Body and structure MOT failures
Body and structure faults account for 1.9% of MOT failures. What the tester checks, why cars fail, and which models fail this most.
What are body and structure MOT failures?
Structural failures are corrosion in load-bearing areas, sharp edges, or insecure panels. These are inspection-and-welding jobs rather than a simple bolt-on part, so weigh them against the value of the car.
How common are body and structure MOT failures?
Body and structure faults account for 1.9% of all recorded MOT failures, making them the ninth most common reason cars fail. That share is drawn from the categorised defect records of 16,764 car models in the DVSA data.
| Failure area | Share of all failures |
|---|---|
| Body & structure | 1.9% |
Which cars fail most on body and structure?
These models lose the largest share of their own MOT failures to body and structure items. The percentage is the portion of each model's failures that fall in this area, among models with a large test sample.
| Model | Share of its failures | Overall failure rate | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rover 115 | 37.1% | 41.9% | 16,962 |
| Rover Metro | 35.8% | 37.1% | 278,208 |
| Rover Range Rover | 32.8% | 34.9% | 6,381 |
| Austin Metro | 31.3% | 33.4% | 31,545 |
| Rover 213 | 29.3% | 35.3% | 8,291 |
| Rover 111 | 28.6% | 37.2% | 148,737 |
| Rover 100 | 27.2% | 35.7% | 154,640 |
| Vauxhall Astramax | 26.6% | 41.1% | 6,925 |
| Rover 114 | 25.9% | 36.2% | 112,452 |
| Austin MINI | 25.7% | 32.8% | 206,863 |
| Austin Morris MINI | 25.1% | 32.1% | 44,378 |
| Subaru Mv | 24.7% | 35.6% | 8,885 |
| Suzuki Cappuccino | 24.6% | 31.4% | 11,982 |
| Rover MINI | 23.4% | 33.0% | 526,971 |
| Ford Orion | 22.1% | 37.1% | 85,236 |
Other MOT failure areas
How the other DVSA failure areas break down, each with the models that fail it most.
Sources: DVSA MOT History API: MOT test results and defect data ยท DVSA MOT testing data for Great Britain