Average car mileage in the UK: what is normal for your car's age and model?

Is your car's mileage high or low?

Choose the make, model and age, and enter the mileage. We compare it with the average for that model at that age, and with all cars.

Want the exact mileage history of a particular car? Our free mileage check shows the reading at every MOT and flags any that went down.

Average mileage by age

Cars do most of their miles when they are young. The average three-to-five-year-old car has covered roughly 10,000 miles a year. Older cars add fewer miles each year, as they move to second and third owners who drive less, and as high-mileage cars are scrapped.

3 to 5 years38,692

6 to 8 years59,944

9 to 12 years82,647

13 years or more103,430

Cars only. Source: VehicleFile analysis of 16.9 million DVSA MOT tests, 2025.

Cars only. Vans and pickups are excluded from these averages and ranked separately.

The highest-mileage cars aged 9 to 12 years

Models with at least 4,000 tests at this age, ranked by average mileage. The list is dominated by cars favoured by taxi drivers, sales reps and large families: the Prius, big estates and seven-seat people carriers.

Average for all cars aged 9 to 12: 82,647

Toyota Prius166,371

Volkswagen Passat126,032

Toyota Avensis125,794

Volkswagen Sharan124,740

Skoda Superb124,150

SEAT Alhambra123,072

Ford Galaxy120,878

Ford Mondeo116,962

Mazda MX-546,836

Vauxhall Viva49,409

Smart Fortwo49,647

Suzuki Celerio51,470

Nissan Micra53,213

Models with at least 4,000 tests at this age.

The lowest-mileage cars aged 9 to 12 years

Small city cars and two-seat sports cars cover the fewest miles. These are often second cars or used for short local trips.

Younger cars: 3 to 5 years old

At three to five years old, the pattern is the same. The Prius is again far ahead, and several electric and hybrid cars, such as the Hyundai Ioniq, Kia Niro and Tesla Model 3, appear in the top 15.

Highest mileage at 3 to 5 years

Lowest mileage at 3 to 5 years

Do high-mileage cars fail their MOT more often?

Many buyers avoid high-mileage cars because they expect them to be worn out. The MOT data suggests the model's typical mileage is a poor guide. We split the 164 car models with enough tests at 9 to 12 years old into four equal groups by their average mileage, and compared their first-time MOT pass rates. The UK average pass rate at this age is 69.1%.

The highest-mileage models passed slightly more often than the lowest. Cars that cover big distances, mostly on motorways, tend to be serviced on time and are often built to last: the Prius at 166,000 miles still passed first time 76.9% of the time. Short, stop-start trips are hard on brakes, suspension and exhausts, so a low-mileage car is not automatically in better shape.

This compares models, not individual cars. For any single car, how it has been maintained matters more than the mileage, so ask for the service history and check its MOT history for repeat advisories. See how each model performs in our most reliable cars study.

High-mileage cars that still pass

These models averaged at least 15% more miles than the typical 9-to-12-year-old car, yet their first-time MOT pass rate was at least five points above the average of 69.1%. Many are large, well-built cars that tend to be serviced on schedule.

Average mileage of the UK's 20 most common cars

Average mileage by brand

Brands ranked by the average mileage of their cars aged 6 to 8 years. Volvo, Skoda, Toyota and the German premium brands sit near the top, as many of their cars are company cars or family cars driven long distances. Brands that mainly sell small cars, such as Fiat and Smart, sit near the bottom, along with Porsche, whose sports cars are rarely everyday transport.

Cars only, brands with at least 20,000 tests.

Petrol, diesel, hybrid or electric?

Diesel cars cover far more miles than petrol cars at every age, which is why they were the usual choice for high-mileage drivers. Three-to-five-year-old electric cars and hybrids also cover more miles than petrol cars of the same age.

Petrol, 6–8 years44,890

Diesel, 6–8 years83,027

Petrol, 9–12 years58,398

Diesel, 9–12 years107,337

DVSA records mileage by model, not by fuel, so these figures use the 6.0 million tests where at least 95% of a model variant's tests were one fuel type. Older hybrids and electric cars are left out because too few, mostly taxis, remain in the data.

Choosing between fuels? See petrol vs electric running costs and our fuel cost calculator.

Vans and pickups aged 6 to 8 years

Light vans sit the same class 4 MOT as cars but work much harder. The Mercedes-Benz Vito averaged more than 130,000 miles by six to eight years old.

What this means if you are buying a used car

• Start with a reliable model. See the most reliable used cars of each type.
• Compare with the right average. 90,000 miles is high for a ten-year-old Hyundai i10 but below average for a Skoda Octavia of the same age. Use the checker above.
• Low mileage is not always good news. A car that has only done short trips can be harder worn than one that has cruised on motorways. A mileage far below average is also what a clocked car looks like.
• Check the mileage history. Every MOT since 2005 records the odometer reading. Our mileage check shows them all and flags any drop. Read why clocking is still a problem.
• Check what it is worth. Mileage affects value. Try our car value calculator and depreciation calculator, and work through our used car checklist.

How we did this study

• Data. DVSA's anonymised MOT test results for 2025, published under the Open Government Licence. We used seven full months: February, April, May, June, August, November and December 2025, a total of 16,904,967 tests, of which 16,872,020 had a usable mileage.
• Which tests. Normal MOT tests on class 4 vehicles (cars, taxis and light vans up to 3,000kg). Retests are excluded, so each car is counted once per test.
• Mileage. The odometer reading recorded at the test, in miles. Readings of zero or above 600,000 were treated as errors and left out. Each figure is the mean (average) for that group.
• Age. Calculated from the vehicle's first-use date to the test date. Cars under three years old rarely need an MOT and are excluded.
• Models. Trims are grouped under the model, so "Golf GT TDI" counts as Golf. Models need at least 4,000 tests in an age group to appear in a ranking, and 300 to show in the checker.
• Mileage and MOT results. The pass rates are first-time pass rates from our reliability study, using the same tests. The comparison is between models, not individual cars.
• Limits. The MOT sample includes every car tested, so models popular with taxi and private hire drivers push up some averages. Mileage is recorded as the tester reads it, and a small number of readings will be wrong.

Use this data

Journalists, researchers and car sites are welcome to quote, chart and republish these figures for free. Please credit VehicleFile with a link to this page:

Source: VehicleFile analysis of DVSA MOT data (https://vehiclefile.co.uk/average-car-mileage)

Download the full table (CSV, 59 makes)

Need a figure for a particular model? Contact us and we will run it.

Questions

What is the average mileage for a car in the UK?

It depends on age. In our analysis of 16.9 million MOT tests, the average car had 39,000 miles at 3 to 5 years old, 60,000 at 6 to 8 years, 83,000 at 9 to 12 years and 103,000 at 13 years or more.

What is a good mileage for a 10-year-old car?

The average car aged 9 to 12 years had 83,000 miles at its MOT in 2025. Anything well below that is low for the age, and anything well above is high. The model matters too: small city cars typically have far fewer miles than large family cars.

Which cars do the most miles?

The Toyota Prius, popular with taxi and private hire drivers, averaged 166,371 miles at 9 to 12 years old, about double the average car. Large family cars and estates such as the Volkswagen Passat, Skoda Superb and Ford Mondeo came next.

Do high-mileage cars fail their MOT more often?

Not as a rule. In our data, the models that typically cover the most miles passed their MOT at 9 to 12 years old slightly more often than the models that cover the fewest (73.9% against 70.8%). How a car has been maintained matters more than the number on the odometer.

Do diesel cars do more miles than petrol cars?

Yes. Where we could identify the fuel, diesel cars aged 6 to 8 years averaged 83,000 miles, against 45,000 for petrol cars.

Can I use this data?

Yes. You can quote, chart and republish these figures for free, including in news articles, as long as you credit VehicleFile with a link to this page. The full model-by-model table is available as a CSV download.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures calculated by VehicleFile. Spotted an error? Tell us.