Lt 40

Volkswagen · on record 1994 to 2025

The Volkswagen Lt 40 is a van, so its presence in the register reflects working or specialist use rather than the ordinary passenger car market. This registration belongs to Volkswagen's commercial van range, widely used for deliveries, trades, minibuses and conversions and therefore subject to a different working life from passenger cars. A Lt 40 can remain useful well beyond its first operator, so body condition, continued purpose and specialist support increasingly determine whether it stays in service.

ENDANGERED

Red List classification, from population, five year trajectory and survival against peak. Reviewed each census.

35 licensed vehicles
2025 census

1.7% of the peak fleet remains licensed

248

declared SORN

total surviving

peak 2,017 in 1995 · −8 vehicles a year, five year trend

Population history

Licensed and SORN vehicles at each census. The filters below apply to the family population, MOT and registration figures. They do not alter the generation history above.

Licensed SORN Latest census observation SOURCE DVLA VEH0120 / VEH0220

At the average decline recorded over the latest five years, the licensed fleet would reach zero around 2029.

Illustrative projection only; vehicle populations rarely decline linearly. Late fleets typically flatten as surviving examples enter preservation.

Inside the surviving fleet

AutoCensus parses every DVLA variant description, so the fleet can be read by fuel and specification rather than as one number.

First registrations by year

When surviving examples first joined the British fleet.

Recent UK first registrations

This family is no longer sold new. These figures are imports and historic vehicles joining the British register for the first time.

MOT reliability

DVSA test results for this family, 2006 to 2018.

Pass rate by year

Failure reason	Failures	Share of all tests
A brake hose ferrule excessively corroded	7	7.8%
The calculated parking brake efficiency is too low	6	6.7%
Significant braking effort recorded on a road wheel, even though the brake is not applied, indicating that a brake is binding	6	6.7%
A major leak of exhaust gases from any part of the system	5	5.6%
A low braking effort is recorded from the parking brake on any wheel, indicating clearly that the brake is not functioning correctly	5	5.6%
The windscreen washers do not provide enough liquid to clear the windscreen in conjunction with the wiper(s)	4	4.4%
An obligatory lamp adversely affected by the operation of any other lamp, e.g. dual-function lamps on foreign vehicles.	4	4.4%
The exhaust gas contains a carbon monoxide content exceeding the limit for a continuous period of 5 seconds	4	4.4%

Counted across every recorded test, 2006 to 2018. Advisories are excluded.

Where the Lt 40 remains

Based on MOT test locations, 2018. Test location is a proxy: a vehicle is counted where it was last tested, not where it is kept.

Postcode area	Vehicles tested	Pass rate
TN	1	100%

How this record was calculated

LATEST CENSUS2025

POPULATION SOURCEDVLA VEH0220 annual

HISTORY SOURCEDVLA VEH0120 GB · to 2013

MOT SOURCEDVSA results · to 2018

FAMILY DEFINITIONVOLKSWAGEN LT 40

PROCESSED20 Sep 2026

Full methodology

Population history combines DVLA VEH0120 Q4 census observations through 2013 with the annual VEH0220 census from 2014 onward. Figures before 2014 cover Great Britain only. Historical VEH0120 is used only when its overlapping UK observations reconcile to the current canonical family definition. Vehicles are grouped into this family using the DVLA GenModel together with durable routing rules for known inconsistencies.

Variant figures are parsed from raw DVLA model descriptions and the original string is always retained. Configuration is only assigned where the model description explicitly identifies it; a blank configuration is not treated as a two door Wrangler. Blank transmission fields are shown as manual because DVLA records the field for automatic vehicles.

MOT figures count tests, not vehicles, and geographic figures count each vehicle at its most recent test location. The decline projection is a straight line fitted to the latest five years and is illustrative only.