About mechanics.trade

Where the information comes from

Three public sources, all free to use and all credited:

• The DVSA register of active MOT test stations, for the garage, its address and the classes it may test.
• The DVSA anonymised MOT testing data, for the pass rates in each part of the country. We looked at 42,728,066 tests from 2025.
• Companies House and open mapping data, for how long a business has been registered and when it opens.

All of it is published under the Open Government Licence, except the mapping data, which is open too.

What being listed means

It means DVSA authorises that garage to test vehicles. That is a fact about a legal permission. It is not a recommendation from us, and we have no view on which garage you should use.

We publish no ratings, no reviews and no rankings, and no one can pay to appear, to move up a page or to keep a competitor off it. Listings are ordered by whether a garage is independent and then by how close it is to the middle of its town.

Where we show one branch of a chain

Some national chains have several branches in one town. We show one and say how many others are nearby, so a page of results gives you a real choice rather than the same company five times.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is not covered yet. The MOT there is carried out by the DVA at government test centres rather than by private garages, so there is no register of the same kind to work from.

How to change a listing

If your garage is listed and something is wrong, tell us. Corrections are free and we act on removal requests.