Almost 133,000 unroadworthy vehicles entered NCT centres in 2025

Nearly 133,000 vehicles that were assessed in 2025 by National Car Test (NCT) inspectors were deemed to be unroadworthy to a dangerous level.

This means almost eight per cent of the 1,744,985 vehicles submitted for an NCT last year were classified as “fail dangerous”.

While the latest figures from the NCTS, the body that administers Ireland’s national car test programme, do not show a breakdown of the reasons for the high number of ‘dangerous fail’ results, the figures do tell us the reasons for ‘visual defect’ fails.

Over 250,000 cars failed their NCT in 2025 due to defective tyres (14.3 per cent), followed by over 190,000 cars (10.9 per cent) with defective front suspension, and more than 148,000 cars (8.5 per cent) for defective steering linkage.

The 1.74 million tests carried out in 2025 is the highest in the NCT’s 25-year history