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 8,276 of 8,283 failed first attempts (99.9%) that recorded an odometer reading in 2025 — the subset the age-and-mileage comparison can be computed on.
Standout: Wheel bearings (rear) — 4.6% of this year's failed first attempts
Recorded on 379 of those tests. It tops the table on elevation — about 3.8× 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Wheel bearings (rear)
Suspension > Wheel bearings
|
Rear | 379 | ×3.8 | 4.6% | Likely |
|
Electrical equipment — Horn
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment > Electrical equipment > Horn
|
Any | 397 | ×3.5 | 4.8% | Likely |
|
Registration plate lamp(s) (rear)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment > Registration plate lamp(s)
|
Rear | 696 | ×2.8 | 8.4% | Possible |
|
Position lamp (rear)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment > Position lamps > Position lamp
|
Rear | 589 | ×2.3 | 7.1% | Possible |
|
Seat belts — Condition (rear)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems > Seat belts > Condition
|
Rear | 172 | ×2.3 | 2.1% | 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).