap.

Be clear about what is not in it. The MOT record holds no keeper names, so it cannot say how many owners a car has had or who they were; that is the V5C. It holds nothing about finance, insurance write-offs or theft; that is a paid history check. It records what a tester saw on one day a year, not what a garage did in between. Read it as the one witness statement in the sale that nobody paid for.

The mileage line

Start here, because it takes ten seconds and catches the worst problems. Write down the mileage at each test and look at the shape. It should rise every year by a similar amount, and the amount should fit the story: a commuter's car adds ten or twelve thousand miles a year, a second car a few thousand.

A jump in one year is a change of use, a new owner or a long trip, and worth a question but rarely a problem. A flat year, a few hundred miles between two tests, is a car that sat, and tyres, brakes and batteries do not like sitting. A reading that goes down is the one to stop at. If the following tests return to the old line, the odd reading was a slip at the test, an extra digit or a missing one, and the record keeps the mistake. If the following tests carry on from the lower figure, the car was wound back between those two dates.

Then compare the last test's mileage with the mileage on the advert. A car tested eleven months ago at 60,000 miles and advertised today at 60,400 has not been driven. That is a question too, and the answer "it has been standing" leads straight back to the tyres and brakes.

On this site's MOT history pages the odometer is drawn as a chart with the fails and advisories marked, a reading far out of line is drawn apart from the rest so that it does not flatten the others, and a mileage that went down is named with the two tests either side.

Failures, and what was fixed

A failed test is not bad news on its own. A fail followed by a pass within a day or two means the fault was found and repaired, which is the system working. What matters is what it failed on, and how often.

Read the reasons. A blown bulb, a worn wiper or a washer jet is nothing. Brakes, steering, suspension, the structure and emissions are the ones to ask about, because they are the expensive systems and because the repair quality decides whether the same fault returns. Since 20 May 2018 each reason carries a word: dangerous, major or minor. Our guide to the four words explains what each one commits the owner to.

Count the fails. One in ten years is a car that was looked after between tests. One most years is a car that was maintained only when a tester made somebody, and the advisories will usually show the same thing. Look for the retest. A fail with no pass after it means the car is standing on an expired certificate, or on the last one if it was tested early, and either way the fault is still there unless the seller can show an invoice.

Advisories, and the ones that repeat

An advisory is a pass with a note: the part is legal today and will not be for long. One tester's note is a warning. The same note three tests running is a fact about how the car was kept, and a corrosion advisory that hardens from "surface" one year to "not seriously weakened" the next tells you what the next test will say.

Read them oldest first, one theme at a time: corrosion, then tyres, then brakes. An advisory that disappears was dealt with, because the history records repairs only by their absence. One that recurs was not. Set each against the miles since: "brake pads wearing thin" with 2,000 miles since is still a warning, with 15,000 miles since it is probably a bill the day you own the car. The advisories guide ranks which wordings matter, and this site's vehicle pages pick out the advisories noted at the latest visit and the ones straight before it.

Time with no MOT

A certificate lasts a year. When the next test is months after the last one ran out, the car spent that time somewhere, and the record cannot say where. The honest reasons are common: declared off the road on a SORN while it was repaired or stored, taken abroad, or simply left in a garage after an owner stopped driving. The dishonest one is that it was used anyway.

Two things settle it. The mileage either side of the gap: a car that added 9,000 miles across a year with no MOT was driven. And the test straight after it: a car brought back after a year standing often fails on brakes, tyres and corrosion, and what it failed on says how it was stored.

One gap has an innocent explanation built in. Certificates that ran out between 30 March and 31 July 2020 were extended by six months during the pandemic, so a car tested in March 2019, then in September 2020, missed nothing. This site's vehicle pages count that extension before they call anything a gap.

What to ask the seller

By now the history has written your questions for you. Ask them with the dates in, and listen for answers that come with paper.

"The mileage went down between the 2022 and 2023 tests. Which reading is right, and does the service book agree?"
"It failed on a corroded brake pipe in 2024. Who did the repair, and is there an invoice?"
"The same tyre advisory appears in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Have the tyres been replaced since the last test?"
"There is no MOT from June 2021 to February 2022. Where was the car, and was it on a SORN?"
"The last test was eleven months ago. When is the next one due, and will you put a fresh MOT on it before the sale?"

Then do the one check the MOT record cannot. A paid history check covers outstanding finance, insurance write-offs and theft, none of which a tester ever sees, and GOV.UK's tax check covers tax and SORN. A clean MOT history and an outstanding loan can belong to the same car.

Common questions

How far back does a car's MOT history go?

To 2005 for cars tested in England, Scotland and Wales, and to 2017 for cars tested in Northern Ireland. A car first registered after those dates has its whole life on record, from its first test at three years old. Earlier tests were paper certificates and are not online.

Is it free to check a used car's MOT history?

Yes. GOV.UK's check is free, and so is this site's, which reads the same DVSA record and lays it out with the mileage drawn as a chart and the points worth asking about picked out. All either needs is the registration. Nothing in the MOT record is behind a payment anywhere.

Can the MOT history show if a car has been clocked?

Sometimes. The mileage is recorded at every test, so a reading lower than the one before is on the record for good. One odd reading that the later tests ignore is usually a tester's slip. A lower reading that the later tests continue from is the signature of a car wound back. What the history cannot show is a car clocked before its first test or between tests, which is why the service book and the V5C should agree with it.

Does a gap in the MOT history mean the car was driven illegally?

Not necessarily. A car on a SORN needs no MOT, a car abroad is not tested here, and certificates that ran out between 30 March and 31 July 2020 were extended by six months, which explains many gaps that year. But the record cannot tell those apart from a car used without a test, so a gap is a question for the seller, and the mileage either side of it is the check on the answer.

Does a car need a valid MOT to be sold?

No. A car can be sold without one. It cannot be driven on the road without one, except to a pre-arranged test or to and from a repair for a failed test, and the fine is up to 1,000 pounds. So a car offered with no MOT is a car you cannot legally drive home, and its price should say so.

Read a car's history

The whole registration opens that vehicle's page: every test, newest first, the mileage as a chart, and the points worth asking about picked out in the record's own words.

Searches to start from

No particular car yet? The record can be searched by its MOT state, so the shortlist can start from the history rather than end with it.

The year identifier guide turns a plate into its registration year, and searching by make, model and colour covers the filters with no plate at all.