Vauxhall Arena MOT reliability

Vauxhall Arenas passed their MOT first time 65% of the time across 37 tests in 2025. 22 are still licensed in Great Britain.

These figures come from 37 MOT tests. That's a fairly small number of cars, so they may not be typical of these cars as a whole.

First-time pass rate

65%

MOTs analysed

37

Still licensed (GB)

22

Body type

–

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

1998 diesel

13 MOTs

These figures come from only 13 MOT tests. With so few cars, a single pass or fail changes the percentages a lot, so treat them as a rough guide rather than a true average.

Passed first time 69%. Typical mileage 107,859 (most between 89,471 and 117,552).

2005: 54% → 2006: 52% → 2007: 47% → 2008: 43% → 2009: 40% → 2010: 40% → 2011: 40% → 2012: 40% → 2013: 41% → 2014: 40% → 2015: 42% → 2016: 52% → 2017: 45% → 2018: 53% → 2019: 59% → 2020: 50% → 2021: 63% → 2022: 50% → 2023: 52% → 2024: 44% → 2025: 69%

Most common failures

Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (7.7%)
Headlamp aim: too low (7.7%)
Component mounting prescribed areas: prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (7.7%)
Chassis condition: or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of a body mounting (7.7%)
Headlamp: light intensity severely reduced (7.7%)

Where 1998 Arenas fail

Lights & electrics

15.4%

Body, structure & corrosion

7.7%

Wheels & tyres

7.7%

Suspension & axles

7.7%

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.