Fluid thinking – how to look after your car’s wellbeing, to pass its MOT

Like your own personal wellbeing, it’s just as important to look after your car with regular health-checks. As a safety-conscious motorist there are a range of small checks and fixes we can all do to seriously increase your chances of passing your MOT and saving money on re-tests.

Top tips for passing your MOT

• Ensure all lightbulbs on the car are working
• Check tyre pressure is correct (can be done at most petrol stations)
• Also check the tyre tread depth (the legal minimum is 1.6mm)
• Replace worn wiper blades
• Clean your number plates and all lights and check they’re undamaged
• Ensure your mirrors, wipers and washes aren’t impacting your view of the road

Where you live, the make of the car you drive and even the colour of your vehicle can have a significant impact on whether or not you will pass your MOT according to new research.

Wales is the UK’s MOT failure hotspots

The UK’s fastest growing supplier and fitter of tyres and automotive services, Protyre has analysed data from hundreds of garages across the UK, and has bad news for Welsh drivers, revealing Wales as the MOT failure hotspot of Great Britain, with 20% of cars in the region failing their MOT! Good news, however, for those in the North West of England, which saw an impressive 95% of cars tested passing their MOT with flying colours.

Not just a pretty colour

The vehicle and tyre experts discovered that MOT pass rates even differ by car colour, when comparing its results with the official DVSA MOT data (from the UK Government Department for Transport). One in three cars with green paintwork fail more than any other colour choice. Red cars might go faster but bronze coloured cars, while a less popular paint choice, are the safest option passing their MOT in 81% of cases.

Make and model matters

The research also offers valuable insight if you’re looking to buy your next car, analysing the pass rates of the UK’s most popular cars. Surprisingly, the most high-selling cars aren’t necessarily the most successful during MOTs; the MINI (with an 82% MOT pass rate) and the Nissan Qashqai (83% pass rate) came out on top, despite selling significantly less units in 2017 than the popular Vauxhall Astra, which was found to fail MOT tests almost 30% of the time.

Simon Hiorns, Protyre Retail Director comments, “Our research highlights the difference in MOT pass rates across the country and how important it is for drivers to keep up regular checks on their motors, especially as we’re heading into the wintery months now. The user-friendly MOT Failure Hotspot Map offers motorists Protyre’s experienced regional insight with data from the DVSA, to help drivers think about their safety on the roads and make informed decisions about their next MOT.