MOT advisories decoded

The five things a tester can write

Since 2018 the MOT has used a graded set of outcomes rather than a simple pass or fail. The difference between them is not severity for its own sake — it decides whether the car passes, and whether you are allowed to drive it away.

Advisory versus minor: the distinction that matters

These two get confused constantly, and the difference is the whole point of reading an MOT history properly.

A minor defect is a fault that exists right now. The car still passes, because it is not serious enough to fail, but something is genuinely wrong and should be put right.

An advisory is not a fault at all. Nothing has failed the standard. The tester has noticed wear and is telling you the component will need attention before long. Advisories are not set out in legislation — they are judgement, which is exactly why they are useful to a buyer.

A single advisory describes a component. A repeated advisory describes an owner.

How to actually read an MOT history

Anyone can look at last year’s certificate. The value is in reading several years at once, because that is where patterns show up that no single test can reveal.

Look for the same advisory repeating

“Tyre worn close to the legal limit” in one year is ordinary wear. The same words in three consecutive years means it was never dealt with — the tyre was replaced only once it became a failure, or the car sat unused. Either way it tells you something about how the car was kept that the paintwork will not.

Check the mileage between tests

Every test records an odometer reading. Plotted across the years they should climb at a steady, believable rate. A flat spell followed by a jump, or a reading that goes backwards, is worth asking about before anything else on the car.

Read the failures, not just the passes

A failure followed by a pass a few days later is completely normal — something was found and fixed. What deserves a closer look is a failure on the same system more than once, or a major defect on something structural like brakes, suspension mounts or corrosion.

What should genuinely change your mind

Advisories on their own are a poor reason to walk away from a car — a completely clean history on a ten-year-old vehicle is more suspicious than a handful of honest ones. These are the things worth taking seriously:

1. A dangerous defect at any point. Not because it cannot be fixed, but because the car was driven to a point where it should not have been on the road.
2. Structural corrosion. It never improves, and the repair bill is rarely proportionate to the car’s value.
3. Repeat failures on the same system. Something was patched rather than solved.
4. Mileage that does not add up. Everything else in the history depends on the odometer being honest.

Everything else is a negotiation, not a deal-breaker. A known advisory with a known cost is simply information you have and the next buyer does not.

Checking it yourself

You do not have to take anyone’s word for it. Every car on this site shows its full DVSA MOT and mileage history on the listing itself — the same record the government holds, pulled live, including the advisories.

• Browse the showroom and open any car — the MOT panel sits below the specification.
• Selling instead? Put your registration into our valuation form and it will show you your own car’s history.
• For any other car, the free GOV.UK MOT history service covers every registered vehicle.