Sale driving test centre
DVSA name: Sale (Manchester) · 36 - 38 Poplar Grove, Sale, M33 7ER
Drive the 5 routes around Sale before test day →
Key facts
- Sale's pass rate was 51.4% in 2025/26 from 10,921 tests, in line with the national average of 50.0%.
- That puts it 18 of 31 centres in North West (North West average 49.0%), a mid-table pass rates in the region, 2.4 points above it.
- The rate has been stable since 2021/22, moving between 48.8% (2022/23) and 51.4% (2025/26).
- Male candidates passed at 53.7% and female candidates at 48.9%, a gap of 4.8 points.
- On waiting times, learners who took a test in August 2026 had waited a median of 15.4 weeks since booking (longer than the national median of 11.9 weeks); the first week with 10% or more of slots still free was 24 weeks ahead.
- A year earlier (August 2025) the median wait was 20.4 weeks, so waits have shortened by about 5 weeks.
Sale is one of the few urban test centres where roundabouts barely feature. Across the five practice loops on this page there is a single one, and everything else is junctions: T-junctions, crossroads, traffic lights and a great many right turns across oncoming traffic. That is a consequence of the street pattern. Sale grew as a Victorian and Edwardian commuter town on the Manchester side of the Mersey, so the roads run in a grid of terraced streets between three main roads, and the test spends its time crossing that grid rather than circling it. Candidates come from Sale, Timperley, Brooklands, Urmston and Stretford. The loops are short by national standards, which means the junctions arrive quickly and keep arriving.
Drive the Sale test routes before test day
5 loops from the centre, 47 km in all, with 1 roundabouts and 112 marked turns. Generated from the road network within 2.5 km of Sale; not DVSA’s own routes, but the same roads.
Drive it before test day
Drive all 5 loops around Sale from your phone before you ever sit in the car: every roundabout, every junction, in the order you will meet them.
- 5 routes · 47 km · 112 marked turns
- Examiner-style marking on signalling and observation
- Street View tour of each route
- Every roundabout and junction, in the order you'll meet them
- The four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios, included
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- Route 1 · via Derbyshire Road8.3 km loop with 16 right turns, 11 left turns and a stretch of Marsland Road.8.3 km · 27 turns
- Route 2 · via Derbyshire Road7.8 km loop with 13 right turns, 10 left turns and a stretch of Norris Road.7.8 km · 23 turns
- Route 3 · via Marsland Road11.3 km loop with 1 roundabout, 8 right turns, 7 left turns and a stretch of Washway Road.11.3 km · 16 turns · 1 roundabout
- Route 4 · via Northenden Road9.2 km loop with 8 right turns, 14 left turns and a stretch of Framingham Road.9.2 km · 22 turns
- Route 5 · via Marsland Road10.5 km loop with 11 right turns, 13 left turns and a stretch of Washway Road.10.5 km · 24 turns
The same access also opens the four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios: the two things a route drive cannot teach you.
Three roads carry most of a Sale test. Marsland Road runs east towards Northenden Road and the town centre, Washway Road is the A56 trunk route through Sale, and School Road links the two past the shops. Every practice loop on this page touches at least two of them. Washway Road is the one that separates candidates: it is wide, fast for its limit, and has side turnings and filter lanes close together, so a right turn off it or onto it needs a gap judged properly rather than hopefully.
The rest of the driving happens in the grid behind those roads. Hope Road, Norris Road, Ashfield Road, Tatton Road, Cross Street and the streets around Derbyshire Road are residential, narrow with parked cars on both sides, and full of unmarked crossroads where nobody has priority. Meeting oncoming traffic and deciding who gives way comes up over and over. So does the emerging judgement at a T-junction with a van parked close to the corner, which is the single most common fault-generator on this test.
The loops run from about eight to eleven kilometres, shorter than at most centres, and that changes the feel of the drive. There is little cruising. A junction, a signal, a right turn, another junction. Manoeuvres are usually asked for on the quieter residential streets rather than on the main roads, and a parallel park between two cars on a narrow terraced street is the harder version of that exercise. If you practise one thing, make it turning right out of a side road onto a busy main road at a time of day when the traffic is real.
Pass rate at Sale, 2007/08 to 2025/26
Share of car tests passed each April-to-March year. Dashed line: Great Britain average for 2025/26.
Month by month, 2025/26
By year and gender
| Year | Tests | Pass rate | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 10,921 | 51.4% | 53.7% | 48.9% |
| 2024/25 | 9,977 | 49.1% | 52.0% | 45.8% |
| 2023/24 | 9,800 | 49.0% | 51.2% | 46.4% |
| 2022/23 | 9,142 | 48.8% | 50.6% | 46.7% |
| 2021/22 | 7,854 | 49.6% | 51.7% | 47.2% |
| 2020/21 | 2,356 | 53.9% | 59.1% | 49.4% |
| 2019/20 | 7,203 | 48.7% | 53.0% | 44.9% |
| 2018/19 | 8,933 | 50.1% | 54.5% | 46.2% |
North West average 49% · GB 50%
Waiting time for a test at Sale
Median weeks between booking and taking the test, for tests taken each month. Dashed line: GB median for August 2026.
| Month | Median wait | Weeks to free slots | Slots offered | Still free |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 2026 | 15.4 | 24 | 36 | 34.8% |
| Jul 2026 | 15.4 | 24 | 29 | 42.1% |
| Jun 2026 | 17.9 | 24 | 28 | 44.3% |
| May 2026 | 18.1 | 23.5 | 35 | 45.4% |
| Apr 2026 | 20.9 | 24 | 32 | 49.5% |
| Mar 2026 | 15 | 24 | 42 | 39% |
Tell me when the wait at Sale drops
One email when DVSA’s monthly figure falls, or goes under the number of weeks you choose. No newsletter.
Test day at Sale
The centre is at 36-38 Poplar Grove, a residential side street a short way from Sale town centre. It has its own candidate parking, which takes some pressure off, because the streets around it are permit-heavy and busy at school times. Male, female and disabled toilets are available inside, and there is ramp access for wheelchair users.
Sale tram stop is about six hundred metres away on the Metrolink Altrincham line, so arriving by tram from Manchester or Altrincham is straightforward. Brooklands is the other stop within reach if your route suits it better.
The centre runs car tests and ADI part 2 and part 3 tests. Booking, moving and cancelling is done through GOV.UK only, though the centre has a phone number for the day itself if you are running late or the weather looks doubtful.
The examiner will check your licence, take the insurance declaration and run the eyesight check on Poplar Grove before you set off. Moving off from a narrow residential street with cars parked on both sides is the first thing you will be asked to do, so make the observation deliberate rather than quick.
What DVSA publishes about Sale
Taken from the GOV.UK test centre finder, checked 3 September 2026. Where DVSA says nothing, this site says nothing.
- Tests conducted here
- carADI part 2ADI part 3
- Wheelchair access
- DVSA states you can access this centre in a wheelchair.
Other tests at Sale
This centre is not car only. DVSA publishes results for these categories separately, and they are taken by different candidates on different vehicles, so the rates are not comparable with the car figure above.
Learner reports from Sale
No reports yet for this centre. If you tested here, the first one is yours to write.
What examiners mark most often
DVSA does not publish faults by centre, but it does publish them nationally. These collected the most marks across every car test in Great Britain in 2025/26, and they are the same ones you will be marked on at Sale.
- 1Junctions - observation
- 2Mirrors - change direction
- 3Junctions - turning right
- 4Response to signs - traffic lights
- 5Control - steering
- 6Move off - safely
Getting there
36 - 38 Poplar GroveSale M33 7ER
Directions in Google Maps · Check centre notes on GOV.UK
Nearby centres
- West Didsbury (Manchester)West Didsbury · M21 7QY · 4.1 km47.7%-2.3 vs GB22.6 wkswait
- Cheetham Hill (Manchester)Manchester · M8 0AL · 10 km44.7%-5.3 vs GB10.4 wkswait
- Bredbury (Manchester)Stockport · SK6 2QT · 13 km56.0%+6.0 vs GB17.1 wkswait
- ChaddertonOldham · OL9 9XA · 16 km46.8%-3.2 vs GB12 wkswait
- WarringtonWA2 9EP · 17 km55.5%+5.5 vs GB10.6 wkswait
- Atherton (Manchester)Manchester · M46 0SU · 17 km44.3%-5.7 vs GB15.3 wkswait
Questions learners ask about Sale
- Is Sale an easy test centre?
- It is close to the national average: 51.4% of tests were passed in 2025/26 against 50.0% across Great Britain.
- How long is the wait for a driving test at Sale?
- In August 2026 the median gap between booking and sitting a test at Sale was 15.4 weeks, and you had to look about 24 weeks ahead to find a week with at least 10% of slots free. DVSA publishes this monthly; the figure above updates when they do.
- Where is Sale driving test centre?
- Sale test centre is at 36 - 38 Poplar Grove, Sale, M33 7ER. Arrive at least 10 minutes early with your provisional licence; parking rules vary by centre, so check the learner reports below.
- How many driving tests does Sale do a year?
- 10,921 car tests were conducted at Sale in 2025/26, of which 5,613 were passed.
Source: DVSA tables DRT122A (pass rates by centre and month) and DRT122F (waiting times and availability), Open Government Licence v3.0. PassRank adds the comparisons and rankings.
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