Every Tenth Driver Risks a £2,500 DVSA Fine by Skipping MOTs to Save Cash

• One in 10 drivers has driven illegally by skipping an MOT or ignoring bald tyres, new RAC research shows, with under-25s five times more likely to do it than over-65s.
• A single defective tyre carries a fine of up to £2,500 and three penalty points, meaning four worn tyres can add up to £10,000 and a ban.
• The average car repair bill has climbed to almost £700, and the RAC says the number of drivers worried about upkeep costs has jumped from 25% to 32% in a year.

The Corners Drivers Are Cutting to Save Money

Car maintenance has quietly become the bill people stop paying first when money gets tight. Research released by the RAC finds that 10% of drivers have deliberately skipped an MOT or kept driving on tyres below the legal limit rather than pay for repairs, effectively putting themselves on the wrong side of the law to protect their bank balance.

The habit is heavily skewed by age. A quarter of drivers under 25 admit to delaying repairs or tyre replacements for financial reasons, and 21% of those aged 25 to 44 say the same. Among drivers 65 and older, that figure drops to just 5%. Younger drivers, who already pay some of the highest insurance premiums on the road, appear to be absorbing extra risk by cutting the maintenance corner too.

Broken down by offence, 3% of all drivers say they have deliberately avoided booking an MOT, while 7% admit to driving on tyres worn below the legal tread limit. Applied to the 43 million full driving licences the DVLA currently has on its books, a habit reported by roughly one in 10 respondents points to a problem running into the millions rather than a fringe issue.

What the Law Actually Allows and What It Costs

An MOT is not optional paperwork. Under Section 47 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, using a vehicle on the road without a valid test certificate, where one is legally required, is a criminal offence carrying a fine of up to £1,000. Roadside enforcement more commonly results in a fixed penalty in the £100 to £200 range, though prosecution for the full amount remains possible, and there is no points penalty for the MOT offence alone.

Tyres are treated more strictly. The Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986 set the legal minimum tread depth at 1.6mm across the central three-quarters of the tyre, measured around its full circumference. Fall below that limit and each tyre is a separate offence: up to £2,500 and three penalty points per tyre. A car running on four illegal tyres can rack up a £10,000 fine and 12 points in one stop, well beyond the six-point threshold at which new drivers lose their licence automatically.

That threshold is the sharpest edge for the youngest drivers admitting to this behaviour. A new driver caught with two bald tyres in a single stop would clear six penalty points on the spot, wiping out their licence within two years of passing their test, long before any separate speeding or phone offence pushes them over the limit.

Drivers checking their own tyres can use the well-known 20p test: insert a 20p coin into the main grooves, and if the outer rim of the coin is visible, the tyre is likely close to or below the legal limit and needs a proper gauge check.

Why the Bills Keep Climbing

The RAC’s Report on Motoring 2026, which surveyed 2,238 licence holders for the insurer between 14 and 28 February, found that 60% of drivers say the cost of maintaining and repairing their car has risen over the past year. Almost a third, 32%, now say they are worried about keeping up with those costs, up sharply from 25% just twelve months earlier.

Fuel costs are adding to the squeeze rather than easing it. A tank of petrol now costs £89, up from £74 a year ago, while a tank of diesel has risen from £79 to £100 over the same period, according to the RAC’s own pump price tracking. With both running costs and repair bills rising together, the RAC says the average bill to put a car right has climbed to almost £700, a figure that helps explain why so many drivers are choosing to gamble rather than pay.

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said the trend was a false economy dressed up as a saving. “It’s concerning that so many drivers appear to be risking breaking the law by not having a valid MOT or driving on bald tyres,” he said. “With the average repair bill climbing to almost £700, it’s little wonder that so many people are finding it difficult to make ends meet. But kicking the can down the road and delaying repairs to your vehicle or putting them off altogether is a false economy. Often, it makes the problem worse, which can lead to a more expensive bill down the line.”

He added that the bigger risk sits beyond the fine itself: a car left in this state can be unsafe and illegal to drive at the same time, with bald tyres drastically increasing stopping distances and the odds of an unexpected blowout.

The Hidden Cost: Your Insurance Could Be Next

A fine and penalty points are not the only exposure. Most fully-comp policies require a vehicle to be kept in a roadworthy condition at all times, and an expired MOT can give an insurer grounds to challenge a claim after a crash, whether or not the policy itself technically remains in force. Insurers cannot legally refuse to pay third-party claims for injury or damage to someone else’s car on the strength of a lapsed MOT alone, as third-party cover is a legal minimum, but they can and do reduce or dispute payouts for damage to the policyholder’s own vehicle when a car turns out to have been driven without a current test certificate.

That leaves drivers who skip an MOT to save a few hundred pounds facing a scenario where a single accident wipes out the saving several times over, on top of any fine and points handed down separately by the police or DVSA.

Cheaper Ways to Stay Legal

Around 10,000 drivers were caught last year with penalty points on their licence specifically for using a vehicle with a dangerous defect, such as faulty brakes, steering or tyres, rather than for a lapsed MOT alone. Avoiding that outcome does not have to mean an expensive trip to a main dealer.

Independent garages and mobile mechanic services typically undercut dealership pricing substantially for routine work such as tyre replacement, brake pads and MOT retests. Several repair networks, including the RAC’s own mobile mechanic service, now let customers spread the cost of a repair bill through instalment providers such as Klarna rather than paying the full amount upfront, which can make the difference between fixing a fault immediately and putting it off for months.

Setting a calendar reminder for the MOT renewal date, using the free vehicle check on GOV.UK to confirm a car’s MOT and tax status, and checking tyre tread with a proper gauge every few weeks rather than waiting for a garage to flag it are all free steps that catch a developing problem before it becomes an illegal one. Drivers who cannot immediately afford a repair still have a legal option: driving directly to a pre-booked MOT test is permitted under a specific exemption, provided the vehicle is roadworthy enough to make the trip safely.

None of this changes the core numbers driving the behaviour in the first place. Real household budgets are tighter, fuel and repair costs have both risen together, and the RAC’s own data shows the share of drivers worried about upkeep costs rising every year the survey has run. What has changed is how visible the consequences now are: penalty points that can end a new licence in a single stop, insurers with more grounds to dispute a claim, and a DVSA enforcement record already showing thousands of drivers caught in exactly this position last year.

Sources:

• https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/cash-strapped-drivers-admit-skipping-MOT-and-not-replacing-tyres/
• https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/53/section/47
• https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-tax-mot-insurance
• https://www.gov.uk/tyres-legal-requirements
• https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/vehicle-licensing-statistics-january-to-march-2026/vehicle-licensing-statistics-january-to-march-2026