Mercedes-Benz 190E MOT reliability

Mercedes-Benz 190Es passed their MOT first time 72% of the time across 1,930 tests in 2025.

First-time pass rate

72%

MOTs analysed

1,930

Still licensed (GB)

–

Body type

–

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

1994 petrol

20 MOTs

These figures come from 20 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 70%. Typical mileage 110,014 (most between 94,493 and 142,437).

2021: 74% → 2022: 78% → 2023: 75% → 2024: 83% → 2025: 70%

Most common failures

Component mounting prescribed areas: prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (10.0%)
Non catalyst emissions: emissions hydrocarbon content excessive (10.0%)
Service brake performance: excessively binding (10.0%)
Sub-frame mounting prescribed areas: prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (10.0%)
All direction indicators: incorrect colour (5.0%)

Where 1994 190Es fail

Suspension & axles

15.0%

Body, structure & corrosion

10.0%

Brakes

10.0%

Lights & electrics

10.0%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

10.0%

Visibility & wipers

10.0%

Wheels & tyres

5.0%

Steering

5.0%

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 (CC BY 4.0, adapted).