Ford Transit years to avoid: the later ones

Based on 309,390 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 2008 to 2019. The worst is the 2019, which fails its MOT 64% more often than other cars of the same age.

Found a Ford Transit 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 Transit 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 Transit
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
1999	1,011	29.2%	about average
2000	1,137	30.7%	about average
2001	1,535	34.1%	about average
2002	2,387	35.1%	about average
2003	2,826	39.6%	about average
2004	2,742	36.9%	about average
2005	3,844	37.2%	about average
2006	7,059	36.4%	about average
2007	11,979	38.2%	about average
2008	14,674	40.4%	16% worse
2009	12,526	40.9%	22% worse
2010	17,599	43.0%	34% worse
2011	20,425	41.2%	37% worse
2012	16,395	39.4%	41% worse
2013	20,826	35.1%	37% worse
2014	29,288	29.4%	30% worse
2015	35,922	27.5%	41% worse
2016	41,566	23.1%	37% worse
2017	43,996	20.9%	46% worse
2018	19,225	17.4%	45% worse
2019 Worst	2,428	16.8%	64% worse

How this is worked out

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