Kia Sportage years to avoid

Based on 245,420 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 2005 to 2007, 2012 to 2013, and 2021. The worst is the 2021, which fails its MOT 26% more often than other cars of the same age.

Found a Kia Sportage 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 Sportage 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 Kia Sportage
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
2005	1,544	42.3%	17% worse
2006	1,442	43.9%	22% worse
2007	1,661	43.1%	22% worse
2008	1,768	37.3%	about average
2009	2,655	37.3%	about average
2010	4,469	32.6%	about average
2011	7,839	33.1%	about average
2012	12,874	33.7%	21% worse
2013	18,170	29.8%	17% worse
2014	19,203	21.2%	about average
2015	21,033	19.9%	about average
2016	37,153	16.1%	about average
2017	36,498	14.3%	about average
2018	33,700	12.4%	about average
2019	32,005	10.9%	about average
2020	12,276	9.9%	about average
2021 Worst	1,130	7.9%	26% worse

How this is worked out

Every MOT test recorded by DVSA in 2023 on a Kia Sportage, 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.