Ford Ka+ MOT reliability

Ford Ka+s passed their MOT first time 66% of the time across 169,345 tests in 2025. 150,092 are still licensed in Great Britain.

Example photo of a Ford Ka+ — Photo: Keith Sebastian · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

First-time pass rate

66%

MOTs analysed

169,345

Still licensed (GB)

150,092

Body type

Hatchback

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

2017 petrol

13,239 MOTs

Passed first time 81%. Typical mileage 38,773 (most between 25,750 and 54,136).

2018: 100% → 2019: 93% → 2020: 93% → 2021: 91% → 2022: 88% → 2023: 86% → 2024: 83% → 2025: 81%

Most common failures

Headlamp: not working on dipped beam (2.4%)
Brake pads: less than 1.5 mm thick (1.8%)
Track rod end: ball joint has excessive play (1.5%)
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (1.4%)
Headlamp aim: too low (1.2%)

Where 2017 Ka+s fail

Lights & electrics

7.9%

Wheels & tyres

4.8%

Brakes

3.0%

Visibility & wipers

3.0%

Suspension & axles

2.8%

Steering

1.8%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

1.3%

Body, structure & corrosion

1.0%

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.