Volkswagen Polo MOT reliability

Volkswagen Polos passed their MOT first time 67% of the time across 632,067 tests in 2025. 664,237 are still licensed in Great Britain.

Example photo of a Volkswagen Polo — Photo: Vauxford · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

First-time pass rate

67%

MOTs analysed

632,067

Still licensed (GB)

664,237

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

2022 petrol

22,744 MOTs

Passed first time 92%. Typical mileage 20,022 (most between 13,552 and 27,677).

2022: 100% → 2023: 89% → 2024: 95% → 2025: 92%

Most common failures

Condition: has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.8%)
Wipers: does not clear the windscreen effectively (1.0%)
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (0.8%)
Brake pads: less than 1.5 mm thick (0.7%)
Condition: has ply or cords exposed (0.6%)

Where 2022 Polos fail

Wheels & tyres

3.7%

Visibility & wipers

1.7%

Lights & electrics

1.2%

Brakes

1.1%

Seat belts & other equipment

0.9%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

0.3%

Suspension & axles

0.3%

Body, structure & corrosion

0.2%

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.