Alfa Romeo 166 MOT reliability

Alfa Romeo 166s passed their MOT first time 53% of the time across 173 tests in 2025. 114 are still licensed in Great Britain.

First-time pass rate

53%

MOTs analysed

173

Still licensed (GB)

114

Body type

Sedan

Pass rate by year of first registration

Older cars fail more often, so compare a car with others of the same age. Years with very few MOTs can show extreme pass rates, even 0% or 100%, so give more weight to years with more tests.

In detail:

First registered

2005 petrol

35 MOTs

These figures come from 35 MOT tests. That's a fairly small number of cars, so they may not be typical of these cars as a whole.

Passed first time 51%. Typical mileage 103,940 (most between 90,879 and 128,726).

2007: 100% → 2008: 70% → 2009: 63% → 2010: 60% → 2011: 60% → 2012: 59% → 2013: 51% → 2014: 49% → 2015: 57% → 2016: 54% → 2017: 54% → 2018: 50% → 2019: 54% → 2020: 67% → 2021: 65% → 2022: 57% → 2023: 71% → 2024: 65% → 2025: 51%

Most common failures

Pins and bushes: pin or bush excessively worn (11.4%)
Headlamp aim: projected beam image is obviously incorrect (8.6%)
Wheel bearings: rough when rotated (5.7%)
Rbt (sp): efficiency below requirements (5.7%)
Washers: provides insufficient washer liquid (5.7%)

Where 2005 166s fail

Suspension & axles

22.9%

Brakes

17.1%

Lights & electrics

14.3%

Visibility & wipers

14.3%

Body, structure & corrosion

5.7%

Wheels & tyres

2.9%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

2.9%

Looking at a particular car?

See its own MOT history, mileage and red flags, compared with these figures. Free.

Based on 2025 initial MOT tests in DVSA's anonymised MOT dataset (cars and light vans). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Model details: Vehicle data by VehiclesDB.