SEAT Altea MOT reliability

SEAT Alteas passed their MOT first time 59% of the time across 12,318 tests in 2025. 9,840 are still licensed in Great Britain.

First-time pass rate

59%

MOTs analysed

12,318

Still licensed (GB)

9,840

Body type

Mpv

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

2013 diesel

1,357 MOTs

Passed first time 64%. Typical mileage 92,624 (most between 74,172 and 114,945).

2013: 100% → 2014: 65% → 2015: 72% → 2016: 85% → 2017: 84% → 2018: 81% → 2019: 77% → 2020: 76% → 2021: 72% → 2022: 69% → 2023: 69% → 2024: 66% → 2025: 64%

Most common failures

Coil spring: fractured or broken (7.4%)
Linkage ball joint dust cover: ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (3.8%)
Headlamp aim: projected beam image is obviously incorrect (3.8%)
Condition: has ply or cords exposed (3.2%)
Stop lamp: not working (3.1%)

2013 petrol

33 MOTs

These figures come from 33 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 55%. Typical mileage 72,502 (most between 52,238 and 86,169).

2015: 100% → 2016: 84% → 2017: 79% → 2018: 87% → 2019: 76% → 2020: 77% → 2021: 74% → 2022: 70% → 2023: 69% → 2024: 64% → 2025: 55%

Most common failures

Rbt (sp): efficiency below requirements (9.1%)
Headlamp aim: too low (9.1%)
SRS malfunction indicator lamp: warning lamp indicates a fault (6.1%)
Horn: not working (6.1%)
Position lamp: not working (6.1%)

Where 2013 Alteas fail

Lights & electrics

15.5%

Suspension & axles

15.5%

Wheels & tyres

9.1%

Brakes

7.8%

Body, structure & corrosion

3.9%

Visibility & wipers

3.5%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

2.4%

Seat belts & other equipment

2.2%

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.