Datsun 260 MOT reliability

Datsun 260s passed their MOT first time 72% of the time across 25 tests in 2025. 146 are still licensed in Great Britain.

These figures come from 25 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

72%

MOTs analysed

25

Still licensed (GB)

146

Body type

Coupe

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

1978 petrol

6 MOTs

These figures come from only 6 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 67%. Typical mileage 40,513 (most between 34,996 and 43,609).

2005: 70% → 2006: 66% → 2007: 51% → 2008: 61% → 2009: 64% → 2010: 59% → 2011: 75% → 2012: 50% → 2013: 70% → 2014: 74% → 2015: 83% → 2016: 71% → 2017: 67% → 2018: 79% → 2019: 100% → 2020: 100% → 2021: 80% → 2022: 75% → 2023: 75% → 2024: 67% → 2025: 67%

Most common failures

Service brake performance: excessively binding (16.7%)
Stop lamp: all not working (16.7%)
Washers: not working (16.7%)

Where 1978 260s fail

Brakes

16.7%

Lights & electrics

16.7%

Visibility & wipers

16.7%

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 (CC BY 4.0, adapted).