Ford KA years to avoid: the early ones

Based on 188,907 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 2002 and 2004 to 2008. The worst is the 2008, which fails its MOT 27% more often than other cars of the same age. The 2019 is the strongest, failing 41% less often than average.

Found a Ford KA 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 KA 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 KA
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
2002	1,193	41.7%	18% worse
2003	1,972	41.0%	about average
2004	2,639	43.7%	20% worse
2005	3,165	42.9%	18% worse
2006	3,868	43.0%	19% worse
2007	5,324	44.2%	25% worse
2008 Worst	6,726	44.3%	27% worse
2009	18,445	35.7%	about average
2010	18,925	34.3%	about average
2011	16,266	29.7%	about average
2012	17,220	26.3%	about average
2013	18,697	23.8%	about average
2014	18,560	20.4%	about average
2015	13,284	21.1%	about average
2016	8,325	18.2%	about average
2017	13,304	9.7%	32% better
2018	10,980	9.6%	20% better
2019	10,014	6.1%	41% better

How this is worked out

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