From Manchester, it runs south through Cheadle, Wilmslow, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stafford, Cannock, Walsall and Birmingham before disappearing at its junction with the M42 motorway just south of Solihull.
The road reappears just north of Oxford, and continues south, bypassing Abingdon and Newbury before finally finishing just west of Winchester, at its junction with the M3 motorway.