Should I worry about MOT advisories on a used car?

What is an MOT advisory?

An advisory is a note the tester adds when a part is worn, or close to a limit, but still inside it on the day of the test. The car passed. The note is there so whoever owns the car next knows where it is heading — it is not a statement that something is unsafe today.

Advisories are recorded against the registration and they stay on the record. Anyone can check a vehicle's MOT history free on GOV.UK with its registration number: each test's result, the advisories and failures, and the mileage recorded at each test.

Does an advisory mean the car failed its MOT?

No — a car with advisories on its certificate has passed. A failure is a defect serious enough that the car should not be used on the road until it is put right. An advisory sits below that line. A long list of advisories is not a fail, and a completely clean sheet on a fifteen-year-old car is rarer than most buyers expect.

Which MOT advisories are worth looking at hardest?

The ones that touch stopping, steering and the structure of the car. Roughly in order of how much they matter:

• Corrosion. Notes about corrosion on brake pipes, subframes, sills or suspension mounts. Surface rust on an exhaust is one thing; corrosion close to something bolted to the body is another, and it does not get cheaper to deal with by waiting.
• Brakes. Discs worn thin, pads low, an imbalance front to rear, or a pipe noted as corroded.
• Tyres. Worn close to the limit, worn unevenly across the tread, or cracked in the sidewall. Uneven wear often points at alignment or a tired suspension part rather than at the tyre.
• Steering and suspension. Play in a joint, a perished bush, a damper weeping oil.
• Oil leaks. A leak described as "slight" or "not excessive" is still a leak, and leaks get worse rather than better.

Which advisories are usually nothing to worry about?

Ordinary wear notes that come with age and mileage, and small cosmetic items. A wiper blade starting to smear, a dim number plate bulb, light surface rust on an exhaust box, a tyre with plenty of tread but a note about a previous repair. These are the marks of a car that has been used, and on a ten-year-old car their absence would be the odd thing.

How can I check a car's advisories before I go and see it?

By putting the registration into the free MOT history check on GOV.UK, which anyone can do before leaving the house. How to check a used car's MOT history goes through it step by step.

Read the whole history rather than only the newest test, and read the mileage recorded at each test next to it. The two together say far more than either on its own — a car that covered very few miles in a year, or an impossible number, shows up that way. How to tell if a used car's mileage is genuine covers that side of it.

What does the same advisory year after year tell me?

That nobody has dealt with it. A worn bush noted once is a wear note; the same bush noted at three tests in a row is a car that has had an MOT each year and not much else, and it usually means whoever buys it inherits the whole job at once. A repeat advisory is one of the most useful things in an MOT history, and it costs nothing to spot.

The opposite pattern is just as useful. An advisory that appears at one test and is gone at the next, with no sign of it since, is a car somebody looked after.

Do advisories change what a car is worth?

They can, because an advisory is really the next owner's bill written in advance. Two similar cars at similar money are not the same buy if one needs tyres, a brake pipe and a bush before next spring and the other does not. That is worth working out before agreeing a price, not after. What to check when you view a used car lists what to go over in person.

What happens to advisories on a car at ONECARS?

Every ONECARS car is checked on 34 points by ONEFIX, our own workshop on the same site at Plas Acton in Wrexham — the whole list is published at how we check our cars. Where that check leaves work outstanding, the car is not handed over to its buyer until ONEFIX has put it right; that is a rule in our system, not a promise we make on the phone.

Every car page on our site carries the car's photographs and its full spec, and every car old enough to have been tested shows its MOT history from the DVSA, test by test, with the mileage recorded at each test. So the advisory history is in front of you while you are still deciding whether the car is worth a drive to Wrexham. The 2010 Volkswagen Polo at £2,995 is a fair example of an older car whose test history is all there to read.

Two more things sit behind the sale. Every car comes with a free three-month warranty on the engine and gearbox, up to 2,500 miles, with any repair done by ONEFIX on the same site, and longer paid cover is available. And once the car is yours, ONEFIX next door services, repairs and MOTs it — so the garage that checked the car is the garage that knows it. What a dealer checks before selling a car explains what a proper pre-sale check covers.

If you want the car held while you think it over, a reservation holds it for fourteen days; within those fourteen days it can be cancelled for any reason and the fee comes back in full, and if you go ahead it comes off the price.

When will the car need its next MOT?

In England and Wales a car needs its first MOT by the third anniversary of its registration, and then every year after that. Does a used car come with a new MOT? covers what to expect on the certificate when you buy.

What is worth asking about an advisory?

Three questions get you most of the way:

1. Has this advisory been dealt with, and by whom?
2. Has it appeared at more than one test?
3. If it has not been dealt with, what does putting it right involve?

Any dealer worth buying from will answer all three without shuffling. Ours are at Plas Acton Garage, 282 Chester Road, Wrexham LL12 8DU, with a second forecourt at Ruyton near Shrewsbury; we are open Monday to Friday 9 to 5 and Saturday 10 to 4 for viewings by appointment. The office number is 01978 356983, or you can browse the cars we have now and get in touch.

If a fault turns up after you have bought, that is a separate matter from an advisory, and the law has something to say about it: a used car fault in the first six months.