SEAT Arosa MOT reliability

SEAT Arosas passed their MOT first time 57% of the time across 1,698 tests in 2025. 1,284 are still licensed in Great Britain.

First-time pass rate

57%

MOTs analysed

1,698

Still licensed (GB)

1,284

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

2003 petrol

376 MOTs

Passed first time 57%. Typical mileage 74,932 (most between 55,700 and 93,351).

2005: 92% → 2006: 84% → 2007: 79% → 2008: 75% → 2009: 70% → 2010: 68% → 2011: 67% → 2012: 64% → 2013: 61% → 2014: 57% → 2015: 57% → 2016: 56% → 2017: 56% → 2018: 53% → 2019: 51% → 2020: 55% → 2021: 55% → 2022: 56% → 2023: 57% → 2024: 56% → 2025: 57%

Most common failures

Stop lamp: not working (5.3%)
Headlamp aim: projected beam image is obviously incorrect (5.1%)
Position lamp: not working (3.7%)
Catalyst emissions: Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits (3.7%)
Joints: constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (3.7%)

2003 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 143,411 (most between 118,735 and 163,635).

2006: 84% → 2007: 73% → 2008: 71% → 2009: 66% → 2010: 64% → 2011: 59% → 2012: 48% → 2013: 49% → 2014: 45% → 2015: 50% → 2016: 50% → 2017: 52% → 2018: 43% → 2019: 52% → 2020: 56% → 2021: 50% → 2022: 47% → 2023: 70% → 2024: 50% → 2025: 70%

Most common failures

Position lamp: not working (8.7%)
Component mounting prescribed areas: prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (8.7%)
Headlamp aim: too low (4.3%)
Service brake performance: efficiency below requirements (4.3%)
Headlamp aim: too high (4.3%)

Where 2003 Arosas fail

Lights & electrics

22.3%

Suspension & axles

16.5%

Brakes

10.1%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

9.8%

Body, structure & corrosion

8.5%

Visibility & wipers

8.5%

Wheels & tyres

8.2%

Steering

4.3%

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.