North East Lincolnshire · Yorkshire & the North East
Grimsby Coldwater driving test centre
42.8% of car practical tests taken at Grimsby Coldwater passed in 2025-26, from 5,361 tests. Pass rates, local road types and how we prepare you for this centre.
Grimsby Coldwater pass rates
Pass rate 2025-26
42.8%
2,292 passes
National average
50%
-7.2 points here
Tests conducted
5,361
about 447 a month
Best published year
42.8%
2025-26
5,361 car practical tests were taken at Grimsby Coldwater in 2025-26. 42.8% passed, 7.2 percentage points below the national average of 50%. It is up on 2019-20, when 39.8% passed.
The rate has stayed within 3.9 points across the published years, between 38.9% and 42.8%. That works out at roughly 447 tests a month, which is what waiting times at Grimsby Coldwater depend on more than the pass rate does.
- Grimsby Coldwater
- National average
| Year | Tests | Passes | Pass rate | National | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 5,361 | 2,292 | 42.8% | 50% | 42% | 43.8% |
| 2024-25 | 5,754 | 2,455 | 42.7% | 48.7% | 41% | 45% |
| 2023-24 | 5,295 | 2,060 | 38.9% | 47.9% | 39.3% | 38.5% |
| 2022-23 | 5,352 | 2,204 | 41.2% | 48.4% | 42.3% | 40% |
| 2021-22 | 4,408 | 1,807 | 41% | 48.9% | 43.2% | 38.8% |
| 2019-20 | 4,721 | 1,878 | 39.8% | 45.9% | 42.2% | 37.7% |
Source: DVSA table DRT122A, car practical driving test pass rates by test centre, published on GOV.UK. Figures are financial years running April to March.
Where Grimsby Coldwater test centre is
Arrive ten minutes early and park where you can pull out easily. The waiting room is small at most centres, so your instructor will normally wait in the car park while you take the test.
Driving out of Grimsby Coldwater
Expect shopping-street traffic, national-speed-limit link roads and hilly residential turns on a test out of Grimsby Coldwater. The demands are ordinary, but they are specific to this area.
A calmer centre than the nearby cities, but the rural sections catch people out on speed and positioning. Expect at least one manoeuvre on a residential street with parked cars. If your lessons have been in a different part of North East Lincolnshire, plan at least a couple of sessions on these roads before the test.
Grimsby Coldwater takes candidates from across North East Lincolnshire, so plenty arrive having learned on a different road mix. That usually shows in the first five minutes of the drive.
Book the mock early enough that there is time to fix whatever it finds.
Roads you are likely to meet
Shopping-street traffic
National-speed-limit link roads
Hilly residential turns
- A calmer centre than the nearby cities, but the rural sections catch people out on speed and positioning.
- Expect at least one manoeuvre on a residential street with parked cars.
- If your lessons have been in a different part of North East Lincolnshire, plan at least a couple of sessions on these roads before the test.
Test routes are no longer published by the DVSA, and examiners vary them. Treat this as a guide to the local road types rather than a route list. Book your test and check availability on GOV.UK.
Where marks are lost at Grimsby Coldwater
Hill starts and control
Roll-back is one of the fastest ways to pick up a serious fault here. Practise moving away uphill with the handbrake until it feels automatic.
Priority on narrow streets
The recurring fault is stopping in the gap rather than before it, then having nowhere to go when something comes the other way.
How we prepare you for this centre
Time on the real roads
We plan the final sessions around Grimsby Coldwater itself, so the shopping-street traffic you meet on test day are ones you have already driven.
A full mock test
A full-length mock from the Grimsby Coldwater area, scored on the DVSA sheet so you see exactly where the marks went.
Manoeuvres in real locations
All four test manoeuvres, practised in the kind of streets examiners around Grimsby Coldwater actually use.
The paperwork and the routine
We walk the whole sequence — arrival, documents, eyesight check, independent drive — so nothing on the day is new.
Courses that suit test-centre prep
Grimsby Coldwater test centre FAQs
What are the test routes like at Grimsby Coldwater?
The DVSA stopped publishing official routes, and examiners vary them. In practice, routes from Grimsby Coldwater draw on shopping-street traffic, national-speed-limit link roads, hilly residential turns, so those are the conditions to rehearse rather than a fixed sequence of streets.
What do learners most often fail on at Grimsby Coldwater?
hill starts and control, priority on narrow streets — all of which come directly from the road types on the local network.
Can I take an intensive course and test at Grimsby Coldwater?
Yes. We match you with a DVSA approved instructor who teaches on these roads day to day, and we look for the earliest practical slot at Grimsby Coldwater.
How do I book a practical test at Grimsby Coldwater?
Practical tests are booked through GOV.UK with your provisional licence and theory certificate numbers. We can check cancellations for you once your course dates are set.
What happens when I get to Grimsby Coldwater?
Arrive with your provisional licence and a car that is legal, insured for the test and has no warning lights showing. We handle that side if you use one of our instructors' cars.
Is Grimsby Coldwater an easy test centre?
Pass rates are published by the DVSA, but they say more about the mix of candidates than the difficulty of the routes. Practising the road types above will move your odds more than switching centres.
Not sure how many hours you need?
Answer four quick questions and we will recommend a course based on your experience, not a sales target.