Volkswagen 800 MOT reliability

Volkswagen 800s passed their MOT first time 60% of the time across 5 tests in 2025. 4,459 are still licensed in Great Britain.

These figures come from only 5 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.

First-time pass rate

60%

MOTs analysed

5

Still licensed (GB)

4,459

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

1996 diesel

2 MOTs

Passed first time 50%. Typical mileage 176,065 (most between 144,189 and 207,940).

2005: 69% → 2006: 54% → 2007: 54% → 2008: 51% → 2009: 48% → 2010: 47% → 2011: 48% → 2012: 42% → 2013: 45% → 2014: 51% → 2015: 44% → 2016: 50% → 2017: 67% → 2018: 100% → 2019: 0% → 2020: 0% → 2022: 0% → 2023: 33% → 2024: 100% → 2025: 50%

Most common failures

Stop lamp: not working (50.0%)
Pipe: leaking (50.0%)
Headlamp aim: too low (50.0%)
Headlamp: insecure (50.0%)
Vehicle structure: excessively corroded within 30cm of towbar mounting (50.0%)

Where 1996 800s fail

Body, structure & corrosion

50.0%

Lights & electrics

50.0%

Suspension & axles

50.0%

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.