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Test vehicle requirements for a car test and car and trailer test

Category B - cars and vans

Cars or vans presented for test must be:

• a four wheeled vehicle of no more than 3500 kilograms (kg) maximum authorised mass (MAM)
• capable of a speed of at least 100 kilometres per hour (km/h) or 62.5 miles per hour (mph)

The car or van must also be fitted with:

• a seatbelt for the examiner
• a passenger head restraint, this needn't be adjustable but must be fitted as an integral part of the seat - 'slip on' type head restraints aren't permitted
• an interior mirror for the examiner's use
  
• L-plates displayed on the front and rear of the vehicle but not interfering with the driver's or examiner's view
• a speedometer that measures speed in miles per hour and kilometres per hour

The vehicle must be legal and roadworthy and have no warning lights showing ie the airbag warning light.

Convertible vehicles

Some convertible vehicles are unsuitable for the driving test – eg the Ford KA convertible and Mini convertible due to the lack of all-round vision for the examiner. If you propose to use a convertible vehicle for the driving test please check its suitability when you book.

Suitability of vehicles for Category B tests.

The vast majority of hatchbacks, saloons and estate cars are suitable for test, but increasingly the designers of cars are producing models with sweeping lines which have good forward vision but have large blind spots to the rear and present examiners with problems of observation.

Panel vans also present problems with vision and are often unsuitable for test.

Vehicles supplied by motor manufacturers have obviously been through the type approval process, but this approval concentrates on vehicles from a driver’s point of view and such a process does not necessarily make the vehicle suitable for the purposes of the test.

Vehicles for test must allow examiners all round vision to allow them to see approaching vehicles, particularly when the car is at an angle to other vehicles during reversing manoeuvres and also when emerging at a junction with the vehicle at an angle to the major road.

Category B1

A motor powered tricycle or quadricycle must have an unladen weight of not more than 550 kg and be capable of at least 60 km/h (37.25 mph).

Category B + E - car and trailer test vehicles must be

• fitted with externally mounted, nearside and offside mirrors for use by the examiner or any person supervising the test
• an unladen category B vehicle towing a suitably braked, unladen trailer of at least one tonne MAM. The examiner may ask for evidence of the trailer MAM, for example the manufacturer's plate 

All vehicle combinations must operate on appropriate brakes and utilise a coupling arrangement suitable for the weight.

The cargo compartment of the trailer must consist of a closed box body which is at least as wide and as high as the towing vehicle; the view to the rear should only be possible by use of the external rear-view mirrors of the towing vehicle.