From real MOT records

Average car mileage by age

How many miles a car of each age has typically done, taken from the mileage recorded at MOT tests of the cars checked on this site. The figure for each age is the median: half the cars had done less, half more. Built from 202,102 MOT visits of 25,257 cars, recalculated daily.

Median mileage at each age

Age at test	Median mileage	Middle half of cars	Tests
3 years	21,010 miles	12,698 – 31,359	21,407
4 years	27,388 miles	16,776 – 40,090	19,754
5 years	33,434 miles	20,535 – 48,586	18,532
6 years	39,500 miles	24,445 – 56,779	17,497
7 years	45,295 miles	28,065 – 64,895	16,418
8 years	50,529 miles	31,209 – 72,368	14,978
9 years	55,122 miles	33,968 – 78,863	13,534
10 years	59,073 miles	35,946 – 84,584	12,024
11 years	61,619 miles	38,041 – 88,670	10,333
12 years	63,682 miles	38,398 – 91,553	8,933
13 years	65,064 miles	38,946 – 94,297	7,621
14 years	65,455 miles	38,519 – 96,668	6,468
15 years	65,739 miles	38,178 – 97,790	5,604
16 years	65,265 miles	37,624 – 99,326	4,827
17 years	63,515 miles	36,683 – 97,415	4,176
18 years	61,873 miles	36,045 – 95,319	3,633
19 years	61,682 miles	35,908 – 94,766	3,127
20 years	59,689 miles	35,244 – 93,683	2,588

Age is the car’s age at the test, in whole years from its year of manufacture. Ages with fewer than 40 tests are not shown. “Middle half” is the range from the 25th to the 75th percentile.

Median mileage by model, at 5, 8, 10 and 12 years

Model	5 years	8 years	10 years	12 years
Toyota Yaris	29,446	45,767	54,666	62,291
Bentley Continental	21,877	32,663	39,329	44,736
Honda Jazz	27,606	43,901	51,953	61,687
Ford Fiesta	34,588	53,180	63,724	73,222
Lotus Elise	21,212	32,732	37,064	40,749
Volkswagen Golf	42,886	66,347	79,860	93,020
Vauxhall Corsa	32,638	48,083	60,003	67,066
Nissan Qashqai	40,426	63,107	75,661	88,333
Ford Focus	40,275	61,008	75,006	87,490
Honda Civic	37,349	59,059	72,816	80,397
Ford Transit	70,623	97,120	107,930	115,044
Volkswagen Polo	32,945	50,208	58,799	67,123
Mercedes-Benz A-class	41,625	62,449	77,646	83,219
MINI Cooper	31,322	50,381	61,003	69,720
Aston Martin DB9	17,689	24,228	28,077	34,336
BMW 3 Series	47,283	71,302	83,333	93,972
Aston Martin Vantage	15,410	20,416	23,612	30,702
Vauxhall Astra	41,242	60,030	75,414	84,296
BMW 1 Series	41,795	63,545	77,702	85,654
Nissan Juke	35,126	55,370	68,469	81,899

The models with the most cars checked here. A figure needs at least 15 tests at that age; “–“ means too few. Each model links to its own page of checked cars.

How to use these figures

Find the car’s age and compare its mileage with the middle-half range. Inside the range is ordinary use; well outside it, in either direction, is worth a question to the seller.
A low reading is only good news if it fits the history. Check that the MOT readings rise steadily year on year, and that the service stamps match.
A high reading is not a fault in itself. Motorway miles wear a car less than the same distance around town, so ask what the car was used for.
The free check shows every MOT reading for a car, and the pass rate by age page shows how often cars of each age fail.

Questions

What is a normal mileage for a car?+

There is no single figure: it depends on the car’s age. The table above gives the median for each age, which is the reading half the cars fall below. A car within the middle-half range for its age is doing ordinary mileage. As a guide, half the 5-year-old cars checked here had done under 33,434 miles, and half the 10-year-old cars under 59,073.

Is high mileage bad?+

Not on its own. Mileage tells you how much a car has been used, and use wears parts, but so does age: a low-mileage car can sit for years with perished rubber and seized brakes. What matters is whether the mileage fits the service history and the MOT record. The free check on this site shows every recorded MOT reading for a car, so you can see how it was used year by year.

Why medians rather than averages?+

A few cars with enormous mileages, or a typing error at a test, would pull an average up. The median is the middle car, so it is not affected by the extremes. The “middle half” column shows the range between the 25th and 75th percentile.

Where do these figures come from?+

Every MOT test records the car’s mileage. The figures here are built from the MOT histories of the cars people have checked on this site, which are mostly cars for sale, so they describe the used-car market rather than every car on the road. They are recalculated daily.

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Updated 22 Sept 2026 · figures as of 4 Oct 2026. Also see MOT advisories explained and cars by make.