Major increase in MOT failures following new rules

Following changes to the MOT test on 20 May 2018, more than 744,592 cars have failed the emissions test, compared to 350,472 cars failing during the same period in 2017.

These vehicles have even been fixed or taken off the road, which is improving air quality.

The changes to the MOT test mean a vehicle gets a ‘major fault’ if the MOT tester can see smoke of any colour coming from the exhaust or finds evidence that the diesel particulate filter (DPF) has been tampered with.

A ‘major fault’ means you need to repair the car immediately, and it then needs to pass an MOT retest. You can be fined up to £1,000 for driving a vehicle without a valid MOT.

Since the changes to the test, a total of 238,971 diesel cars and 505,721 petrol cars have failed the new emissions test. This compares to 58,004 diesel cars and 292,468 petrol cars during the same period in 2017.

The new test has also seen a 448% increase in the number of diesel vans failing. These have increased from 3,585 in 2017 to 19,648 over the same period in 2018.