When booking your car in for an MOT your mind is likely to linger on that worst-case scenario where you’ll be told the car is no longer roadworthy and the cost to repair your motor just isn’t worth it.
At least I assume so, I live in a city with a reasonably adequate public transport system so I don’t drive.
Anyhow, as much as you might love your dear old car and want to keep repairing it after failed MOTs there’s going to come a time when your great little runner can run no longer and it’s time to send it off to car heaven, or a scrapyard in a part of town that has yet to be hit with the great wave of gentrification.
Certain cars seem to be holding up better than others when it comes to passing the MOT, a test which millions of British motorists see their car fail first time each year, as there are some old models which seem to be doing worse than the rest.
This Is Money reports that over the past decade the pass rate for an MOT in the UK has increased from 60 percent to 71.4 percent, so it sounds like Brits are getting more joy out of their motors, and the average age of a car on the road in the UK is about nine years old.
However, there are 10 cars which finished bottom of the pile when it came to passing an MOT on the first go, so you may wish to worry if your faithful car is one of these.
Chevrolet Lacetti (2005 – 2011)
For several years this was the ‘reasonably priced car’ from Top Gear‘s ‘star in a reasonably priced car’ segment, but it seems as though the Lacetti’s legs have gone.
The car went out of production in 2011 and of those remaining on Britain’s roads only 48.9 percent passed their MOT last year.
That is not great, but that pass rating is only going to get worse as we move further down the list.
Peugeot 307 (2001 – 2007)
In fairness to the Peugeot it’s been out of production for almost two decades now, so even the newest models on the UK’s roads are going to be about twice the age of the average car in this country.
It’s still a very popular car in this country though, with almost 20,000 going through an MOT last year and less than half of them passing the test.
The 307 returned a 48.6 pass rate, so there were over 10,000 Brits who got the bad news that their car didn’t cut the mustard.
Chevrolet Aveo (2008 – 2015)
Sorry Chevrolet, you’re on the list again for a newer model than the Lacetti.
The MOT pass rate for the Aveo is 48.4 percent and with thousands tested in the UK that’s a decent amount of British drivers who got some bad news about their car.
The Chevrolet Aveo is the newest motor on this list, with the newest of them going on sale a decade ago.
Chevrolet Kalos (2005 – 2008)
Fortunately for Chevrolet, this is its third and final entry on this top 10 list.
Unfortunately, the pass rate drops almost an entire point to 47.6 percent so we’re starting to get a bit further down the scale of reliability here.
There’s little else to say about the Kalos, here’s hoping yours is in good nick.
Citroen Grand C4 Picasso (2007 – 2013)
The kind of car you could cram an entire family and a week’s worth of shopping in, but sadly the formerly reliable workhorse of the British family might need an appointment with the glue factory.
Like the Kalos they’ve got an MOT pass rate of 47.6 percent which isn’t great, but for Picasso appreciators This Is Money says the second generation of the C4 Grand Picasso made between 2014 and 2018 has a pass rate of 67.8 percent.
Maybe get one of those instead.
Daewoo Matiz (1998 – 2005)
I was wondering why I had no memory of this car and then it turns out it’s because it was sold primarily during the years when my main interest was Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars.
Despite the gap in my memory the Daewoo Matiz does exist and there are still a few hundred of them trundling around the roads on this sceptred isle.
However, more have been failing than passing as only 47.5 percent of Matiz’s are getting through their MOT.
Dodge Caliber (2006 – 2009)
Give it up for the Dodge Caliber, the least popular car on this list since only around 500 of them are still in use in the UK.
Of those only 47.2 percent of them actually did well enough to pass their MOT, so if someone tries to sell you one of these it’s probably best to do that thing where you suck air through your teeth and then say you’re looking for something else.
Citroen C8 (2003 – 2010)
Ooh, la, la, another spacious Citroen from the noughties which isn’t doing too great these days.
In its defence the oldest C8s on the roads would now be more than 20 years old, at which point you really ought to start thinking about trading in the car for something a little less creaky.
Only 46.5 percent of these cars passed their MOT, which isn’t great but is not as bad as…
Peugeot 807 (2002 – 2010)
The Peugeot 807 shares a lot with the Citroen C8 which perhaps explains why they’re so far down this list, and like its counterpart it’s a spacious but ageing car that is really starting to show its age.
If someone forced you to choose between the two cars then go for the Citroen, since the Peugeot has a pass rate of 46.1 percent.
Mitsubishi Space Star (1999 – 2005)
Fess up, who among you is still driving a car that went out of production 20 years ago?
While the name ‘Space Star’ sounds cool you might find that if you still have one of these it suffers from serious failure to launch during the MOT.
Only 45.3 percent of these cars actually passes the test, though given how old they are that’s perhaps more surprising than not.
Interestingly, there are still almost 1,000 of these old cars still being used on the UK’s roads.
LADbible has contacted all brands mentioned for comment.
