Austin Sprite MOT reliability

Austin Sprites passed their MOT first time 82% of the time across 38 tests in 2025. 403 are still licensed in Great Britain.

These figures come from 38 MOT tests. That's a fairly small number of cars, so they may not be typical of these cars as a whole.

First-time pass rate

82%

MOTs analysed

38

Still licensed (GB)

403

Body type

Convertible

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

1971 petrol

12 MOTs

These figures come from only 12 MOT tests. With so few cars, a single pass or fail changes the percentages a lot, so treat them as a rough guide rather than a true average.

Passed first time 92%. Typical mileage 49,590 (most between 9,725 and 58,461).

2005: 53% → 2006: 71% → 2007: 74% → 2008: 67% → 2009: 67% → 2010: 74% → 2011: 77% → 2012: 77% → 2013: 70% → 2014: 66% → 2015: 75% → 2016: 77% → 2017: 85% → 2018: 83% → 2019: 64% → 2020: 87% → 2021: 88% → 2022: 94% → 2023: 71% → 2024: 100% → 2025: 92%

Most common failures

Individual direction indicators: adversely affected by the operation of another lamp (8.3%)
Wipers: does not clear the windscreen effectively (8.3%)

1971 electric

1 MOT

These figures come from only 1 MOT test. With so few cars, a single pass or fail changes the percentages a lot, so treat them as a rough guide rather than a true average.

Passed first time 100%. Typical mileage 46,484 (most between 46,484 and 46,484).

2020: 100% → 2021: 100% → 2022: 100% → 2023: 0% → 2024: 100% → 2025: 100%

Most common failures

Where 1971 Sprites fail

Lights & electrics

8.3%

Visibility & wipers

8.3%

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.