Volkswagen Phaeton MOT reliability

Volkswagen Phaetons passed their MOT first time 76% of the time across 754 tests in 2025. 563 are still licensed in Great Britain.

First-time pass rate

76%

MOTs analysed

754

Still licensed (GB)

563

Body type

Sedan

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

2012 diesel

73 MOTs

These figures come from 73 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 80%. Typical mileage 99,215 (most between 66,393 and 121,308).

2012: 100% → 2013: 80% → 2014: 92% → 2015: 88% → 2016: 89% → 2017: 89% → 2018: 85% → 2019: 82% → 2020: 79% → 2021: 83% → 2022: 85% → 2023: 81% → 2024: 80% → 2025: 80%

Most common failures

Pins and bushes: pin or bush excessively worn (4.1%)
Service brake performance: excessively binding (2.7%)
Rear fog lamp: not working (2.7%)
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (2.7%)
Condition: has ply or cords exposed (2.7%)

2012 petrol

2 MOTs

These figures come from only 2 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 100%. Typical mileage 95,421 (most between 78,283 and 112,560).

2015: 100% → 2016: 100% → 2017: 100% → 2018: 100% → 2019: 100% → 2021: 100% → 2022: 100% → 2023: 0% → 2024: 100% → 2025: 100%

Most common failures

Where 2012 Phaetons fail

Wheels & tyres

6.8%

Suspension & axles

6.8%

Lights & electrics

5.5%

Brakes

2.7%

Visibility & wipers

2.7%

Body, structure & corrosion

1.4%

Steering

1.4%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

1.4%

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.