Most popular used cars and their MOT failures
SMMT's ten best-selling used models of April to June 2026 are the cars you're most likely to look at. We counted every MOT they took in 2024 and 2025 to see which fail more often than other cars their age, and what for.
By Michał Żelazko
Car enthusiast
Updated
First published
Quick answer
Of the UK's ten best-selling used cars, the Vauxhall Corsa stands out. 14.5% failed their first MOT in 2025, against 12.0% of all cars and 10.6% expected at its mileage. The BMW 3 Series failed more often, at 15.6%, but mostly because of its high mileage. The Volkswagen Golf and Polo failed least, at 8.5%.
Key takeaways
- The Vauxhall Corsa failed its first MOT more often than the average car in both 2024 and 2025, even after allowing for mileage.
- From 13 years old, more than half of the Nissan Qashqais tested in 2025 failed, against about four in ten cars that age.
- Across ages 3 to 20, the Volkswagen Golf, Audi A3, MINI and BMW 3 Series failed less often than other cars their age.
See what CarCanny finds on the car you're looking at.
Which popular used cars fail their first MOT most often?
The BMW 3 Series and Vauxhall Corsa did, in both 2024 and 2025, but only the Corsa by more than its mileage explains. The table shows the share of each model that failed its first MOT, at about three years old, against all cars at their first MOT.
| Model | Failed, 2025 | Failed, 2024 | Expected at its mileage |
|---|---|---|---|
| BMW 3 Series | 15.6% | 15.9% | 15.0% |
| Vauxhall Corsa | 14.5% | 14.8% | 10.6% |
| Audi A3 | 11.4% | 11.6% | 12.5% |
| Vauxhall Astra | 10.9% | 12.8% | 11.4% |
| MINI | 10.5% | 11.9% | 9.8% |
| Nissan Qashqai | 10.5% | 10.4% | 11.5% |
| Ford Focus | 10.0% | 12.0% | 11.6% |
| Ford Fiesta | 9.1% | 13.8% | 10.0% |
| Volkswagen Golf | 8.5% | 10.6% | 12.5% |
| Volkswagen Polo | 8.5% | 11.8% | 10.4% |
| All cars | 12.0% | 13.0% |
Cars that are driven further fail more often. The last column is the rate you'd expect if each car failed like all cars with the same mileage. The 3 Series is close to it, so its high rate is mostly high mileage. The Corsa is 3.9 points above it, and the Golf 4.0 points below.
How do the UK's 100 most common used cars compare?Our MOT ranking sets each of the 100 models with the most cars tested in 2025 against cars their age, with the method beside it.Why do Vauxhall Corsas fail their MOT?
Most often on wipers at the first MOT, and across ages 3 to 20 on coil springs.
- At the first MOT in 2025, 5.65% of Corsas failed on wipers that didn't clear the windscreen, against 1.63% of all cars. It was the Corsa's most common first-MOT failure, ahead of tyres. A third of those were fixed at the test centre within the hour. Counting only cars not fixed there, 10.4% of Corsas failed their first MOT, against 9.2% of all cars.
- The electric Corsa failed 18.8% of its first MOTs in 2025, against 13.7% of all electric cars.
- Across ages 3 to 20, 6.57% of Corsas tested in 2025 failed on a broken coil spring, against 2.82% expected for cars their ages, and 3.42% on a damaged track rod end dust cover, against 0.40%.
- Overall, 36.4% of Corsas tested in 2025 failed, against 29.8% expected for cars their ages.
On a Corsa you're looking at, find these items in its MOT history, and check whether they came back after a repair.
Do BMW 3 Series hybrids fail their MOT more often?
Yes. The 3 Series with a 2.0-litre hybrid engine failed its first MOT far more often than other hybrids, in both years.
| Year | 3 Series 2.0-litre hybrid | All hybrids | Hybrids with the same mileage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 18.6% of 5,018 cars | 10.1% | 13.8% |
| 2024 | 18.3% of 8,631 cars | 10.9% | 13.9% |
DVSA's data records the fuel and engine size, not the version. Tyres were the 3 Series' biggest first-MOT problem: 10.45% failed on tyres, against 5.43% of all cars, and 2.86% on a tyre with a bulge, against 0.46%.
Older 3 Series did well. At 3 years old they failed a little more often than cars their age; from 4 years old they failed less often, and the gap grows with age. Across ages 3 to 20, 23.9% failed in 2025, against 30.7% expected for cars their ages.
| Age | BMW 3 Series failed, 2025 | All cars that age |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 13.4% | 12.5% |
| 4 | 12.8% | 13.8% |
| 6 | 13.6% | 18.4% |
| 8 | 16.4% | 24.0% |
| 10 | 22.9% | 30.3% |
| 12 | 30.4% | 35.9% |
| 14 | 31.4% | 40.3% |
| 17 | 31.9% | 43.3% |
| 20 | 33.7% | 43.1% |
The age-3 row counts every three-year-old tested in 2025, so it differs a little from the first-MOT figure above, which counts only cars at their very first test.
Are older Nissan Qashqais more likely to fail an MOT?
Yes. From 13 years old, more than half of the Qashqais tested in 2025 failed, against about four in ten cars that age.
- At 13 to 18 years old (first used about 2007 to 2012), 51.9% to 57.8% of Qashqais failed, against 38.3% to 43.6% of all cars the same age.
- At 12 years old, 49.4% failed, against 35.9%.
- Across ages 3 to 20, 5.37% failed on play in a track rod end ball joint (steering), against 1.06% expected for cars their ages, and 5.05% on a worn ball joint, against 1.66%.
Young Qashqais did better: 10.5% failed their first MOT in 2025, against 12.0% of all cars, though 2.11% failed on brake pads under 1.5 mm, against 0.81%. On an older car, the data can't separate how it was kept from how it was built.
Which popular used cars fail less often than cars their age?
The Volkswagen Golf, Audi A3, MINI and BMW 3 Series. Across ages 3 to 20, each failed less often in 2025 than you'd expect for cars their ages.
| Model | Failed, 2025, ages 3 to 20 | Expected for cars their ages | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| BMW 3 Series | 23.9% | 30.7% | 6.8 points lower |
| Volkswagen Golf | 24.6% | 30.0% | 5.4 points lower |
| MINI | 24.0% | 29.3% | 5.3 points lower |
| Audi A3 | 24.7% | 29.9% | 5.2 points lower |
| Ford Focus | 32.2% | 31.2% | 1.0 point higher |
| Vauxhall Astra | 34.3% | 32.8% | 1.5 points higher |
| Volkswagen Polo | 32.9% | 29.8% | 3.1 points higher |
| Ford Fiesta | 34.9% | 31.0% | 3.9 points higher |
| Nissan Qashqai | 32.8% | 27.3% | 5.5 points higher |
| Vauxhall Corsa | 36.4% | 29.8% | 6.6 points higher |
Four of the other six failed at least 2 points more often than cars their age, the Corsa most. The Focus and Astra were within 2 points. The Golf did better than cars its age at every age from 3 to 17. At 10 years old, 19.7% failed, against 30.3%. The BMW 3 Series is on both lists: at three years old it fails a little more often than average, mostly because 3 Series cover high mileage, but over its life it fails less often than cars its age.
What should you check in a used car's MOT history?
Check what it failed on, whether the same faults came back, and whether the mileage ever went down.
Read every failure and advisory
Look for the items this model fails on most, such as wipers and coil springs on a Corsa, or steering joints on an older Qashqai.
Look for repeats
The same advisory at two or three MOTs in a row means a fault that keeps being put off.
Check the mileage between tests
Each reading should be higher than the one before. A drop can be a typing error or a reading in kilometres, but ask the seller to explain it.
Ask for receipts
If a failure was fixed, ask the seller for the invoice.
You can read a car's MOT history for free on GOV.UK. CarCanny's full report shows every MOT test with its failures and advisories, checks whether the mileage ever went down between MOT tests, and adds finance, write-off and stolen checks.
How did we work out these figures?
We counted every MOT test in Great Britain in 2024 and 2025, from DVSA's anonymised MOT data, for SMMT's ten best-selling used models of April to June 2026.
- A first MOT is a car's first normal test of the year, 35 to 39 months after it was first used: 1,332,619 cars in 2025 and 1,435,029 in 2024.
- A failure is a fail, or a pass after a repair at the test centre within the hour. That's DVSA's own measure, the initial fail rate.
- We compared each model with all cars the same age, and with cars that had done the same mileage, in 10,000-mile bands.
- All cars means MOT class 4: cars, taxis and light vans up to 3,000 kg. Retests are left out, and so are the models' van versions.
- A fail rate isn't a reliability score. It reflects how cars were kept and used as well as how they were built.
Source: CarCanny analysis of DVSA anonymised MOT data, 2024 to 2025. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. DVSA doesn't endorse it.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of cars fail their first MOT?
12.0% of cars at their first MOT in Great Britain failed in 2025, and 13.0% in 2024, counting a pass after a repair at the test centre as a fail. That's 159,592 of 1,332,619 cars in 2025, from DVSA's anonymised MOT data.
What do most cars fail their MOT on?
At the first MOT, tyres: 5.43% of all cars failed on them in 2025. Lamps and electrical equipment came next (2.66%), then visibility, which includes wipers (2.61%), and brakes (1.43%).
How do you check the MOT history of a car?
Enter its registration on GOV.UK's free MOT history service to see every test, with its failures, advisories and mileage. CarCanny's full report shows the same history, checks whether the mileage ever went down between MOT tests, and adds finance, write-off and stolen checks.
Sources
- DVSA: Anonymised MOT tests and results(opens in a new tab)
- SMMT: Used car sales, Q2 2026(opens in a new tab)
- GOV.UK: Check the MOT history of a vehicle(opens in a new tab)
The ideas for our guides come from people on our team. We use AI tools to help research, draft and edit them, and the named author reads each one before it's published.
Written by
Michał Żelazko
Car enthusiast at CarCanny
Michał works at vlayer, the company behind CarCanny, and is a motoring fan after hours.
