Southampton driving test centre
DVSA name: Southampton (Maybush) · Green Lane, Maybush, Southampton, SO16 9FP
Drive the 5 routes around Southampton before test day →
Key facts
- Southampton's pass rate was 50.3% in 2025/26 from 10,480 tests, in line with the national average of 50.0%.
- That puts it 23 of 30 centres in South East (South East average 52.9%), one of the lower pass rates in the region, 2.6 points below it.
- Since 2021/22 the pass rate has risen by 7.4 points, from 42.9% to 50.3%.
- Male candidates passed at 52.3% and female candidates at 47.9%, a gap of 4.4 points.
- On waiting times, learners who took a test in August 2026 had waited a median of 13.1 weeks since booking; the first week with 10% or more of slots still free was 20.4 weeks ahead.
- A year earlier (August 2025) the median wait was 10.4 weeks, so waits have grown by about 2.7 weeks.
Maybush is a roundabout-and-parked-cars test, and the two halves pull in opposite directions. There are 29 roundabout manoeuvres across the five practice loops on this page, most of them clustered on Romsey Road, Brownhill Way and Lord's Hill Way. Then the route drops into the Lakes estate and the streets around Coxford, where the driving is slow, tight and hemmed in by parking.
The centre sits on Green Lane, off Romsey Road, north-west of the city. Just over half the tagged roads within a couple of miles are 30 mph and another third are 20, so the fast sections are the exception rather than the rule. Getting the speed down cleanly between the two is where this test is won.
Drive the Southampton test routes before test day
5 loops from the centre, 48 km in all, with 29 roundabouts and 134 marked turns. Generated from the road network within 2.5 km of Southampton; not DVSA’s own routes, but the same roads.
Drive it before test day
Drive all 5 loops around Southampton from your phone before you ever sit in the car: every roundabout, every junction, in the order you will meet them.
- 5 routes · 48 km · 134 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 Nursling Spur Motorway10.1 km loop with 8 roundabouts, 11 right turns, 5 left turns and a stretch of Brownhill Way.10.1 km · 24 turns · 8 roundabouts
- Route 2 · via Romsey Road10.4 km loop with 3 roundabouts, 15 right turns, 12 left turns and a stretch of Kendal Avenue.10.4 km · 30 turns · 3 roundabouts
- Route 3 · via Tebourba Way9.4 km loop with 3 roundabouts, 14 right turns, 14 left turns and a stretch of Aldermoor Road.9.4 km · 31 turns · 3 roundabouts
- Route 4 · via Sedbergh Road9.1 km loop with 3 roundabouts, 11 right turns, 12 left turns and a stretch of Romsey Road.9.1 km · 26 turns · 3 roundabouts
- Route 5 · via Brownhill Way9.5 km loop with 12 roundabouts, 5 right turns, 6 left turns and a stretch of Test Lane.9.5 km · 23 turns · 12 roundabouts
The same access also opens the four test manoeuvres and eight roundabout scenarios: the two things a route drive cannot teach you.
Romsey Road and Brownhill Way carry the fastest driving on these loops, and between them they account for most of the roundabout work. Lord's Hill Way adds more. These are wide roads with junctions close together, so you rarely get a long settled stretch. You leave one roundabout and are already reading the next.
Lord's Hill Roundabout is the one to respect. It is a busy multi-lane junction where the exit you want has to be decided well before the give-way line, and a late lane change on it is the fault that ends tests here. Romsey Road Roundabout and the Palm Road junction are more ordinary but still need the decision made early.
The residential half is a different problem. Windermere Avenue, Thirlmere Road, Kendal Avenue and Coxford Road are narrow, heavily parked and largely 20 mph. Green Lane and Lower Brownhill Road link them. The manoeuvres are usually set on streets like these, and the difficulty is not the manoeuvre itself but finding a spot where you are not blocking the only clear gap on the road. Thirty-three schools sit inside the same radius, so from mid-afternoon these streets fill with cars and children.
Two other things are worth knowing. Nine level crossings sit within a couple of miles of the centre, more than at most centres, so a stop at a barrier is a realistic part of a test here and the drill for it is worth rehearsing. And the transitions matter most of all: you come off a 40 mph stretch, take a roundabout, and are in a 20 mph street inside a few hundred metres. Get the speed down before the sign, not after it.
Pass rate at Southampton, 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 | 10,480 | 50.3% | 52.3% | 47.9% |
| 2024/25 | 8,954 | 47.1% | 49.5% | 44.2% |
| 2023/24 | 12,809 | 44.1% | 45.3% | 42.7% |
| 2022/23 | 12,965 | 43.1% | 44.9% | 40.9% |
| 2021/22 | 11,316 | 42.9% | 43.8% | 41.9% |
| 2020/21 | 2,641 | 47.0% | 49.5% | 44.5% |
| 2019/20 | 7,985 | 42.5% | 45.7% | 39.5% |
| 2018/19 | 7,295 | 45.8% | 48.5% | 43.4% |
South East average 52.9% · GB 50%
Waiting time for a test at Southampton
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 | 13.1 | 20.4 | 28 | 37.3% |
| Jul 2026 | 13.1 | 20 | 38 | 34% |
| Jun 2026 | 9.3 | 20.4 | 46 | 28.4% |
| May 2026 | 8.6 | 24 | 47 | 29.1% |
| Apr 2026 | 8 | 24 | 47 | 28.5% |
| Mar 2026 | 8.3 | 24 | 48 | 28.7% |
Tell me when the wait at Southampton drops
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Test day at Southampton
The centre is on Green Lane in Maybush, reached from Romsey Road. The site has its own car park reserved for candidates, but it is small, so the standing advice is to arrive no more than about ten minutes before your slot. Arriving much earlier does not get you a space, it just means circling.
Male and female toilets are available, and there is ramp access into the building for wheelchair users.
Redbridge station is the nearest, a little under two kilometres away. That is walkable at a push but most candidates arrive by car or with an instructor. Allow for Romsey Road being slow in both peaks.
The test begins by turning out of Green Lane, and within a couple of minutes you are usually on a roundabout. That is the shape of this centre and there is no gentle opening stretch to settle into. Practising the first five minutes as a sequence, rather than as isolated junctions, is worth more here than at most places.
Waits at Maybush sit near the national median, so a date is usually gettable without a long fight. Booking, moving and cancelling is done on GOV.UK.
What DVSA publishes about Southampton
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 Southampton
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 Southampton
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 Southampton.
- 1Junctions - observation
- 2Mirrors - change direction
- 3Junctions - turning right
- 4Response to signs - traffic lights
- 5Control - steering
- 6Move off - safely
Getting there
Green Lane, MaybushSouthampton SO16 9FP
Directions in Google Maps · Check centre notes on GOV.UK
Nearby centres
- WinchesterSO23 9SY · 17 km52.2%+2.2 vs GB7.1 wkswait
- Lee On The SolentLee on the Solent · PO13 9JY · 22 km63.2%+13.2 vs GB20 wkswait
- Newport (Isle Of Wight)Newport · PO30 5WB · 27 km54.1%+4.1 vs GB8.9 wkswait
- PortsmouthPO6 4SH · 27 km52.8%+2.8 vs GB13 wkswait
- SalisburySP1 1LY · 28 km48.5%-1.5 vs GB5.3 wkswait
Questions learners ask about Southampton
- Is Southampton an easy test centre?
- It is close to the national average: 50.3% of tests were passed in 2025/26 against 50.0% across Great Britain.
- How long is the wait for a driving test at Southampton?
- In August 2026 the median gap between booking and sitting a test at Southampton was 13.1 weeks, and you had to look about 20.4 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 Southampton driving test centre?
- Southampton test centre is at Green Lane, Maybush, Southampton, SO16 9FP. 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 Southampton do a year?
- 10,480 car tests were conducted at Southampton in 2025/26, of which 5,273 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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