Should Vehicles Over 40 Years Old Really Be MOT Exempt?
21/09/2026
By Jason, Owner — Newbury 4x4 Centre, Thatcham
Any vehicle built more than 40 years ago can be exempt from needing an MOT, as long as it hasn’t been “substantially changed” and the relevant historic vehicle requirements are met. It’s a rolling exemption that moves forward every year — in 2026 that means eligible vehicles built before 1 January 1986. No compulsory test or inspection is required. The exemption is declared when taxing the vehicle.
MOT exempt doesn’t mean roadworthy exempt
The law is clear that the vehicle still has to be roadworthy to be used on the road. What it doesn’t do is require anyone to routinely check that. And that’s really the whole question this exemption raises.
That “must be roadworthy” requirement isn’t just words on paper, either. It comes from the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations, and it applies whether a vehicle is MOT exempt or not. If an exempt vehicle is stopped and found to be unsafe, the owner or driver can still face enforcement action for using a vehicle in a dangerous condition. There can also be insurance implications where a defect contributed to an incident, depending on the circumstances and the policy wording. So the legal responsibility doesn’t disappear with the exemption. What disappears is the routine independent vehicle check before something goes wrong.
Roadworthy by law, checked by no one
Once a vehicle passes the 40-year mark and qualifies for the exemption, there’s no compulsory test or health inspection required at any point, ever again. That applies whether the owner has driven it unchanged for thirty years, had a specialist go through it top to bottom, or done all the work themselves in a home garage.
We see the sharp end of this fairly regularly in our workshop. We get some genuinely dangerous old Land Rovers through our doors that would never pass a test in their current state, and because there’s no legal requirement to test them, nobody’s forcing the issue. We’ll tell the customer straight that it isn’t in a roadworthy condition and explain why. Most take that seriously and either let us put it right or take it off the road until they can. But we’ve had the odd customer shrug it off with something like “I only use it for short trips now and again, I’ll live with it.” That’s their legal position under the exemption, but it doesn’t sit comfortably with us, because a worn brake pipe/line or a corroded chassis doesn’t care whether the journey is five minutes or fifty miles.
It’s not just about untrained rebuilds
It would be easy to frame this as a problem with amateurs taking on jobs they’re not qualified for, but that’s not really the issue, and it wouldn’t be fair to put it that way.
Plenty of people restoring or maintaining these vehicles at home are seriously skilled, some have more genuine hands-on knowledge of how a vehicle like this goes together than a lot of technicians who’ve only ever worked on modern stuff. A shed-built restoration can be better engineered than a job done in a proper workshop.
The point isn’t skill, it’s oversight. Whether the work is done by a highly capable enthusiast, a complete beginner, or a paid garage, there is currently nothing that independently confirms the vehicle’s condition once it’s over 40 years old and exempt. There’s no way to routinely distinguish a brilliant restoration from a dangerous one, because nothing has to check either of them.
Where we land on it
Our honest view is that every vehicle on the road should have an MOT every year, regardless of age, and regardless of who worked on it or how well. For £54.85, the peace of mind of knowing a vehicle meets the minimum standard to be on public roads is worth it on its own, and it applies just as much to a beautifully restored classic as to a daily runabout.
There’s also a practical point that gets missed in this debate: a low-mileage or occasionally-used vehicle isn’t automatically a safer bet than one driven every day. Vehicles that sit for long periods can develop problems a daily driver wouldn’t, brakes seizing from lack of use, tyres perishing and developing flat spots from sitting in one position too long (unless they’re on tyre savers, overinflated for storage, or the vehicle’s been jacked up off the ground), electrics failing where damp has got into a connector or a rodent has chewed through wiring while the vehicle’s been standing. None of that is about the skill of whoever last worked on it. It’s about what happens while a vehicle sits still, and nothing currently checks for it once a vehicle is old enough to be exempt.
An annual test for every vehicle, regardless of age, would catch all of it, the rare bad rebuild, the vehicle that’s quietly deteriorated while parked up, everything in between, without singling out anyone’s skill or intentions.
In the meantime, it’s worth knowing the exemption is optional, not compulsory. If your vehicle is over 40 years old and qualifies for the exemption, you can still choose to put it through a normal MOT every year even though you’re not required to, plenty of owners do exactly that, purely for their own peace of mind. If you’d like that peace of mind for a vehicle of your own, get in touch and we can arrange it for you, and give it a proper check on the ramp at the same time.
Final Thoughts
The 40-year MOT exemption was introduced to recognise the particular nature of historic vehicles, and there are understandable reasons why classic vehicle owners value it. But we think there is a difference between saying “this vehicle doesn’t legally need an MOT” and saying “this vehicle doesn’t need checking.”
The first can be true.
The second isn’t.
Until the rules change, owners remain responsible for keeping their vehicles roadworthy. For us, an annual independent check is a straightforward way of adding another layer of confidence — whether the vehicle is a modern daily driver or a 40-year-old Land Rover that spends most of its time in the garage.
If your classic is MOT exempt but you’d like the reassurance of an annual test, get in touch. We can arrange the MOT and take a proper look at the vehicle while it’s with us.
We’d be interested to know what other people think.
Should every vehicle be MOT’d annually, no matter how old or how little it’s used?
Do you think skilled home restorers are being unfairly lumped in with a “who’s checking this” argument that isn’t really about skill at all?
Have you had an older or low-mileage vehicle catch you out with a fault you didn’t expect?
Please feel free to email us on service@newbury4x4.co.uk to discuss any points raised in this article or to book a Vehicle Health Inspection.
About the author – Jason has been working on Land Rovers and Range Rovers for over 25 years. Newbury 4x4 Centre is based in Thatcham, Berkshire, and serves customers across Newbury, Reading, Basingstoke, Andover and the wider Thames Valley area.
