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

25 test centres in West Midlands ranked by their pass rate in automatic cars, highest to lowest. They conducted 68,340 automatic tests and passed 27,627, a rate of 40.4%, against 44.6% for automatic tests across Great Britain and 50% for all cars.

All regions East Midlands East of England London North East North West Scotland South East South West Wales West Midlands Yorkshire and The Humber

#	Test centre	Region	Automatic tests	Automatic pass rate	All tests	Difference
1	Redditch	West Midlands	824	50.8%	51.4%	-0.6
2	Birmingham (Shirley)	West Midlands	3,384	49.8%	56.6%	-6.8
3	Hereford	West Midlands	892	47.9%	58.8%	-10.9
4	Lichfield	West Midlands	1,018	46.0%	53.0%	-7.0
5	Nuneaton	West Midlands	2,409	45.5%	53.2%	-7.7
6	Birmingham (Kingstanding)	West Midlands	6,025	45.3%	48.5%	-3.2
7	Ludlow	West Midlands	1,082	45.1%	58.7%	-13.6
8	Birmingham (Kings Heath)	West Midlands	3,189	44.7%	46.8%	-2.1
9	Worcester	West Midlands	2,441	44.4%	51.9%	-7.5
10	Burton on Trent	West Midlands	1,683	43.9%	54.7%	-10.8
11	Telford	West Midlands	1,197	43.9%	48.9%	-5.0
12	Warwick (Wedgenock House)	West Midlands	4,710	43.8%	48.5%	-4.7
13	Rugby	West Midlands	2,018	43.7%	51.4%	-7.7
14	Dudley	West Midlands	4,078	41.5%	45.2%	-3.7
15	Shrewsbury	West Midlands	1,098	41.3%	51.0%	-9.7
16	Birmingham (Garretts Green)	West Midlands	7,066	41.0%	44.4%	-3.4
17	Oswestry	West Midlands	282	39.0%	52.4%	-13.4
18	Birmingham (South Yardley)	West Midlands	4,359	37.8%	42.8%	-5.0
19	Coventry	West Midlands	4,424	35.6%	40.0%	-4.4
20	Stoke on Trent (Newcastle under Lyme)	West Midlands	1,943	35.5%	41.6%	-6.1
21	Featherstone	West Midlands	3,739	35.3%	36.4%	-1.1
22	Stoke on Trent (Cobridge)	West Midlands	2,661	35.2%	40.6%	-5.4
23	Stafford	West Midlands	1,189	33.8%	45.8%	-12.0
24	Wednesbury	West Midlands	2,467	30.2%	35.0%	-4.8
25	Wolverhampton	West Midlands	4,162	27.2%	34.3%	-7.1

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 West Midlands test centre directory.