MOT guide
MOT Advisories Explained
An advisory is not a fail. Since May 2018 the DVSA has graded every defect it finds into one of five outcomes, and knowing which two of them fail the test — and which one stops you driving the car home — is the difference between reading an MOT history and guessing at it.
The five outcomes, and which ones fail
Three of these are passes and two are fails. The distinction people get wrong most often is Minor, which sounds like a fail and is not.
| Category | Result | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Pass | The vehicle met the minimum legal standard and the tester recorded no defects of any kind. Uncommon on an older car, and worth a second look when you see it on one. |
| Advisory | Pass | Not a defect yet. Something the tester expects to become one — wear approaching a limit, early corrosion, a component with life left but not much. Recorded so you can plan for it. |
| Minor | Pass | A real defect, but one that does not significantly affect safety or the environment. The car passes and the item should be repaired as soon as practical. Introduced May 2018. |
| Major | Fail | The defect could affect the vehicle's safety, put other road users at risk, or harm the environment. The test is failed and the fault must be repaired and retested. |
| Dangerous | Fail | A direct and immediate risk to road safety. The test is failed and the vehicle must not be driven on the road at all until it is fixed — no exemption for driving to a garage. |
See the advisories on any car
Enter a registration to read every advisory and failure the DVSA holds for that vehicle, in the tester's own words, grouped by test. Free, no signup.
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What changed in May 2018, and why old tests look different
Before 20 May 2018 an MOT was a pass or a fail, with free-text advisory notes attached to either. The DVSA then adopted the EU roadworthiness grading system, which splits defects into Minor, Major and Dangerous and keeps advisories alongside as a separate, softer category.
This is why an MOT history looks like two different documents either side of that date. Tests before it show a bare pass or fail with advisory text; tests after it carry graded defects. Neither is more or less reliable — the older entries simply cannot be re-graded, because nobody recorded the severity at the time.
The advisories that actually matter
Most advisories are wear items and cost very little to resolve: a tyre near the limit, a bulb, a wiper blade, brake pads with some life left. On a car of any age these are normal, and a history with none of them across ten years is more unusual than a history with a few.
The expensive category is corrosion. Advisory wording such as “corroded but not seriously weakened” on sills, subframes, brake pipes or suspension mounts is the tester telling you the clock has started. Corrosion never improves, and the gap between an advisory and a structural failure that writes the car off can be as little as two or three years on a badly affected shell.
After corrosion, watch for anything on the suspension, steering or brake hydraulics. These tend to be labour-heavy rather than parts-heavy, so a cheap-sounding advisory can carry a four-figure bill on a car where the component is buried.
Reading the pattern, not the entry
A single advisory tells you almost nothing. What a full history gives you is the sequence, and there are three patterns worth recognising.
- The repeat. The same item flagged in consecutive years. Two testers, sometimes two garages, saw the same thing and it was never fixed. This is the single most useful signal in an MOT history.
- The cliff. Years of clean passes, then a test with several advisories or a fail. Usually the point where an owner stopped spending — often just before selling.
- The suspiciously clean sheet. An older car with no advisories at all, especially one that has just changed hands or just been prepared for sale. It can be genuine. It can also be test-centre shopping, or a cloned identity where the record belongs to a different car.
Using advisories when you are buying
Read the history before you travel, not at the kerbside. Outstanding advisories from the most recent test are the things most likely to fail the next one, so they are a fair basis for a price conversation — and unlike most negotiating points they are documented by an independent third party rather than asserted by you.
What advisories cannot tell you is whether the car was serviced. The MOT never records oil changes, cambelts or scheduled dealer work, so a car with a spotless advisory record can still have missed every service it was due. The manufacturer service history check is what closes that gap.
MOT advisories — frequently asked questions
What is an MOT advisory?▾
An advisory is something the tester noticed that does not fail the test but will need attention before long — a tyre approaching the legal limit, corrosion that has not yet reached a structural area, a brake pad getting thin. It is a warning about the near future, not a fault today. The car passed.
Do advisories mean the car failed its MOT?▾
No. A test with advisories is still a pass and the certificate is valid for twelve months. The advisory exists so the owner knows what is coming, and so the next tester has a reference point. Nothing about an advisory obliges you to fix it, though ignoring one usually means paying for the same item as a failure a year later.
Is a Minor defect a pass or a fail?▾
A pass. Minor is the category introduced in May 2018 for defects that do not significantly affect safety or emissions — they are recorded, the car passes, and repair is recommended as soon as practical. Major and Dangerous are the two that fail.
What is the difference between Major and Dangerous?▾
Both are fails. Major means the defect could affect the safety of the vehicle, put other road users at risk, or harm the environment. Dangerous means there is a direct and immediate risk to road safety or a serious impact on the environment — and the vehicle must not be driven on the road at all until it is repaired, even if the previous certificate has not yet expired.
Can I drive away if my car failed with a Dangerous defect?▾
No. The exemption that normally lets you drive to a garage for repairs does not apply to a Dangerous defect. The car has to be recovered or repaired where it stands. Driving it risks prosecution for using a vehicle in a dangerous condition, which carries a fine, points and potential disqualification quite apart from the MOT offence.
How many advisories is too many?▾
There is no number. What matters is the pattern. Two or three wear-related advisories on a ten-year-old car are normal and often a sign of an honest tester. The same advisory repeated across three consecutive years is the thing to worry about — it means the item was noted and never repaired. So is a sudden jump from a clean record to five advisories, which usually means deferred maintenance caught up with the car.
Do advisories carry over to the next MOT?▾
Not automatically. Each test is judged on the day, so an advisory only reappears if the next tester also sees it. That is exactly why a repeated advisory is meaningful — two different tests, sometimes two different garages, independently flagged the same thing.
Which advisories should worry a buyer most?▾
Anything structural or corrosion-related, because it gets more expensive the longer it is left and can eventually make a car uneconomic. After that, anything on the same item three years running, and anything the seller has clearly just papered over — a car that passed last week with no advisories after four bad years is worth asking about.