Fiat Panda years to avoid: the early ones

Based on 92,171 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 2004. The worst is the 2004, which fails its MOT 18% more often than other cars of the same age. The 2020 is the strongest, failing 41% less often than average.

Found a Fiat Panda 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 Panda 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 Fiat Panda
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
2004 Worst	2,966	43.1%	18% worse
2005	3,476	41.0%	about average
2006	4,480	41.3%	about average
2007	5,692	39.3%	about average
2008	5,272	38.4%	about average
2009	10,462	35.1%	about average
2010	9,181	35.4%	about average
2011	5,521	32.7%	about average
2012	6,496	27.4%	about average
2013	7,602	25.3%	about average
2014	8,017	22.5%	about average
2015	7,960	20.0%	about average
2016	4,887	17.4%	about average
2017	3,541	14.6%	about average
2018	2,665	12.0%	about average
2019	2,554	8.3%	19% better
2020	1,399	5.4%	41% better

How this is worked out

Every MOT test recorded by DVSA in 2023 on a Fiat Panda, 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.