Free advisory check
Check a car’s MOT advisories
Every advisory, in the tester’s own words, on every test since 2005. Type the plate; the report groups them by how serious the grade is.
The four grades, in DVSA’s terms
| Grade | Result | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Dangerous | Fail | A direct and immediate risk. Do not drive the vehicle until it is repaired. |
| Major | Fail | Affects safety or the environment. Repair immediately and retest. |
| Minor | Pass | A defect with no significant safety effect. Repair as soon as possible. |
| Advisory | Pass | Not yet a defect: the tester flagging wear to monitor and deal with before it becomes one. |
These grades came in with the May 2018 MOT changes and are the same categories the DVSA record uses. Our report shows them grouped, worst first, on every test.
How to read a history full of advisories
Look for repetition. The same corrosion advisory three years running means nobody touched it. A mileage that jumps 20,000 between tests with fresh brake and tyre advisories is a motorway car wearing normally. Advisories that appear and vanish without a matching repair sometimes just mean a change of garage.
Buying? Read the last two tests together and use the pre-MOT checklist against the car in person. The due date matters too: a car sold with 11 months of MOT had its advisories recorded recently; one with 3 weeks left is a question mark.
Questions
Do advisories mean the car failed?
No. An advisory is recorded on a pass. It is the tester noting a part that is legal today but wearing: brake pads getting low, a tyre close to the limit, light corrosion. The certificate stays valid.
Do I have to fix advisories?
Not to stay legal, but they are a forecast. A tyre advised at one test is often a fail at the next. If you're buying, price the advisories into the offer; if you're selling, fixing the cheap ones first reads well on the record.
How long do advisories stay on the record?
They stay on the test they were recorded against, permanently. The public history goes back to 2005, so you can watch an advisory either get fixed or turn into a failure across years.
What's the difference between minor and advisory?
A minor defect is an actual defect against the standard, recorded on a pass, to be repaired as soon as possible. An advisory is the tester's judgement about wear that may become a defect. Both leave the certificate valid.
Can advisories be wrong?
They are the tester's professional opinion, and testers vary in how much they note. A change of garage sometimes changes the advisory style more than the car's condition. The trend across several tests is more telling than any single entry.