Can I drive my car if it fails its MOT?

Whether you can legally drive a car that's failed its MOT depends on what type of faults were found and whether your previous MOT certificate is still valid.

The rules break down like this:

• Dangerous defects — you cannot drive the car at all until repairs are made, regardless of whether your old MOT is still valid
• Major defects, with your old MOT still valid — you can legally continue driving until the old certificate expires, though it's not advisable given the fault has been identified
• Major defects, with your old MOT already expired — you can't drive the car, except directly to a pre-booked repair or retest
• Minor defects or advisories only — these don't affect the pass, and the car can usually be driven normally, though repairs should still be scheduled

Every MOT failure report will clearly state the defect category for each fault, so it's worth reading the full report rather than just the pass/fail result. When in doubt, treat a failed MOT as "don't drive it" until you've checked which category the fault falls into.