MOT Failure rates by Make and Year – 2023 data – Part 1.

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Always wanted to know which cars have the best and worst MOT pass rates. Read on to find out.

The UK the MOT (Ministry of Transport) Test is the yearly roadworthy test that all cars over three years old must pass. It includes all aspects of vehicle roadworthiness, from structural integrity to braking performance and electrical systems.

With over 30 million cars on UK roads, and large proportion over 3 years old, that is a lot of tests every year.

The government publish comprehensive statistics on MOT test results allowing some pretty interesting analysis, including insight into which car makes and models have the best or worse  pass rates and why.. This is a big dataset so not excel friendly.

These are published as yearly data sets. A few notes:

  • There is most value in looking at the data in registered year groups. There is no point in purely comparing four year old car failure rates with fifteen year old ones. That could penalise the perception of manufacturers whose cars stay on the road for more years. Survivor Bias!!
  • There are ~40,000,000 tests recorded. The overall pass rate was ~20% or 8 million tests failed.
  • The newest cars in volume in the data for 2023 tests are 2020 vehicles. Interestingly there is some data for newer vehicles. Perhaps people seeing it as a cheap roadworthiness check. Also a lot of people do test older vehicles (over 40yrs) that do not legally require an MOT.

MOT failure rates by Make – Overall

Here are the failure rates of the top 10 manufacturers by volumes of vehicles tested:

MakePassed TestsFailed testsFail %age
FORD4,382,8011,216,98721.73
VOLKSWAGEN2,890,470723,90320.03
VAUXHALL2,852,884877,41723.52
BMW1,806,125329,85115.44
MERCEDES-BENZ1,772,595381,36317.71
AUDI1,582,095309,27316.35
NISSAN1,512,326422,26421.83
TOYOTA1,493,690312,77917.31
PEUGEOT1,365,873402,28822.75
  1. For the top 10 makes of 3yr+ cars on the road it’s the German and Japanese cars faring best with BMW top of the pile with a 15.4% failure rate
  2. Stellantis cars fare more poorly, with Peugeot and Vauxhall bottom of the pile for the top 10 makes. Returning to the earlier point though, this could be about age and maintenance standards rather than manufacturers.
  3. If we extend the list to the top 50 makes, the worst performer is Chevrolet with a 29% failure rate. Rover is second worst with a 26% failure rate but of course these are all old cars now.
  4. Luxury cars like Bentley (7.45%), Porsche (10.67%) and Lexus (11.61%) fare better, perhaps reflecting their cherished status.

2020 car failure rates by make

2020 cars are the first year of vehicles represented in great volume in the MOT data. This is more of a like to like comparison.

  • Pass rates for 2020 vehicles are, as you would expect for newer cars, far higher at ~9%
  • A few notable things jump out for these relatively new cars:
    • Again the Japanese brands fare well. Toyota, Mazda, Honda, Suzuki and Lexus are the 3 yr old vehicles most likely to pass. Lexus and Honda topping the pile with an impressive 96%+ pass rate!
    • Perhaps surprisingly Tesla fares the worst with a 14% failure rate. In Pt. 2 will look a bit more at failure reasons, but in the case of Tesla the main failure cause is Tyres. Perhaps not surprising for high power and relatively heavy vehicles.
    • The other brands with over 10% failure rate are Ford, Vauxhall, Citroen and Renault.
MakePassed TestsFailed TestsFail %age
FORD202,48022,79510.12
VOLKSWAGEN159,68914,0298.08
BMW111,25511,7959.59
VAUXHALL11056014,05111.28
MERCEDES-BENZ109,36811,2359.32
AUDI102,2478,5487.72
TOYOTA99,1146,8686.48
NISSAN77,2666,3067.55
PEUGEOT68,5067,4089.76
KIA67,8305,7637.83
SKODA55,9144,8968.05
LAND ROVER54,8445,8259.6
RENAULT46,0055,13910.05
MINI45,9953,7117.47
VOLVO44,4583,7987.87
HYUNDAI44,1923,7927.9
SEAT43,7134,1388.65
CITROEN40,2205,29211.63
HONDA26,2871,0713.91
FIAT25,3562,1647.86
JAGUAR24,5431,9907.5
MAZDA22,1511,2405.3
TESLA21,6843,63014.34
SUZUKI19,0818224.13
MG17,4631,6328.55
DACIA17,0391,6028.59
MITSUBISHI13,8201,2848.5
LEXUS13,0715073.73
PORSCHE11,6837195.8

2016 car failure rates by make

If we look at the 2016 vehicles in the 2023 tests, and more 2016 registered vehicles were on the road than any other year tested in 2023, the results are remarkably consistent.

  • Tesla fares better in the older car cohorts. Being more a mid table performer than worst in the first year to be tested cohort.
  • Again though it is not a great picture for the Vauxhalls and French makes but this time they are not the bottom of the pile. Interestingly budget Korean maker Ssangyong takes that crown.
  • Glory in the high volume brands again goes to the Japanese makes. You are twice as likely to pass in the Toyota or Honda if you choose to drive a 7-8 year old vehicle. However Mazda, which matched the others in newer 2020 vehicles, drops out of the high performing cohort.
MakePassed TestsFailed TestsFail %age
FORD343,46768,52016.63
VAUXHALL248,74154,74018.04
VOLKSWAGEN213,52634,73813.99
BMW158,32321,43511.92
MERCEDES-BENZ153,00025,20514.14
AUDI150,76922,37912.92
NISSAN147,29527,81415.88
PEUGEOT103,40722,89618.13
TOYOTA100,27912,13710.8
RENAULT89,27522,85220.38
KIA79,78613,52214.49
HYUNDAI75,63412,05913.75
LAND ROVER72,47110,54812.71
SKODA70,60511,27613.77
CITROEN70,41017,09919.54
FIAT64,43313,73017.57
MINI63,6817,61510.68
HONDA54,0875,2898.91
MAZDA42,6467,66615.24
VOLVO41,4468,17316.47
SEAT41,2068,28916.75
SUZUKI33,9564,34611.35
JAGUAR30,7214,39812.52
MITSUBISHI23,2253,42312.85
DACIA22,3925,31019.17
DS13,5463,66621.3
JEEP12,5582,38415.96
LEXUS11,8209257.26
PORSCHE11,0399037.56
SMART (MCC)10,3041,88615.47
ALFA ROMEO4,37294017.7
ISUZU4,0421,04120.48
SSANGYONG4,0041,17022.61
MG3,69479517.71
SUBARU3,54550512.47
ABARTH3,30963816.16
INFINITI2,64439613.03
TESLA2,29042715.72
BENTLEY1,4,,,,,,,76704.53

MOT failure rates by Year

Failure rates are highest in cars around 20 years old. Peaking with 2004 cars at a 30% failure rate. No great surprise. When looking at failure reasons, those such as structural corrosion are not a factor in much newer vehicles.

graph showing mot fail percentage by year fo the 2023 MOT data set

Come back soon to read part 2, where I will take a deeper look at model failure rates and failure reasons.

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