North West test centres: 49.0% average, a 31.8-point spread and £345 between the best and worst.
DVSA ran 256,786 car practical tests across 32 North West centres in April 2025 to March 2026 and 125,849 candidates passed. The gap between Barrow In Furness at 69.6% and Norris Green (Liverpool) at 37.9% is worth about £345 of expected fees and retake lessons.
- Regional pass rate
- 49.0%
- Test centres
- 32
- Median wait
- 12.1 wk
- Lesson rate
- £28-£36
-1.0 pts vs national
31 with full data
across the region, July 2026
per hour, manual
North West learner budget
At the North West average of 49.0% and £32 an hour.
- Provisional licence£34
- Theory test£23
- 45 hours at £32£1,440
- DVSA fees (2.04 attempts)£127
- Retake lessons£233
- Typical North West total£1,857
Excludes learner insurance and costs after passing. Full cost stack.
North West passes below the national rate.
Across 32 centres, North West recorded 49.0% in April 2025 to March 2026, 1.0 percentage points below the 50.03% figure for Great Britain, which ranks it 8 of 11 DVSA regions. That is 256,786 tests and 125,849 passes.
The regional average hides the choice that actually matters. Barrow In Furness finished the year on 69.6% from 1,699 tests, Norris Green (Liverpool) on 37.9% from 13,472. On the expected-attempts model the first implies 1.44 attempts and £187 of fees and retake lessons, the second 2.64 attempts and £532. The 31.8-point spread is therefore a £345 decision.
Waiting time varies as widely as the pass rate. West Didsbury (Manchester) showed a median 22.6 weeks between booking and test in the latest DVSA reading, against 0.3 weeks at Carlisle LGV (Cars). The regional median is 12.1 weeks, and the national median across all 317 centres is 11.9. Queue length is the part of a fail that a cost table misses: each retake pushes the licence back by roughly the local median, with insurance and lesson top-ups running through it.
West Didsbury (Manchester) is the busiest centre in North West at 17,806 tests, passing 47.7%. Lesson rates across North West run £28 to £36 an hour for manual tuition, which is what turns a percentage point of pass rate into a pound figure: at £32 an hour, each extra expected attempt costs £286 in fee and follow-up lessons.
1 North West centre ran fewer than 100 tests in the year. DVSA warns that figures at that scale are not reliable for comparing centres, so they are listed in the table below with their published figures but have no page of their own.
All 32 North West test centres, ranked.
Test cycle cost is the expected DVSA fees plus retake lessons at the North West rate of £32 an hour, so the column compares centres on the one variable that changes: how many attempts the pass rate implies.
| # | Test centre | Pass rate | Tests | 1st attempt | Wait | Attempts | Test cycle cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Barrow In Furness | 69.6% | 1,699 | 70.0% | 4.4 wk | 1.44 | £187 |
| 2 | Kendal (Oxenholme Road) | 65.1% | 2,231 | 67.0% | 10.7 wk | 1.54 | £215 |
| 3 | Workington | 61.9% | 2,998 | 63.3% | 10.9 wk | 1.61 | £238 |
| 4 | Heysham | 59.2% | 3,692 | 61.9% | 18.1 wk | 1.69 | £259 |
| 5 | Carlisle | 58.7% | 3,518 | 59.9% | 8.4 wk | 1.70 | £263 |
| 6 | Northwich | 57.6% | 3,529 | 57.3% | 19.1 wk | 1.74 | £273 |
| 7 | Southport (Liverpool) | 56.5% | 7,949 | 57.2% | 16.9 wk | 1.77 | £282 |
| 8 | Preston | 56.3% | 9,194 | 56.9% | 18.4 wk | 1.78 | £284 |
| 9 | Bredbury (Manchester) | 56.0% | 10,636 | 57.9% | 17.1 wk | 1.79 | £287 |
| 10 | Warrington | 55.5% | 7,550 | 55.5% | 10.6 wk | 1.80 | £291 |
| 11 | Wallasey | 54.3% | 968 | 54.4% | 20.5 wk | 1.84 | £302 |
| 12 | Chorley | 52.8% | 5,415 | 54.0% | 12 wk | 1.89 | £317 |
| 13 | Upton | 52.6% | 10,772 | 54.9% | 12.1 wk | 1.90 | £320 |
| 14 | Macclesfield | 51.9% | 4,509 | 52.3% | 21.4 wk | 1.93 | £327 |
| 15 | Bolton (Manchester) | 51.8% | 11,570 | 52.8% | 16.2 wk | 1.93 | £328 |
| 16 | Blackpool | 51.8% | 8,948 | 52.0% | 8.9 wk | 1.93 | £328 |
| 17 | Nelson | 51.7% | 5,955 | 52.1% | 19.7 wk | 1.93 | £329 |
| 18 | Sale (Manchester) | 51.4% | 10,921 | 53.0% | 15.4 wk | 1.95 | £332 |
| 19 | Rochdale (Manchester) | 48.3% | 11,563 | 48.6% | 9.1 wk | 2.07 | £368 |
| 20 | West Didsbury (Manchester) | 47.7% | 17,806 | 48.1% | 22.6 wk | 2.10 | £375 |
| 21 | Chester | 47.3% | 9,212 | 47.9% | 14.4 wk | 2.11 | £380 |
| 22 | Chadderton | 46.8% | 15,988 | 45.6% | 12 wk | 2.14 | £388 |
| 23 | Blackburn with Darwen | 46.6% | 12,205 | 45.5% | 8.6 wk | 2.15 | £390 |
| 24 | Bury (Manchester) | 46.3% | 7,024 | 45.7% | 7.6 wk | 2.16 | £393 |
| 25 | Cheetham Hill (Manchester) | 44.7% | 10,207 | 44.1% | 10.4 wk | 2.24 | £416 |
| 26 | Carlisle LGV (Cars) low volume | 44.7% | 47 | n/a | 0.3 wk | 2.24 | £416 |
| 27 | Atherton (Manchester) | 44.3% | 13,035 | 45.1% | 15.3 wk | 2.26 | £421 |
| 28 | Crewe | 43.8% | 4,994 | 42.6% | 16 wk | 2.28 | £429 |
| 29 | Widnes | 42.7% | 6,846 | 41.3% | 6.9 wk | 2.34 | £446 |
| 30 | St Helens (Liverpool) | 40.9% | 14,174 | 42.1% | 6.6 wk | 2.44 | £475 |
| 31 | Speke (Liverpool) | 40.5% | 8,159 | 41.5% | 8.3 wk | 2.47 | £481 |
| 32 | Norris Green (Liverpool) | 37.9% | 13,472 | 36.0% | 15.3 wk | 2.64 | £532 |
17-year-olds in North West pass at 63.5%. 25-year-olds pass at 48.3%.
DVSA table DRT122D splits each centre by single year of age. Across North West that is a 15.2-point spread, against 14.9 points nationally, from 33,058 tests at 17 and 8,624 at 25. On this page’s arithmetic, at the £32 North West lesson rate, the gap is worth £141 in expected fees and retake lessons.
Aggregated from the age cells DVSA published at the 32 North West centres in that table. Cells the agency withholds are left out, never estimated, so this curve rests only on published counts. Each centre page below carries its own age split where its cells are large enough to publish. The national age curve and how to read it.
North West, pass rate by age
- Age 17
- 63.5%
- Age 25
- 48.3%
- Gap
- 15.2 pts
Where North West sits among the eleven DVSA regions.
Other regions
Local cost guides for North West
Source and provenance
Pass rates, test volumes, gender splits and waiting times on this page are published statistics from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), taken from Driving test and theory test data: cars, tables DRT122A (Car driving test pass rates by gender and month: test centres, updated 2026-06-25), DRT122C (Car driving test pass rates by first driving attempt and gender, including zero faults: test centres, updated 2026-06-25), DRT122D (Car driving test pass rates by age (17 to 25 year olds), year and test centre, updated 2026-06-25) and DRT122F (Car driving test waiting times and availability by driving test centre, updated 2026-08-12). Centre-level figures cover the April 2025 to March 2026 financial year; the national quarterly series runs to June 2026. Snapshot taken 2026-09-04.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Cost figures are drivingtestcost.com’s own, from the GOV.UK fee schedule and our regional lesson survey; DVSA publishes no prices and none of the money on this page comes from DVSA.
drivingtestcost.com is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the DVSA, the DVA or GOV.UK. Pass rates are DVSA published statistics reproduced under the Open Government Licence, not our assessment of any centre. Great Britain only; Northern Ireland tests are run separately by the DVA. DVSA cautions that centre figures below about 100 tests a year are not robust for comparison.
The age curve is aggregated from the single-year-of-age cells DVSA published for the 32 North West centres in DRT122D. DVSA withholds the counts in small age cells; those cells are excluded here rather than estimated or back-filled from a block total.