The MOT failure hotspots of Britain have been highlighted thanks to new research produced by the vehicle management Automyze.

Their figures indicated that drivers in Dundee have the least roadworthy vehicles, with over half (53%) failing their most recent MOTs.

Furthermore, Scotland was found to be home to four of the top 10 towns and cities with the highest rate of MOT failures, with Perth and Aberdeen seeing almost 50% of its vehicles fail the test.

Meanwhile, in the south west, drivers in Exeter, Plymouth and Truro also had significantly high MOT failure rates compared with the national average.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency reported that just 38% of cars failed their initial MOT last year, a figure that fell to 29% after appeals.

DVSA figures also indicate that the most common reason for cars failing their MOT is faulty signals and lights, with 18% of failures coming as a result of this fault.

A further 20% of failures were attributed to brake and suspension problems, while 7% of cars that failed were found to have faulty or worn tyres.

In contrast, the highest MOT pass rate in the UK was found to be in the Isle of Man where 72% of cars passed the test first time.

The south east of England was home to nine of the 10 lowest towns and cities with the lowest proportion of MOT failures, with London commuter towns including Croydon and Sutton seeing more than 62% of vehicles pass first time.

Automyze director, Lucy Burnford, commented that the high MOT failure rates in Dundee could be put down to a number of factors, from the types of vehicles owned by people in the city to the length of time they own the cars.

She added that more thorough basic checks from owners could result in the number of failures being reduced which would save both money and time for car owners.