Smart ForFour MOT reliability

Smart ForFours passed their MOT first time 56% of the time across 976 tests in 2025. 23,403 are still licensed in Great Britain.

First-time pass rate

56%

MOTs analysed

976

Still licensed (GB)

23,403

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

2006 petrol

439 MOTs

Passed first time 55%. Typical mileage 93,406 (most between 70,355 and 114,469).

2006: 100% → 2007: 95% → 2008: 86% → 2009: 80% → 2010: 77% → 2011: 75% → 2012: 71% → 2013: 68% → 2014: 66% → 2015: 64% → 2016: 61% → 2017: 59% → 2018: 59% → 2019: 57% → 2020: 60% → 2021: 59% → 2022: 60% → 2023: 57% → 2024: 58% → 2025: 55%

Most common failures

Headlamp aim: projected beam image is obviously incorrect (7.7%)
Position lamp: not working (5.7%)
Joints: constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (4.6%)
Track rod end: ball joint has excessive play (4.6%)
Stop lamp: not working (4.3%)

2006 diesel

21 MOTs

These figures come from 21 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 62%. Typical mileage 127,427 (most between 83,974 and 141,470).

2008: 0% → 2009: 79% → 2010: 78% → 2011: 65% → 2012: 58% → 2013: 63% → 2014: 69% → 2015: 56% → 2016: 66% → 2017: 61% → 2018: 51% → 2019: 48% → 2020: 65% → 2021: 56% → 2022: 49% → 2023: 35% → 2024: 54% → 2025: 62%

Most common failures

Rbt (sp): efficiency below requirements (9.5%)
Joints: constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (9.5%)
Coil spring: fractured or broken (9.5%)
Registration plate lamp(s): inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps (4.8%)
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (4.8%)

Where 2006 ForFours fail

Lights & electrics

27.8%

Suspension & axles

11.8%

Body, structure & corrosion

10.7%

Brakes

10.5%

Steering

7.1%

Visibility & wipers

7.1%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

6.6%

Wheels & tyres

6.4%

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.