Makes / Volkswagen / Lt 46
Lt 46
Volkswagen · on record 1996 to 2025
The Volkswagen Lt 46 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. Later life for the Lt 46 depends strongly on whether its working or specialist role still justifies maintenance once normal fleet replacement would have removed an equivalent vehicle.
DECLINING
Red List classification, from population, five year trajectory and survival against peak. Reviewed each census.
397
licensed vehicles
2025 census
2025 census
12.6% of the peak fleet remains licensed
656
declared SORN
total surviving
peak 3,153 in 2006 · −68 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
At the average decline recorded over the latest five years, the licensed fleet would reach zero around 2030.
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.
New registrations
Vehicles first registered each year. A fleet still being sold shows here; a finished one shows only imports.
MOT reliability
DVSA test results for this family, 2005 to 2019.
Pass rate by year
| Failure reason | Failures | Share of all tests |
|---|---|---|
| The calculated parking brake efficiency is too low | 230 | 5.0% |
| Excessive wear in a pin and/or bush or pin/bearing, for example: 2mm for a 12mm diameter pin; 3mm for a 25mm diameter pin; 10% of the pin diameter for pins over 25mm diameter | 136 | 3.0% |
| A rigid brake pipe excessively chafed, corroded or damaged | 102 | 2.2% |
| When the brake is fully applied there is no possibility of further travel of the lever because the lever is at the end of its working travel on the ratchet | 101 | 2.2% |
| The calculated parking brake efficiency is too low | 97 | 2.1% |
| A low braking effort is recorded from the parking brake on any wheel, indicating clearly that the brake is not functioning correctly | 92 | 2.0% |
| A rear registration plate lamp with any lamp not working | 76 | 1.7% |
| Amalgamation of failures for all headlamp testers | 69 | 1.5% |
Counted across every recorded test, 2005 to 2019. Advisories are excluded.
Where the Lt 46 remains
Based on MOT test locations, 2019. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| LS | 4 | 25% |
| GL | 3 | 67% |
| G | 3 | 67% |
| TA | 3 | 67% |
| DE | 3 | 67% |
| TD | 3 | 67% |
| CF | 2 | 50% |
| IP | 2 | 50% |
| ME | 2 | 50% |
| BN | 2 | 100% |
| LL | 2 | 50% |
| KA | 2 | 50% |
| GU | 2 | 50% |
| EH | 1 | 0% |
| SP | 1 | 100% |
| CH | 1 | 100% |
| SA | 1 | 100% |
| TS | 1 | 100% |
| N | 1 | 100% |
| OX | 1 | 100% |
| DN | 1 | 100% |
| PL | 1 | 0% |
| L | 1 | 100% |
| CA | 1 | 100% |
| DL | 1 | 100% |
| OL | 1 | 100% |
| TQ | 1 | 100% |
| SS | 1 | 100% |
| NE | 1 | 0% |
| B | 1 | 100% |
How this record was calculated
LATEST CENSUS2025
POPULATION SOURCEDVLA VEH0220 annual
HISTORY SOURCEDVLA VEH0120 GB · to 2013
MOT SOURCEDVSA results · to 2019
FAMILY DEFINITIONVOLKSWAGEN LT 46
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.