Smart Roadster MOT reliability

Smart Roadsters passed their MOT first time 70% of the time across 1,507 tests in 2025. 1,881 are still licensed in Great Britain.

First-time pass rate

70%

MOTs analysed

1,507

Still licensed (GB)

1,881

Body type

Convertible

Pass rate by year of first registration

Older cars fail more often, so compare a car with others of the same age.

In detail:

First registered

2004 petrol

732 MOTs

Passed first time 67%. Typical mileage 79,196 (most between 56,240 and 102,070).

2006: 69% → 2007: 80% → 2008: 76% → 2009: 69% → 2010: 67% → 2011: 63% → 2012: 62% → 2013: 59% → 2014: 56% → 2015: 61% → 2016: 61% → 2017: 62% → 2018: 65% → 2019: 63% → 2020: 67% → 2021: 67% → 2022: 69% → 2023: 69% → 2024: 68% → 2025: 67%

Most common failures

Position lamp: not working (5.1%)
Horn: not working (3.8%)
Headlamp: not working on dipped beam (2.9%)
Stop lamp: not working (2.5%)
Ball joint excessively worn (2.3%)

Where 2004 Roadsters fail

Lights & electrics

20.6%

Brakes

10.0%

Suspension & axles

8.1%

Visibility & wipers

4.6%

Body, structure & corrosion

3.6%

Wheels & tyres

3.4%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

2.7%

Steering

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.