Mercedes-Benz A160 MOT reliability

Mercedes-Benz A160s passed their MOT first time 65% of the time across 239 tests in 2025.

First-time pass rate

65%

MOTs analysed

239

Still licensed (GB)

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Body type

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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

2009 petrol

25 MOTs

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.

Passed first time 72%. Typical mileage 83,244 (most between 51,548 and 105,316).

2012: 89% → 2013: 87% → 2014: 81% → 2015: 78% → 2016: 75% → 2017: 94% → 2018: 79% → 2019: 78% → 2020: 69% → 2021: 48% → 2022: 79% → 2023: 65% → 2024: 68% → 2025: 72%

Most common failures

Track rod end: ball joint has excessive play (4.0%)
Has excessive free play detected at the steering wheel (steering rack fitted) (4.0%)
Headlamp: not working on dipped beam (4.0%)
Parking brake performance: inoperative on one side (4.0%)
Headlamp: has a product on the lens so that the light output is severely reduced (4.0%)

2009 diesel

4 MOTs

These figures come from only 4 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 75%. Typical mileage 73,743 (most between 72,032 and 81,981).

2009: 100% → 2010: 100% → 2011: 100% → 2012: 87% → 2013: 75% → 2014: 83% → 2015: 75% → 2016: 75% → 2017: 67% → 2018: 100% → 2019: 67% → 2020: 100% → 2021: 67% → 2022: 100% → 2023: 0% → 2024: 33% → 2025: 75%

Most common failures

Rigid brake pipes: excessively corroded (25.0%)
Service brake performance: excessively binding (25.0%)

Where 2009 A160s fail

Brakes

16.0%

Lights & electrics

8.0%

Steering

4.0%

Visibility & wipers

4.0%

Looking at a particular car?

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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.