motstat API

UK car reliability from real MOT results, and any car’s MOT history by number plate, as JSON. The same data as the site and the AI connector.

Get started

Sign in and create an API key.
Send it with every request as Authorization: Bearer mst_….
Call https://api.motstat.co.uk/v1.

Free during launch: 5,000 calls a month per account and 60 a minute per key; only answered calls count, errors are free. Need more, or the full table for bulk use? Email hello@motstat.co.uk.

Endpoints

GET/v1/search?q=

Find makes and models by name. Up to 10 matches with their grade.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MOTSTAT_KEY" \
  https://api.motstat.co.uk/v1/search?q=toyota%20yaris

GET/v1/makes/{make}

A make’s grade and every graded model, best first.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MOTSTAT_KEY" \
  https://api.motstat.co.uk/v1/makes/ford

GET/v1/models/{make}/{model}

A model’s grade over all years. Add year, fuel (petrol, diesel, hybrid, electric, diesel hybrid, lpg) and/or engine (litres or cc) for those versions, each with its weak spots.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MOTSTAT_KEY" \
  https://api.motstat.co.uk/v1/models/ford/fiesta?year=2015&fuel=petrol&engine=1.0

GET/v1/plates/{registration}

One car’s MOT history from the DVSA: every test with mileage and defects, MOT status, warnings (mileage going down, gaps with no MOT, an outstanding safety recall) and its model’s grade.

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $MOTSTAT_KEY" \
  https://api.motstat.co.uk/v1/plates/AB12CDE

OpenAPI 3.1: https://api.motstat.co.uk/v1/openapi.json

What the grades mean

Each grade compares how often a car passes its MOT first time with a typical car of the same age and mileage. A is the best 20% of UK cars, E the worst 20%. beatsPercentOfCars is the share of cars it beats, pointsVsTypicalCar the first-time pass rate’s gap in percentage points. More about the grades.

A grade describes the model, not one car. MOT history can’t show write-offs, theft or outstanding finance.

Errors and limits

Errors are JSON: {"error": {"code": "…", "message": "…"}}.

`400`	bad_request: a missing or invalid parameter
`401`	missing_key or invalid_key
`404`	not_found: no such make, model or registration
`429`	rate_limited (60 a minute per key), monthly_limit, or busy (too many plate lookups at once: retry in a minute)
`502`	The DVSA MOT history service didn’t respond

Every response carries X-Monthly-Calls-Remaining.

Terms

Show “Data from motstat.co.uk” with a link where you display our grades. Don’t resell the data or store it in bulk to rebuild the grades table; ask us about bulk access. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (DVSA and DfT MOT data).