MOT pass rate in St Albans (AL)
MOT pass rate in St Albans (AL): 83.4% of MOT tests on cars tested here passed. Adjust for the local mix of model years and mileage — the mix a garage across town would see on the national average car — and the rate is 82.2%, 1.2 points above the national 81.0%. That ranks 37 of 118 postcode areas (1st is highest). The raw rate is the one you notice; the adjusted rate is the one that means something.
Pass rate
83.4%
from 486,430 tests on 227,170 cars, 2023–2025
Adjusted
82.2%
same age and mileage mix as the nation
vs national
+ 1.2 pts
above the national rate on the same cars
227,170 different cars were tested in St Albans (AL) — see the makes and models →
Compare one model here with another postcode area →
The MOT pass rate in St Albans, and what its cars fail on
| Failure item | Local | Typical repair |
|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below 1.6 mm | 17.9% | £45–£95 |
| Tyre has a tear | 12.0% | £45–£95 |
| Tyre cut too deep | 3.8% | £45–£95 |
| Ball joint excessively worn | 3.7% | £18–£45 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated | 1.8% | £18–£45 |
| Tyre has a bulge | 1.6% | £45–£95 |
| Wheel badly distorted | 1.6% | £20–£55 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt | 1.1% | £18–£45 |
Cost bands are our parts-based estimates, published as a range — method. Every failure item, ranked nationally: the full list →
What an MOT failure costs here
Across the 486,430 tests in this area, the typical bill works out at £538 to £1,457 per 100 tests, against £615 to £1,675 nationally — 24 of 118 areas, cheapest first. That is the pass rate and the price of the parts that fail here, multiplied together, so it moves with both.
Bands are our parts-based estimates, not quotes: how repairs are priced. The models that cost most to fix are on the cheap-and-dear list, and how far apart two postcodes can be for one model is worth a look before blaming the car.
One model year, this area against the rest
The tables below compare the same model year in this area with the same model year everywhere, so vehicle age is taken out of the comparison entirely. Each row links to that model's full postcode-by-postcode breakdown.
| Model | Here | Gap |
|---|---|---|
| Toyota C-Hr | 83.1% | -8.5 |
| Tesla Model 3 | 81.7% | -6.1 |
| Honda Civic | 73.5% | -5.7 |
| Kia Picanto | 90.2% | +9.7 |
| Ford Transit | 84.7% | +9.1 |
| Nissan Qashqai | 87.9% | +9.0 |
Furthest behind: Toyota C-Hr, Tesla Model 3, Honda Civic. Furthest ahead: Kia Picanto, Ford Transit, Nissan Qashqai. “Gap” is against each model's own national rate, not the 81.0% all-car rate — method. Three models either side of the gap, and each needs at least 300 tests of that model-year in this area.
Models that do worst here
| Model | Local | Nationally |
|---|---|---|
| Peugeot 207 | 72.2% | 70.8% (+1.4) |
| Vauxhall Vivaro | 74.5% | 72.8% (+1.7) |
| Renault Trafic | 74.6% | 73.4% (+1.2) |
| Renault Clio | 75.7% | 72.5% (+3.2) |
| Citroen C4 | 75.8% | 74.7% (+1.1) |
| Mercedes-Benz Vito | 76.2% | 78.5% (-2.3) |
Models that do best here
| Model | Local | Nationally |
|---|---|---|
| Porsche Macan | 94.7% | 93.1% (+1.6) |
| Volkswagen T-Roc | 94.7% | 93.3% (+1.4) |
| Lexus Rx | 94.5% | 93.7% (+0.8) |
| Lexus Nx | 94.3% | 94.0% (+0.3) |
| SEAT Ateca | 93.6% | 91.0% (+2.6) |
| Porsche 911 | 93.6% | 91.0% (+2.6) |
MOT stations in AL
There are 70 MOT test stations licensed for class 4 vehicles (cars, vans, motorhomes and people carriers) in the AL postcode area, according to the DVSA's published list of active stations.
We deliberately do not rank garages. The anonymised MOT data has no test-station field, so any “best garage in St Albans” list would be invented rather than measured — and a garage's pass rate mostly reflects the cars its customers bring, not the quality of its work.
Test centres by town in AL
Each town below has eight or more licensed class-4 stations and its own page: names, addresses, phone numbers and the postcodes they cover.
How to read this
The rate is per test, not per car: a vehicle tested twice counts twice, and a car that fails and is retested for free contributes a fail and a pass. The adjusted rate gives every area the national mix of model years and mileage bands by direct standardisation, so the “old cars” explanation is removed from the comparison — the full method.
Postcode area is the keeper's registered area, not the test station's. These are regional signals, not neighbourhood ones.
How far apart two postcodes can be for one model → · which cars fail most, and on what →