Automatic driving test pass rates in North West, 2025/26

31 test centres in North West ranked by their pass rate in automatic cars, highest to lowest. They conducted 71,576 automatic tests and passed 30,723, a rate of 42.9%, against 44.6% for automatic tests across Great Britain and 50% for all cars.

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#	Test centre	Region	Automatic tests	Automatic pass rate	All tests	Difference
1	Barrow In Furness	North West	284	58.1%	69.6%	-11.5
2	Kendal (Oxenholme Road)	North West	342	53.2%	65.1%	-11.9
3	Southport (Liverpool)	North West	1,834	51.6%	56.5%	-4.9
4	Workington	North West	480	51.0%	61.9%	-10.9
5	Nelson	North West	1,115	49.4%	51.7%	-2.3
6	Preston	North West	2,506	49.0%	56.3%	-7.3
7	Carlisle	North West	585	48.9%	58.7%	-9.8
8	Heysham	North West	556	48.7%	59.2%	-10.5
9	Northwich	North West	448	48.7%	57.6%	-8.9
10	Warrington	North West	2,010	48.6%	55.5%	-6.9
11	Blackpool	North West	2,072	47.7%	51.8%	-4.1
12	Bredbury (Manchester)	North West	2,647	47.6%	56.0%	-8.4
13	Upton	North West	3,242	47.5%	52.6%	-5.1
14	Bolton (Manchester)	North West	4,167	46.7%	51.8%	-5.1
15	Chorley	North West	1,045	46.2%	52.8%	-6.6
16	Blackburn with Darwen	North West	3,353	45.7%	46.6%	-0.9
17	Sale (Manchester)	North West	3,662	45.1%	51.4%	-6.3
18	Macclesfield	North West	1,000	44.7%	51.9%	-7.2
19	West Didsbury (Manchester)	North West	6,015	43.1%	47.7%	-4.6
20	Rochdale (Manchester)	North West	3,112	42.8%	48.3%	-5.5
21	Cheetham Hill (Manchester)	North West	4,730	41.5%	44.7%	-3.2
22	Chadderton	North West	5,093	40.7%	46.8%	-6.1
23	Chester	North West	2,031	40.1%	47.3%	-7.2
24	Wallasey	North West	242	40.1%	54.3%	-14.2
25	Bury (Manchester)	North West	1,820	38.9%	46.3%	-7.4
26	Atherton (Manchester)	North West	3,925	37.9%	44.3%	-6.4
27	Crewe	North West	1,060	37.8%	43.8%	-6.0
28	Widnes (Liverpool)	North West	1,776	37.6%	42.7%	-5.1
29	Speke (Liverpool)	North West	2,528	37.2%	40.5%	-3.3
30	Norris Green (Liverpool)	North West	4,303	34.9%	37.8%	-2.9
31	St Helens (Liverpool)	North West	3,593	34.1%	40.9%	-6.8

Taking the test in an automatic

The automatic pass rate is usually the lower of the two at the same centre. Of the 255 centres in this table with both figures published for 2025/26, 254 pass fewer automatic candidates than they do candidates overall. Nationally the difference is 5.4 points, with automatics behind. The car is not the reason. Automatic learners are more likely to be older, to be returning to driving after a long gap, or to have found the clutch the obstacle in the first place, and the test itself is marked identically.

The thing to weigh is what you get at the end. Pass in an automatic and your licence is restricted to automatics: category B auto. Driving a manual afterwards means taking the practical test again in one. Pass in a manual and you may drive either. If you never intend to drive a manual that restriction costs you nothing, and it is now a common choice.

Volumes are climbing. Automatic tests went from 50,599 in 2008/09 to 582,403 in 2025/26, a rise of 1051%, and they are now 29.4% of all car tests. Expect waits for an automatic instructor to be longer than for a manual one in most towns, because supply has not kept pace.

Centres with fewer than 200 automatic tests in the year are left out; 27 are excluded on that rule. Many centres still do only a handful of automatic tests a week, and at that volume the rate swings wildly from one year to the next.

Every centre in the country is on the national automatic test table, and addresses, waiting times and route notes for these centres are in the North West test centre directory.