Rochdale (Manchester) test centre: 48.3% pass rate, £368 to get through it.
DVSA conducted 11,563 car practical tests here between April 2025 and March 2026, and 5,584 candidates passed. On the expected-attempts arithmetic that is 2.07 attempts, £128 in DVSA fees and £240 of retake lessons before a licence.
- Pass rate
- 48.3%
- Tests conducted
- 11,563
- National rank
- 220
- Median wait
- 9.1 wk
-1.7 pts vs national
5,584 passes
of 308 ranked centres
July 2026
What passing at Rochdale (Manchester) costs
Expected cost of the test cycle for the average candidate at a 48.3% centre.
- Expected attempts (1 ÷ pass rate)2.07
- DVSA fees at £62 weekday£128
- Retake lessons (1.07 × 7 hr × £32)£240
- Test cycle at this centre£368
- Against a national-average centre+£20
- Extra queue time from retakes9.7 wk
Add the parts that do not change with the centre and the full bill from provisional to licence at North West lesson rates is about £1,865: £34 provisional, £23 theory, 45 hours of tuition at £32 (£1,440) and the test cycle above. Full cost stack.
What 48.3% at Rochdale (Manchester) actually means for your budget.
11,563 candidates took the car practical test at Rochdale (Manchester) during 2025/26 and 5,584 of them passed, a pass rate of 48.3%. That is a high-volume centre, ranked 220th of 308 on pass rate, and 19th of 31 inside North West.
That lands within 1.7 percentage points of the 50.03% national figure and 0.7 points below the 49.0% North West average, which makes Rochdale (Manchester) an ordinary centre on the DVSA table and puts the cost question back on preparation rather than location.
Turn 48.3% into money. One divided by the pass rate gives 2.07 expected attempts before a first pass, so the average candidate at Rochdale (Manchester) pays the £62 weekday DVSA fee about 2.07 times, or £128. Add 1.07 expected retakes at 7 hours of extra tuition each, charged at the North West rate of £32 an hour, and the extra lessons come to £240. The test cycle at Rochdale (Manchester) is therefore about £368. Testing here therefore costs about £20 more than the same candidate would spend at a centre sitting on the 50.03% national average, purely because of the extra attempt the pass rate implies.
Waiting time at Rochdale (Manchester) ran to a median 9.1 weeks between booking and test in July 2026, 2.8 weeks below the 11.9-week national median. Across 1.07 expected retakes that is roughly 9.7 weeks of extra queueing before a licence arrives. In the same month DVSA offered 2,504 standard slots inside the booking window here and 4.6% of them were still free to book.
First attempts track the headline closely: 2,469 passes from 5,079 first tests at Rochdale (Manchester), 48.6% against 48.3% for all attempts. 65 of those first tests were passed with no driving faults recorded at all, 1.28% of them.
Since 2021/22 the pass rate at Rochdale (Manchester) has risen by 12.5 points, from 35.8% to 48.3%. Test volume has grown over the same span, from 6,453 to 11,563 tests a year. On the cost model above, that shift alone is worth about £208 to the average candidate.
Male candidates passed at 50.1% and female candidates at 45.7%, a gap of 4.4 points across 6,777 and 4,786 tests. Automatic tests made up 26.9% of the workload and passed at 42.8%, 5.5 points below the manual-inclusive rate, worth knowing before paying the automatic lesson premium. Month to month the rate ran from 43.6% in April 2025 to 52.5% in February 2026, a 9.0-point swing that shows how little a single month proves.
Among centres of a similar size in North West, Bredbury (Manchester) runs 7.7 points higher at 56.0%. On the same arithmetic that is roughly £81 of expected difference. Before moving, price the switch: a new instructor or extra travel for route familiarity typically costs £60 to £120 plus two settling-in lessons, which eats most of a gap under about eight points.
Rochdale (Manchester) vs its region and the country.
- Rank in North West
- 19 of 31
- First-attempt rate
- 48.6%
- Zero-fault first passes
- 65
- Automatic pass rate
- 42.8%
- Male candidates
- 50.1%
- Female candidates
- 45.7%
-0.7 pts vs region
5,079 first tests
1.28% of first attempts
26.9% of tests here
6,777 tests
4,786 tests
Up 12.5 points since 2021/22.
Dashed line: the 50.03% national pass rate for 2025/26.
Weeks between booking and taking the test, DVSA table DRT122F. Latest reading 9.1 weeks, 2.8 below the 11.9-week median across all centres.
A 17-year-old passes at 62.5% here. A 25-year-old passes at 43.6%.
Split Rochdale (Manchester) by age and the headline 48.3% comes apart. 17-year-olds passed 62.5% across 968 tests. 25-year-olds passed 43.6% across 438. That is a 18.9-point spread, 3.9 points wider than the 14.9 points separating the same two ages nationally.
Put that through the same arithmetic the rest of this page uses and the gap stops being academic. A 17-year-old at Rochdale (Manchester) expects 1.60 attempts, £234 in fees and retake lessons. A 25-year-old expects 2.29 attempts and £432, £198 more on identical £62 fees and the same £32 North West lesson rate. The only thing that moved was the pass rate.
17-year-olds here pass 1.1 points below the 63.6% that 17-year-olds manage nationally. They sit level with the North West figure of 63.5%. Either way, budgeting a 17-year-old against this centre's all-ages 48.3% is pessimistic by 14.2 points.
DVSA withheld the counts for ages 16 and 24 at Rochdale (Manchester), which it does where a cell is small enough that publishing the numbers could identify candidates. For age 24 the agency still printed a pass rate; those rates appear in the table below exactly as published, and are used for nothing else on this page, because a percentage with no denominator cannot carry a cost estimate.
Treat the age column as a description, not a cause. DVSA records the age of the candidate and the result, nothing about preparation. The pattern is consistent with recent continuous tuition rather than with youth itself, which matters because tuition is something you control and your age on test day is not.
- Age 17 here
- 62.5%
- Age 25 here
- 43.6%
- Age gap
- +18.9 pts
- Age 17 vs country
- -1.1 pts
968 tests
438 tests
national gap +14.9 pts
63.6% nationally
Pass rate by age at Rochdale (Manchester)
DVSA table DRT122D, April 2025 to March 2026. Dashed line is the same age across Great Britain.
What each age costs at Rochdale (Manchester), on the same arithmetic as the rest of this page.
Expected attempts is 1 ÷ the pass rate for that age, fees are £62 an attempt and retake lessons are 7 hours at the North West rate of £32. Ages where DVSA withheld the counts are shown as withheld and are not priced: a rate the agency would not put a denominator against is not a rate to budget from.
| Age | Tests conducted | Passes | Pass rate | Expected attempts | Test cycle cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | withheld | withheld | not published | not priced | not priced |
| 17 | 968 | 605 | 62.5% | 1.60 | £234 |
| 18 | 1,339 | 746 | 55.7% | 1.80 | £289 |
| 19 | 928 | 456 | 49.1% | 2.04 | £358 |
| 20 | 772 | 386 | 50.0% | 2.00 | £348 |
| 21 | 587 | 294 | 50.1% | 2.00 | £347 |
| 22 | 472 | 282 | 59.8% | 1.67 | £255 |
| 23 | 453 | 222 | 49.0% | 2.04 | £360 |
| 24 | withheld | withheld | 51.3% | not priced | not priced |
| 25 | 438 | 191 | 43.6% | 2.29 | £432 |
| Under 26 | 6,334 | 3,376 | 53.3% | 1.88 | £313 |
| All ages | 11,563 | 5,584 | 48.3% | 2.07 | £368 |
The under-26 row is DVSA’s own block total from DRT122D and counts the withheld cells, so it will exceed the sum of the ages printed above it wherever a cell is withheld (here: ages 16 and 24). The all-ages row is DRT122A, the figure the rest of this page uses. Nothing on this table is estimated or back-filled.
What the age gap is worth at Rochdale (Manchester)
- Expected attempts, age 171.60
- Expected attempts, age 252.29
- Test cycle at age 17£234
- Test cycle at age 25£432
- Cost of waiting from 17 to 25+£198
- Extra queue time from the extra retakes6.3 wk
Pass rates are DVSA’s. The pounds are ours, on the same fee and lesson rate the rest of this page uses, applied to each age’s published rate and nothing else. Age is not the cause: the DVSA figures describe who passed, not why, and a 17-year-old mid-course typically arrives with recent, continuous tuition behind them. The national age curve.
Every published financial year at Rochdale (Manchester).
| Financial year | Conducted | Passed | Pass rate | Expected attempts | Test cycle cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 11,563 | 5,584 | 48.3% | 2.07 | £368 |
| 2024/25 | 9,790 | 4,036 | 41.2% | 2.43 | £470 |
| 2023/24 | 7,583 | 2,889 | 38.1% | 2.62 | £527 |
| 2022/23 | 6,860 | 2,561 | 37.3% | 2.68 | £542 |
| 2021/22 | 6,453 | 2,307 | 35.8% | 2.80 | £576 |
| 2020/21 | 1,728 | 688 | 39.8% | 2.51 | £494 |
| 2019/20 | 6,969 | 2,145 | 30.8% | 3.25 | £705 |
| 2018/19 | 7,183 | 2,459 | 34.2% | 2.92 | £612 |
| 2017/18 | 8,351 | 3,179 | 38.1% | 2.63 | £527 |
| 2016/17 | 7,755 | 3,070 | 39.6% | 2.53 | £498 |
Cost columns apply today’s £62 fee and the current £32 lesson rate to each year’s pass rate, so the column isolates what the pass rate does to the bill. The fee itself has moved over time; see fee history.
A 9.0-point swing across the year.
Monthly figures are why a single quarter is a poor guide. Nothing about the centre changed between April 2025 and February 2026; the mix of candidates did.
| Month | Conducted | Passed | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 2025 | 677 | 295 | 43.6% |
| May 2025 | 819 | 357 | 43.6% |
| June 2025 | 975 | 478 | 49.0% |
| July 2025 | 982 | 450 | 45.8% |
| August 2025 | 894 | 447 | 50.0% |
| September 2025 | 1,084 | 540 | 49.8% |
| October 2025 | 1,000 | 480 | 48.0% |
| November 2025 | 1,086 | 504 | 46.4% |
| December 2025 | 989 | 518 | 52.4% |
| January 2026 | 998 | 473 | 47.4% |
| February 2026 | 946 | 497 | 52.5% |
| March 2026 | 1,113 | 545 | 49.0% |
The five North West centres closest in size to Rochdale (Manchester).
Matched on annual test volume rather than distance, because a centre doing 11,563 tests a year faces a comparable road and traffic mix. Cost column uses the North West lesson rate of £32 throughout, so the only variable is the pass rate.
| Centre | Pass rate | Tests | Median wait | Test cycle cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rochdale (Manchester) (this centre) | 48.3% | 11,563 | 9.1 wk | £368 |
| Bolton (Manchester) | 51.8% | 11,570 | 16.2 wk | £328 |
| Blackburn with Darwen | 46.6% | 12,205 | 8.6 wk | £390 |
| Sale (Manchester) | 51.4% | 10,921 | 15.4 wk | £332 |
| Upton | 52.6% | 10,772 | 12.1 wk | £320 |
| Bredbury (Manchester) | 56.0% | 10,636 | 17.1 wk | £287 |
Higher pass rate in North West
- Sale (Manchester)51.4%
- Nelson51.7%
- Blackpool51.8%
- Bolton (Manchester)51.8%
Lower pass rate in North West
- West Didsbury (Manchester)47.7%
- Chester47.3%
- Chadderton46.8%
- Blackburn with Darwen46.6%
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), DRT122E (Automatic car driving test pass rates by gender: test centres, 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.
Age figures are single years of age from DRT122D and are reproduced exactly as published, withheld cells included. DVSA replaces the counts in small age cells with “..”, in most cases while still printing that cell’s pass rate; those cells are shown here as withheld and are excluded from every comparison, ranking and cost figure on this page. Nothing withheld is reconstructed from the block total.