What do MOT advisories mean on a used car?
Published 24 October 2026 · reviewed 24 October 2026
In one paragraph
An MOT advisory is the tester's note about something on the car that is still legal but worth watching, such as a tyre wearing low or light corrosion. It is not a failure. Every advisory is recorded free on GOV.UK against the registration, so you can read a car's history before you go and view it.
What is an MOT advisory?
An advisory is a note the MOT tester writes about a part that passed but is getting close to needing attention. The car passed the test. The note is there so whoever owns it knows what to keep an eye on.
Testers write advisories for things like a tyre near the legal limit, surface rust on a brake pipe, a shock absorber starting to weep oil, or a bulb that works but sits loose. None of those stop a car being road legal on the day of the test. Most of them cost money eventually.
Does an advisory mean the car will fail next time?
Not on its own. An advisory is a warning about wear, and wear depends on how far and how hard the car is driven after the test.
A tyre flagged as low in March may be illegal by September if the car covers 12,000 miles, or still be fine if it covers 2,000. Corrosion normally gets worse. A fluid leak normally gets worse. A loose bulb holder might never trouble anyone again.
So the useful question is not "are there advisories?" but "how old are they, and has anything been done since?"
Where can I see a car's MOT advisories?
Free on GOV.UK. Type the registration into the MOT history check and you get every test the car has had: the result, the advisories, the failure items, and the mileage recorded at each test.
That record goes back years, so you can read a car's whole story before you ring anybody. A car needs its first MOT by the third anniversary of its registration and then one every year, so a ten-year-old car has roughly seven tests to read through. Our guide on how to check a used car's MOT history walks through the steps.
Which MOT advisories should I worry about?
The ones that repeat, the ones about rust, and the ones about brakes or steering. Those three groups tell you the most about how a car has been looked after.
- Repeated advisories. The same note three years running usually means nobody has dealt with it.
- Corrosion. Rust on sills, subframes, brake lines and suspension mounts gets worse, never better, and welding is skilled work.
- Brakes and steering. Anything here belongs on your test drive route.
- Oil and fluid leaks. Cheap to note, rarely cheap to cure, and they tend to spread.
- Tyres and bulbs. The least worrying, because they are the easiest to put right.
- Mileage. The reading is recorded at every test, so a figure that falls or jumps oddly is worth a question. Our guide on how to tell if a used car's mileage is genuine explains what to look for.
What should I do about advisories before I buy?
Read them before you travel, then check the car against them while you are standing in front of it.
- Write down every advisory from the last three tests.
- Look at the actual part when you view the car.
- Ask whether the work has been done since, and ask to see the receipt if it has.
- Put anything advised on brakes, steering or suspension into your test drive.
- Lift the carpet in the boot and look along the sills if corrosion has ever been mentioned.
Our pages on what to check when you view a used car and what to look for on a used car test drive cover the rest of the walk round.
Can I see the MOT history on a ONECARS car page?
Yes. Every ONECARS car old enough to have been tested shows its MOT history from the DVSA on its own page, test by test, with the mileage recorded at each one.
It sits there with the photographs and the full spec, so you can do the reading at home at eleven at night instead of squinting at a phone on a forecourt in the rain. The 2012 Vauxhall Astra at £1,295 is a fair example of a car with a long test record you can read through before you come out to see it.
What does ONECARS do about advisories?
Every car we sell is checked on 34 points by ONEFIX, our own workshop on the same site at Plas Acton in Wrexham, and the whole list is published at how we check our cars.
Where that check leaves work outstanding, the car is not handed to its buyer until ONEFIX has put it right. That is a rule in our system rather than something a salesperson says on the day.
What happens if something comes up after I drive away?
Every ONECARS car comes with a free three-month warranty on the engine and gearbox, up to 2,500 miles, with any repairs done by ONEFIX on the same site, and longer paid cover is available. After the sale ONEFIX also services, repairs and MOTs the car, so the workshop that checked it is the workshop that looks after it.
How do I get time to read everything first?
A reservation holds a car for fourteen days. Within those fourteen days you can cancel for any reason and the reservation fee comes back in full, and if you go ahead it comes off the price. That is time enough to read a decade of test records properly. Our guide on how reserving a car works explains it.
Where can I ask about a particular car?
We are at Plas Acton Garage, 282 Chester Road, Wrexham LL12 8DU, open Monday to Friday 9 to 5 and Saturday 10 to 4 for viewings by appointment, with a second forecourt at Ruyton near Shrewsbury. Browse our used cars or get in touch and ask about any advisory you have spotted.