Ford Fiesta years to avoid

Based on 1,400,328 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 1998 to 2001, 2012, 2015 to 2016, and 2020. The worst is the 1998, which fails its MOT 44% more often than other cars of the same age.

Found a Ford Fiesta 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 Fiesta 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 Ford Fiesta
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
1998 Worst	1,588	44.7%	44% worse
1999	2,005	41.6%	29% worse
2000	1,944	40.6%	20% worse
2001	3,427	40.9%	18% worse
2002	9,254	36.1%	about average
2003	19,008	35.2%	about average
2004	24,800	36.2%	about average
2005	29,834	37.0%	about average
2006	49,083	37.3%	about average
2007	59,068	34.4%	about average
2008	62,588	35.5%	about average
2009	96,988	36.2%	about average
2010	89,910	34.7%	about average
2011	87,188	32.8%	about average
2012	100,529	32.0%	15% worse
2013	114,611	28.3%	about average
2014	124,492	24.2%	about average
2015	127,683	22.5%	15% worse
2016	115,989	22.7%	34% worse
2017	91,229	15.7%	about average
2018	93,585	10.4%	about average
2019	74,381	8.8%	about average
2020	21,144	10.9%	19% worse

How this is worked out

Every MOT test recorded by DVSA in 2023 on a Ford Fiesta, 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.