MOT History Advisories: What They're Really Telling You

By Matthew Croxford · 9 Oct 2026 · Updated 20 Oct 2026

Short answer: MOT advisories tell you what a tester noticed, not what's currently wrong. A single advisory rarely matters, but the same fault repeated across several years, or one that escalates into a major or dangerous defect, signals neglect. Check corrosion, brakes, suspension and tyre wear closely, and always pair the MOT history with a full vehicle history check.

Pull up a car's MOT history and the pass or fail result is the easy bit. The real information, the stuff that tells you how a car has actually been looked after, sits in the advisory notes underneath. Most buyers skim past them. That's a mistake, because a string of repeated advisories across several years says more about a car's condition than a single clean pass ever will.

This piece is about reading those notes properly: what counts as an advisory, which ones are genuinely worth worrying about, and how to use that information alongside a proper vehicle check before you hand over any money.

What an MOT advisory actually is

Since 20 May 2018, every fault a tester finds has been sorted into one of three severity bands rather than a simple pass or fail note. Defects that fail the test are set out in advance as either dangerous, or as major if they're a failure item that isn't deemed dangerous. Anything that doesn't meet either threshold but is still worth flagging gets recorded as a minor defect, which is the modern, more precise version of what most people still call an advisory.

The distinction matters:

Dangerous - an immediate risk. The car shouldn't be driven until it's fixed, MOT or no MOT.
Major - a fail. The car needs repairing and retesting before it's legal to use.
Minor / advisory - the car passes, but the tester has noted something worth keeping an eye on. It isn't a legal problem today. It might be one in six months.

So an advisory on its own is not a red flag. It's a note from someone who spent twenty minutes under the car and spotted something starting to go. What matters is what that something is, and whether it's been sitting there, untouched, for several years running.

Reading the pattern, not just the single test

A one-off advisory for a slightly worn wiper blade tells you almost nothing. A corroded brake pipe that's been flagged as an advisory for three MOTs in a row tells you a great deal, specifically that nobody has bothered to deal with it.

One advisory isn't a dealbreaker

Every car that's done a few thousand miles will pick up the odd note. A stone chip outside the driver's line of sight, a bulb that's slightly dim, a tyre edge wearing a touch unevenly. These are normal wear items on any used car and shouldn't put you off on their own.

The same advisory, year after year

This is the pattern worth paying attention to. If the history shows the same component flagged at three consecutive tests, two things are true: the owner knew about it and chose not to fix it, and the component has had an extra two or three years to get worse. A tyre noted as worn close to the legal limit at one test and still there, unaddressed, at the next is a fairly clear signal about how the car's been maintained generally, not just about that one tyre.

Advisories that escalate into failures

Look for anything that was an advisory one year and became a major or dangerous defect the next. That's the clearest evidence you'll get that a seller runs things right down to the wire rather than staying ahead of problems. A car with that pattern across several tests is telling you something about how it's likely to be maintained after you buy it too.

The advisories worth taking seriously

Not all notes carry equal weight. A few categories deserve a closer look, ideally with the car in front of you rather than just on paper.

Corrosion near structural points - sills, chassis rails, suspension or steering mounting points. Surface rust on a panel is cosmetic. Corrosion close to a point that carries load is a different matter and can get expensive fast.
Brake and suspension components - repeated notes on discs, pads, ball joints or bushes suggest a car that's been run on a shoestring. These are safety-critical parts, not optional extras.
Tyre wear close to the limit - the legal minimum tread depth across the central three-quarters of the tyre is at least 1.6mm deep within the central three-quarters of the breadth of tread and around the entire outer circumference of the tyre, according to the DVSA inspection manual. An advisory close to that figure that's repeated test after test suggests tyres are being run right down rather than replaced in good time.
Oil or fluid leaks - minor at first, but worth tracking over time. A leak noted as light two years ago and still described the same way now might be fine. One that's grown isn't.

Tread depth thresholds and defect categories are set out in the DVSA inspection manual and can be updated, so always check the current wording on GOV.UK rather than relying on a figure you've seen elsewhere.

What MOT history won't tell you

This is where a lot of buyers come unstuck. MOT history is a brilliant record of roadworthiness at a point in time, but it was never designed to answer the questions that actually determine whether a used car is a safe purchase. It won't tell you whether the car is still being paid for on finance, whether it's been written off and repaired, whether it's recorded as stolen, how many keepers it's genuinely had, or whether it's ever been imported, exported or scrapped. For all of that you need a dedicated vehicle history check, not an MOT record.

MotifyMe's free check gives you the full MOT history (every test, every advisory and failure reason), the DVLA's vehicle details, any outstanding safety recalls, and an indicative market valuation, all from a number plate, at our reg lookup tool. For the background checks an MOT record simply can't cover, our paid vehicle history check, with data provided by Experian, covers outstanding finance, insurance write-offs, stolen markers, previous keepers, imports, exports and scrapped status, along with identity, VIN and plate or colour changes.

Worth flagging too: a valuation from any tool, including ours, is a market guide built from typical prices for similar cars. It isn't a guaranteed sale price, a firm offer, or a figure to quote at an insurer, and it will move around depending on the car's actual condition, mileage and specification against what the wider market's doing at the time.

Putting it together before you buy

A sensible sequence for checking a used car looks something like this:

Run the free check first. Look at the shape of the MOT history: pass rate, recurring advisories, anything that's escalated to a fail.
Run the paid vehicle history check to rule out outstanding finance, a write-off marker, a stolen flag, or a mismatch in keeper history.
See the car in person and ask about any advisory that's shown up more than once. A straight answer is reassuring. A shrug isn't.
Get it inspected independently if the advisory list is long or the car's getting on a bit, particularly around brakes, suspension and structural corrosion.

If you're buying through a dealer and want to spread the cost, finance can be arranged as part of that purchase, subject to status and affordability, and our car finance page explains how that introduction works. That route only applies to a dealer or marketplace purchase, not to a private sale.

For more on what to check before handing over a deposit, our guides cover the rest of the buying process in more detail.

The short version

An MOT advisory is a tester telling you what they noticed, not what's wrong right now. Read one in isolation and it means little. Read the pattern across several years, cross-reference it against a proper history check for finance, write-off and ownership records, and you'll know a lot more about a used car than its asking price alone will ever tell you.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a dangerous, major and minor MOT defect? Dangerous means an immediate risk and the car shouldn't be driven, major means a fail needing repair and retest, and minor or advisory means the car passes but something is worth watching.

Since when have MOT defects been sorted into these severity bands? Since 20 May 2018, every fault a tester finds has been sorted into dangerous, major or minor rather than a simple pass or fail note.

What is the legal minimum tyre tread depth checked in an MOT? According to the DVSA inspection manual, it is at least 1.6mm within the central three quarters of the tread breadth and around the entire outer circumference of the tyre.

Does MOT history show if a car has outstanding finance or is a write off? No, MOT history won't reveal outstanding finance, write off status, stolen markers, true keeper numbers, or import, export and scrapped records, so a dedicated vehicle history check is needed for those.