Automatic driving test pass rates in South West, 2025/26
20 test centres in South West ranked by their pass rate in automatic cars, highest to lowest. They conducted 32,285 automatic tests and passed 14,435, a rate of 44.7%, against 44.6% for automatic tests across Great Britain and 50% for all cars.
| # | Test centre | Region | Automatic tests | Automatic pass rate | All tests | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dorchester | South West | 1,355 | 59.3% | 69.0% | -9.7 |
| 2 | Yeovil | South West | 1,404 | 57.2% | 63.4% | -6.2 |
| 3 | Weston-super-Mare | South West | 849 | 54.8% | 61.0% | -6.2 |
| 4 | Taunton | South West | 1,823 | 52.9% | 59.5% | -6.6 |
| 5 | Trowbridge | South West | 493 | 51.5% | 55.2% | -3.7 |
| 6 | Bristol (Avonmouth) | South West | 2,807 | 51.2% | 55.5% | -4.3 |
| 7 | Chippenham | South West | 1,784 | 50.6% | 56.4% | -5.8 |
| 8 | Newton Abbot | South West | 1,194 | 46.9% | 53.8% | -6.9 |
| 9 | Swindon | South West | 3,508 | 45.4% | 51.1% | -5.7 |
| 10 | Poole | South West | 2,054 | 45.1% | 53.4% | -8.3 |
| 11 | Bristol (Kingswood) | South West | 3,099 | 43.8% | 51.9% | -8.1 |
| 12 | Barnstaple | South West | 1,081 | 41.8% | 51.4% | -9.6 |
| 13 | Bodmin | South West | 971 | 41.1% | 47.5% | -6.4 |
| 14 | Exeter | South West | 1,609 | 38.5% | 46.8% | -8.3 |
| 15 | Salisbury | South West | 1,609 | 37.0% | 48.5% | -11.5 |
| 16 | Gloucester | South West | 1,706 | 36.5% | 47.8% | -11.3 |
| 17 | Cheltenham | South West | 1,027 | 35.6% | 43.2% | -7.6 |
| 18 | Launceston | South West | 597 | 34.8% | 46.3% | -11.5 |
| 19 | Plymouth | South West | 2,442 | 34.5% | 40.7% | -6.2 |
| 20 | Camborne | South West | 873 | 30.0% | 40.6% | -10.6 |
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 South West test centre directory.