Audi A4 years to avoid: the later ones

Based on 262,080 real MOT tests from DVSA records. Each year is compared against every other car first registered the same year — otherwise the numbers would only tell you that older cars fail more, which you knew.

The short answer

Avoid 2020. The worst is the 2020, which fails its MOT 15% more often than other cars of the same age. The 2012 is the strongest, failing 23% less often than average.

Found a Audi A4 you like?

Averages tell you what to expect. Its registration tells you what actually happened — every MOT, every advisory, and whether the mileage adds up.

Every A4 model year

Shaded rows are the years that differ most from other cars of the same age — worse, better.

MOT failure rate by registration year for the Audi A4
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
2000	1,146	34.5%	about average
2001	1,190	31.6%	about average
2002	2,668	33.3%	about average
2003	5,037	32.3%	about average
2004	8,327	32.6%	about average
2005	9,715	31.5%	about average
2006	15,552	30.8%	15% better
2007	17,649	30.1%	15% better
2008	17,380	29.4%	16% better
2009	13,998	28.1%	16% better
2010	13,870	26.1%	19% better
2011	14,296	23.7%	22% better
2012	13,898	21.5%	23% better
2013	16,376	21.3%	17% better
2014	17,180	20.7%	about average
2015	16,639	19.0%	about average
2016	22,391	17.3%	about average
2017	21,476	14.7%	about average
2018	13,800	13.0%	about average
2019	13,318	11.5%	about average
2020 Worst	6,174	10.6%	15% worse

How this is worked out

Every MOT test recorded by DVSA in 2023 on a Audi A4, grouped by the year the car was first registered. Retests are excluded, so a car that failed and was fixed still counts as a failure. Each year's rate is then divided by the rate for all cars first registered that year — so 120 means 20% more failures than its contemporaries, not 20% more than a brand new car.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.