Mercedes-Benz 312 MOT reliability

Mercedes-Benz 312s passed their MOT first time 61% of the time across 151 tests in 2025.

First-time pass rate

61%

MOTs analysed

151

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

1997 diesel

30 MOTs

These figures come from 30 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 67%. Typical mileage 160,211 (most between 85,041 and 213,082).

2017: 50% → 2018: 53% → 2019: 47% → 2020: 64% → 2021: 49% → 2022: 62% → 2023: 55% → 2024: 63% → 2025: 67%

Most common failures

Rbt (sp): efficiency below requirements (10.0%)
Stop lamp: not working (6.7%)
Washers: provides insufficient washer liquid (6.7%)
Wipers: does not clear the windscreen effectively (6.7%)
Outline marker lamp: not working (6.7%)

Where 1997 312s fail

Lights & electrics

26.7%

Brakes

13.3%

Visibility & wipers

13.3%

Wheels & tyres

6.7%

Seat belts & other equipment

6.7%

Body, structure & corrosion

3.3%

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.