Original analysis
Which car brands actually last?
Compare every brand at the same vehicle age and Porsche fails least at 8.3%, ahead of Lexus at 9.4% and Honda at 12.1%. Renault fails most at 29.8%. The raw figures tell a different and worse story, because a brand selling plenty of new cars looks reliable whatever it builds.
Fail rate at the same age, cars aged 6 to 12
Ranked best first. The raw column is every test that brand had in 2025, whatever the age, which is the number most comparisons use.
| # | Brand | Same age | Raw | Moves | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Porsche | 8.3% | 10.5% | — | |
| 2 | Lexus | 9.4% | 12% | — | |
| 3 | Honda | 12.1% | 21.4% | +14 | |
| 4 | MINI | 13.5% | 18% | +2 | |
| 5 | Toyota | 14.7% | 18.5% | +3 | |
| 6 | BMW | 15.3% | 17.1% | -2 | |
| 7 | Jaguar | 15.6% | 17.6% | -2 | |
| 8 | Land Rover | 15.7% | 19% | +1 | |
| 9 | Suzuki | 15.9% | 20.2% | +3 | |
| 10 | Audi | 16.6% | 18.3% | -3 | |
| 11 | Subaru | 16.7% | 20.9% | +4 | |
| 12 | Skoda | 18% | 19.6% | -1 | |
| 13 | Volkswagen | 18.3% | 22.6% | +6 | |
| 14 | Smart | 18.4% | 22.6% | +6 | |
| 15 | Mercedes-Benz | 18.6% | 19.4% | -5 | |
| 16 | Mazda | 19.4% | 22.8% | +6 | |
| 17 | Hyundai | 19.4% | 20.7% | -3 | |
| 18 | Mitsubishi | 19.5% | 23.5% | +6 | |
| 19 | Volvo | 19.9% | 21.2% | -3 | |
| 20 | Kia | 20.4% | 20.3% | -7 | |
| 21 | SEAT | 21.6% | 21.7% | -3 | |
| 22 | Ford | 21.6% | 24.8% | +3 | |
| 23 | Alfa Romeo | 22.6% | 28% | +8 | |
| 24 | Jeep | 22.7% | 22.9% | -1 | |
| 25 | Fiat | 23.8% | 27% | +4 | |
| 26 | Peugeot | 23.9% | 26.5% | +1 | |
| 27 | MG | 24.5% | 15.2% | -24 | |
| 28 | Nissan | 24.6% | 26.8% | — | |
| 29 | Vauxhall | 25.6% | 27.9% | +1 | |
| 30 | Citroen | 26.1% | 29% | +2 | |
| 31 | Isuzu | 26.9% | 26.3% | -5 | |
| 32 | Dacia | 28.1% | 22.7% | -11 | |
| 33 | Renault | 29.8% | 31.8% | — |
“Moves” is how many places a brand shifts once age is held constant, against where the raw figure would put it.
Why the raw table misleads
Two brands make the point in opposite directions. MG has a raw fail rate of 15.2%, which would rank it 3 of 33. Almost every MG on the road is new, and new cars pass. Line its cars up against other brands of the same age and it fails 24.5% and ranks 27. Honda runs the other way: a raw 21.4% that looks ordinary, because the Hondas still being tested are old, yet 12.1% at a like-for-like age, third of 33.
How it is measured
Every class 4 first-attempt MOT recorded in 2025, grouped by brand and by single year of vehicle age. The ranking uses cars aged 6 to 12 years, the stretch holding about half of all tests and the one where nearly every brand has enough cars to measure. A brand needs 30,000 tests in both 2022 and 2025 to appear.
Three brands are left out for having too few cars in that age range: DS, Saab, Chevrolet. Saab stopped selling cars in 2011 and Chevrolet left the UK in 2015, so neither has a modern fleet to compare; DS is too new to have many cars past six years old.
What this does not tell you
It measures cars as maintained, not as built. Servicing budgets differ enormously between a Porsche and a Renault, and the MOT sees the combined result of the engineering and the upkeep. Some of this ranking is owner behaviour rather than the factory.
Survivorship. If one brand’s worst cars are scrapped earlier, the ones still being tested are a better-selected group, which reads as reliability.
Mileage. A brand whose cars cover more miles a year will fail more at the same age. We have not adjusted for it here.
Model mix. A brand is an average of very different cars. The model pages carry the per-model figures, which are more use when you have a specific car in mind.
Source
DVSA anonymised MOT data, 2022 to 2025, published under the Open Government Licence and retrieved 21 Sep 2026. Retests and aborted tests are excluded.
Questions
Which car brand is most reliable at the MOT?
Comparing every brand at the same vehicle age, Porsche fails least at 8.3%, then Lexus at 9.4% and Honda at 12.1%. Renault fails most at 29.8%. These are cars aged 6 to 12, where most of the fleet sits.
Why compare at the same age?
Because fail rate climbs steeply with age, so a brand selling lots of new cars looks reliable whatever it builds. MG is the clearest case: 15.2% of all its tests fail, which ranks 3 of 33, but at a like-for-like age it is 24.5% and ranks 27.
Which brand does better than its raw numbers suggest?
Honda. Its raw fail rate of 21.4% looks middling because the Hondas on the road are old. Compare at the same age and it is 12.1%, third best of 33 brands, a rise of 14 places.
Does this measure how well cars are built?
Not on its own. It measures cars as they are maintained, and maintenance spend varies a lot by brand. A Porsche owner and a Renault owner do not spend the same on servicing, and the MOT sees the result of both the engineering and the upkeep.
Are brands improving?
Nearly all of them. Measured against each brand's own 2022 fleet age, 29 of 33 improved by 2025, 3 held flat and 1 got worse.
Related: are cars getting more reliable for the fleet-wide picture, electric against petrol, diesel and hybrid at the same age, or pass rates by model for a specific car.