These MOT failure patterns show up more often on this registration year than on similar cars of the same class, age, and mileage.
Shares below are measured across the 482 failed first attempts in 2025 that the age-and-mileage comparison can be computed on.
Standout: Drive shafts — Joints (front) — 7.5% of this year's failed first attempts
Recorded on 36 of those tests. It tops the table on elevation — about 13× more often than on similar cars of the same age and mileage. That is what makes it unusual for its class, which is a different question from what is most likely to fail; the buying checklist ranks by that. The full ranked list is in the table below.
No patterns met the strongest callout thresholds on this page; showing the highest-lift rows that still cleared the display floors.
| Fault pattern | Location | Failures | vs similar cars | Share of fails | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Drive shafts — Joints (front)
Body, chassis, structure > Transmission > Drive shafts > Joints
|
Front | 36 | ×13 | 7.5% | Likely |
|
Malfunction indicator lamp
Noise, emissions and leaks > Exhaust emissions > Compression ignition > Malfunction indicator lamp
|
Any | 28 | ×6.2 | 5.8% | Possible |
|
Visibility — Wipers (front)
Visibility > Wipers
|
Front | 106 | ×2.6 | 22.0% | Possible |
Only patterns that clear minimum sample and elevation thresholds are shown (at least 20 failures and about 2.0× more often than similar cars).