UK MOT Failure Stats: fail rates & most common MOT failures by make, model and year

How often does this car fail its MOT, and what usually fails? Enter a make, model and first-registration years. You get the MOT fail rate, how it compares with the average for vehicles of the same age, the most common failure items and advisories, failure categories, dangerous-defect rate and average mileage. Built from 34 million official DVSA MOT tests completed in Great Britain in 2025.

Other MOT Actors look up the history of one number plate. This one answers the model-level question buyers, dealers and garages ask: "Is a 2015 Ford Fiesta a good buy, and what should I check?"

What you get per make / model / first-use year

• motTests, initialFailRatePct (failed at first, including faults fixed within the hour), passRatePct, fixedAtTestPct
• sameAgeAverageFailRatePct, failRateVsSameAgeAverage and a verdict (much better / better / about average / worse / much worse than average)
• topFailureItems: e.g. "Coil spring: fractured or broken", with % of tests and dangerous %
• topFailureCategories: Lamps, Suspension, Tyres, Brakes...
• topAdvisories: what testers warn about before it becomes a failure
• dangerousDefectRatePct, averageMileage, fuelMixPct, vehicleClass

Who it's for

Used-car buyers and dealers, UK car exporters and importers (e.g. UK cars going to Cyprus, Malta or Ireland), garages and MOT centres, fleet and leasing managers, insurers, and car-content sites ("most reliable small cars").

Input

Field	Example	Notes
make	Vauxhall	VW, Mercedes aliases work
model	Corsa	DVSA model name. If nothing is found, you get suggestions (free)
years	2012-2018 or 2014,2016	Year first registered. Empty = all years
vehicles	[{"make":"Toyota","model":"Yaris","years":"2014-2016"}]	Several vehicles in one run
includeModelVariants	true	Transit also counts Transit Custom, Transit Connect...
minTests	50	Years with fewer tests are skipped and not charged
topN	10	Items per list

Example output

Real data, 2025 MOT tests:

Vehicle	First used	MOT tests	Fail rate	Same-age average	Verdict	Top failure
Ford Fiesta	2015	120,571	35.3%	28.2%	much worse than average	Stop lamp: not working (8.3%)
VW Golf	2015	65,861	18.3%	28.2%	much better than average
Toyota Yaris	2016	27,655	19.6%	25.2%	much better than average	Side repeaters: not working
Vauxhall Corsa	2014	70,556	42.8%	31.5%	much worse than average	Coil spring: fractured or broken (7.6%)

{
  "make": "FORD", "model": "FIESTA", "firstUseYear": 2015, "motTests": 120571,
  "initialFailRatePct": 35.3, "sameAgeAverageFailRatePct": 28.2, "failRateVsSameAgeAverage": 1.25,
  "verdict": "much worse than average", "averageMileage": 67140,
  "topFailureItems": [{"defect": "Stop lamp: not working", "category": "Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment", "pctOfTests": 8.3, "dangerousPctOfTests": 0.0}],
  "topAdvisories": [{"advisory": "Tread depth: worn close to legal limit/worn on edge", "category": "Tyres", "pctOfTests": 20.0}],
  "dataPeriod": "MOT tests (normal tests) completed in Great Britain in 2025"
}

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Connect this Actor to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client with Apify's hosted MCP server:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=jyaussie/uk-mot-failure-stats

Example prompts:

• "What is the MOT fail rate of a 2015 Ford Fiesta and its top failures?"
• "Which first-registration year of the VW Golf is most reliable at MOT?"
• "Compare MOT failure stats of Vauxhall Corsa 2012-2018."

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.01 per make/model/year returned. A 7-year comparison costs $0.07. Not-found vehicles and years with too few tests are free. Runs take about a second because the statistics are pre-computed.

Method, data source & licence

• Source: DVSA anonymised MOT testing data (tests completed in 2025), published at open.data.dvsa.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This Actor is not affiliated with or endorsed by DVSA.
• Only normal first tests are counted (not retests). Fail rate includes "pass with rectification at station". "First-use year" is the year the vehicle was first registered, not necessarily its model year. Only groups with at least 20 tests are kept.
• Fail rates reflect how vehicles are used and maintained, not only how they are built: popular cheap cars often have higher mileage and lower maintenance budgets. The comparison is with vehicles in the same MOT class first used in the same year.
• No personal data: only aggregate counts. No registration numbers, vehicle IDs, postcodes or test-centre details are included.
• Great Britain only. Not advice about any specific vehicle. Check a specific car's own MOT history on GOV.UK and have it inspected.