MG ZR MOT reliability

MG ZRs passed their MOT first time 66% of the time across 1,721 tests in 2025. 1,314 are still licensed in Great Britain.

Example photo of a MG ZR — Photo: Sjoerd95 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

First-time pass rate

66%

MOTs analysed

1,721

Still licensed (GB)

1,314

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

2005 petrol

328 MOTs

Passed first time 68%. Typical mileage 76,557 (most between 56,235 and 99,913).

2006: 100% → 2007: 74% → 2008: 69% → 2009: 67% → 2010: 62% → 2011: 56% → 2012: 52% → 2013: 51% → 2014: 48% → 2015: 51% → 2016: 51% → 2017: 52% → 2018: 54% → 2019: 54% → 2020: 59% → 2021: 60% → 2022: 62% → 2023: 64% → 2024: 68% → 2025: 68%

Most common failures

Joints: constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (6.7%)
Component mounting prescribed areas: prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (4.9%)
Stop lamp: not working (4.0%)
Position lamp: not working (3.7%)
Rear fog lamp: not working (3.0%)

2005 diesel

23 MOTs

These figures come from 23 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 121,613 (most between 84,388 and 141,067).

2006: 100% → 2007: 81% → 2008: 70% → 2009: 65% → 2010: 64% → 2011: 51% → 2012: 51% → 2013: 51% → 2014: 54% → 2015: 48% → 2016: 56% → 2017: 51% → 2018: 58% → 2019: 46% → 2020: 54% → 2021: 61% → 2022: 65% → 2023: 50% → 2024: 48% → 2025: 70%

Most common failures

Component mounting prescribed areas: prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (8.7%)
Condition: has ply or cords exposed (8.7%)
Horn: not working (8.7%)
Joints: constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (8.7%)
Rbt (sp): efficiency below requirements (8.7%)

Where 2005 ZRs fail

Lights & electrics

17.7%

Body, structure & corrosion

10.7%

Brakes

7.6%

Suspension & axles

7.3%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

5.8%

Wheels & tyres

4.0%

Visibility & wipers

3.0%

Steering

2.7%

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.