According to our latest research, Ferrari owners are the most likely to get their vehicle through an MOT first time.

The Italian supercar manufacturer was found to have an impressive MOT pass rate of 95.4% for cars aged three years old.

Other top spots are filled by competitor prestige brands, including podium finishes for Bentley and Aston Martin, and a respectable sixth place for Porsche.

The findings come after we analysed data from our Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the DVSA (Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency).

Of the more mainstream brands, it was purely Japanese marques that filled the rest of Top 10, with Subaru and Lexus taking 4th and 5th places, and 7th to 10th taken by Honda, Infinity, Mazda, and Suzuki respectively.

At the other end of the spectrum, SsangYong fares less successfully, coming in last with a failure rate of 21.9%, significantly worse than the 13.1% overall average for three-year-old cars.

The MOT failure rate of each brand is often indicative of how well owners maintain their cars and the likely annual mileages they will cover. For instance, 6.8% of cars fail MOT tests due to defective tyres1, a component which is the driver’s responsibility to monitor for wear and tear.

 

Make Tests Failures Failure Rate
1 FERRARI 712 33 4.6%
2 BENTLEY 1370 76 5.5%
3 ASTON MARTIN 1297 80 6.2%
4 SUBARU 2517 164 6.5%
5 LEXUS 11261 774 6.9%
6 PORSCHE 11884 936 7.9%
7 HONDA 50552 4040 8.0%
8 INFINITI 3114 267 8.6%
9 MAZDA 36975 3422 9.3%
10 SUZUKI 37927 3928 10.4%
11 AUDI 158840 17502 11.0%
12 MINI 65866 7384 11.2%
13 TOYOTA 103770 11734 11.3%
14 JEEP 5905 705 11.9%
15 BMW 162318 19720 12.1%
16 NISSAN 153045 18682 12.2%
17 FIAT 52110 6372 12.2%
18 HYUNDAI 82899 10153 12.2%
19 TESLA 3630 452 12.5%
20 SMART (MCC) 8987 1138 12.7%
21 SKODA 73900 9415 12.7%
22 VOLVO 42152 5429 12.9%
23 ABARTH 3961 511 12.9%
24 KIA 87554 11355 13.0%
25 FORD 347566 45320 13.0%
26 MITSUBISHI 24087 3146 13.1%
27 LAND ROVER 75287 9931 13.2%
28 MERCEDES-BENZ 170585 22664 13.3%
29 JAGUAR 32990 4483 13.6%
30 SEAT 52399 7240 13.8%
31 PEUGEOT 99683 14181 14.2%
32 VAUXHALL 203128 29277 14.4%
33 MG 4016 599 14.9%
34 MASERATI 1299 197 15.2%
35 VOLKSWAGEN 222794 34012 15.3%
36 ALFA ROMEO 4385 674 15.4%
37 DS 8461 1342 15.9%
38 RENAULT 76795 13073 17.0%
39 ISUZU 4304 780 18.1%
40 CITROEN 66503 12419 18.7%
41 DACIA 23348 5031 21.5%
42 SSANGYONG 3494 765 21.9%

 

Recently, we reported that an estimated 280,000 three-year-old cars will fail their first legally required MOT test throughout 2021, despite still being relatively young.

When looking at failure rates for all cars aged between 3 and 15 years old, the picture remains largely similar, but with Tesla, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz and DS nudging their way into the top spots to create a Top 10 filled exclusively with prestige brands.

 

Rank Make Tests Failures Failure Rate
1 FERRARI 6362 443 7.0%
2 BENTLEY 13465 1185 8.8%
3 ASTON MARTIN 13718 1334 9.7%
4 PORSCHE 90799 10856 12.0%
5 INFINITI 9056 1147 12.7%
6 TESLA 7853 1055 13.4%
7 LEXUS 111113 19287 17.4%
8 MASERATI 7425 1319 17.8%
9 MERCEDES-BENZ 963375 200853 20.8%
10 DS 31020 6477 20.9%
11 AUDI 1295910 272436 21.0%
12 BMW 1363130 295795 21.7%
13 ABARTH 16722 3645 21.8%
14 LAND ROVER 618783 141958 22.9%
15 SKODA 575799 133088 23.1%
16 JAGUAR 229083 53032 23.1%
17 MINI 582120 136771 23.5%
18 JEEP 49365 11675 23.7%
19 MG 19239 4658 24.2%
20 SMART (MCC) 61033 15424 25.3%
21 DACIA 108503 27678 25.5%
22 TOYOTA 1139479 294127 25.8%
23 HONDA 761342 198794 26.1%
24 SUBARU 42909 11226 26.2%
25 HYUNDAI 664581 177252 26.7%
26 SUZUKI 330223 88888 26.9%
27 VOLKSWAGEN 2281546 628926 27.6%
28 MAZDA 419422 116134 27.7%
29 KIA 651893 180558 27.7%
30 VOLVO 397436 110533 27.8%
31 SEAT 397254 110780 27.9%
32 NISSAN 1282186 369618 28.8%
33 MITSUBISHI 231554 69030 29.8%
34 ISUZU 30977 9277 29.9%
35 SSANGYONG 16841 5124 30.4%
36 FORD 3753306 1167115 31.1%
37 FIAT 683465 212643 31.1%
38 MERCEDES 200008 63040 31.5%
39 ALFA ROMEO 66482 21720 32.7%
40 SMART 10361 3391 32.7%
41 DAIHATSU 14918 4886 32.8%
42 PEUGEOT 1246298 418266 33.6%
43 VAUXHALL 2844164 968691 34.1%
44 CITROEN 921950 334631 36.3%
45 LONDON TAXIS INT 19754 7379 37.4%
46 SAAB 60124 23170 38.5%
47 RENAULT 896963 352773 39.3%
48 CHRYSLER 21665 8611 39.7%
49 CHRYSLER-JEEP 13791 5615 40.7%
50 DODGE 6369 2723 42.8%
51 CHEVROLET 84632 38586 45.6%

 

Chevrolet takes last place, with 45.6% of its cars failing first time, though it hasn’t sold any of its mainstream models in the UK since 2014 and therefore represents a sample of older vehicles.

Jessica Potts, Head of Marketing at BookMyGarage.com, commented “It’s perhaps no surprise to see so many luxury brands perform best in the MOT test.

“Owners of prestige car brands often cover fewer miles annually as the car is unlikely to be the owner’s sole vehicle and they are usually maintained to very high standards. MOT pass rates are less indicative of brand reliability and more a representation of how well owners maintain their car and how much of a ‘workhorse’ a particular brands’ models tend to become.

“That being said, there’s a noticeable dominance of more mainstream Japanese brands in the Top 10, which perhaps goes some way to prove the notion that Japanese cars are indeed very reliable.”

 

 

  1. Source: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/855784/dvsa-mot-03-mot-class-3-and-4-vehicles-initial-failures-by-defect-category.csv/preview