Tyres in the 2025 MOT: one fail in five, and 8.5 million advisories walking out of the door

DVSA's anonymised data for 2025 covers every first MOT on a class 4 vehicle in Great Britain: 33.2 million tests. We've been through the tyre results. Here's what's in it for a garage that tests and fits.

2.07mcars failed on a tyre (6.2%, about 1 in 16)

22.5%of failed MOTs had a tyre among the reasons

8.48mpassed with a tyre advisory (25.5% of all tests)

72%of tyre fails were graded dangerous

What fails

Fail reason	Times recorded
Tread under 1.6mm	976,000
Cut deep enough to reach the cords	553,000
Cords exposed	531,000
Tear	251,000
TPMS not working	160,000
Bulge	148,000

None of this is a surprise to a tester. The useful part is the scale: tread alone fails nearly a million cars a year, and every one of them is a tyre sale made under pressure, on the day, often with the customer hunting for a cheaper fitter.

The advisory is the bigger number

"Tread close to the legal limit" was recorded 8.8 million times as an advisory in 2025, and cracking or perishing another 4.4 million. Across all advisories, 8.48 million cars passed with a tyre note: four times as many as failed on tyres, each one leaving the bay with a written warning that it'll need tyres soon.

Most of those customers don't come back for them. They forget, or the next garage they pass gets the job. The advisory is on the public MOT record, though, so it's there to be followed up: a reminder a couple of months later, or a line at the next booking saying "your MOT advised on the front tyres, want us to check them?"

That's why a Garage Page site shows a driver their last MOT date and advisories as soon as they put their reg in, and offers the advised work as a tick-box extra on the booking form.

Which cars

Age: 5.0% fail on tyres at their first MOT, rising to about 7% from ten years old.
Mileage: 3.5% under 30,000 miles, 7.8% over 120,000.
EVs aged 3–6 fail on tyres at 7.7%, against 4.85% for other fuels the same age: about 1.6 times as often, in every mileage band. Heavier cars and instant torque eat tyres.
By make (over 100,000 tests): Tesla highest at 11.2%, then Ford, Renault and Vauxhall around 7%; Porsche lowest at 3.5%.

No winter spike

Tyre fail rates were flat all year, between 6.1% and 6.4% every month. Tyre work at the MOT follows your MOT diary, not the weather. A garage that spreads its MOTs evenly (by reminding people before the DVSA does, and pulling them into quiet weeks) spreads its tyre work too.

What to do with it

Treat every tread advisory as a booking you haven't taken yet, and follow it up.
Put tyres on the booking form as an extra, with a price, so drivers can say yes before they arrive.
Get your MOT reminders out before the DVSA's, so the car, and the tyre job, comes to you.

Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data, 2025 (first tests, class 4, pass/fail/PRS; abandoned and aborted tests excluded). A tyre fail is any tyre defect graded major or dangerous, including TPMS. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. For drivers: MOT tyre failures in 2025 on Right Pressure.