Mercedes-Benz 412 MOT reliability

Mercedes-Benz 412s passed their MOT first time 69% of the time across 80 tests in 2025.

These figures come from 80 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

69%

MOTs analysed

80

Still licensed (GB)

–

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

1998 diesel

21 MOTs

Passed first time 62%. Typical mileage 186,157 (most between 113,901 and 238,128).

2017: 63% → 2018: 28% → 2019: 63% → 2020: 46% → 2021: 38% → 2022: 47% → 2023: 59% → 2024: 64% → 2025: 62%

Most common failures

Rbt (sp): efficiency below requirements (14.3%)
Rigid brake pipes: excessively corroded (9.5%)
Chassis condition: or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of a body mounting (9.5%)
Pins and bushes: pin or bush excessively worn (9.5%)
Outline marker lamp: not working (9.5%)

Where 1998 412s fail

Brakes

28.6%

Lights & electrics

23.8%

Suspension & axles

19.0%

Body, structure & corrosion

9.5%

Visibility & wipers

9.5%

Wheels & tyres

4.8%

Seat belts & other equipment

4.8%

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.