Mercedes-Benz CLA years to avoid: the later ones

Based on 51,197 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 2018 to 2020. The worst is the 2020, which fails its MOT 36% more often than other cars of the same age.

Found a Mercedes-Benz CLA 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 CLA 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 Mercedes-Benz CLA
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
2013	2,151	24.5%	about average
2014	4,436	20.0%	about average
2015	6,947	18.9%	about average
2016	7,792	17.9%	about average
2017	8,304	16.0%	about average
2018	8,422	14.2%	18% worse
2019	8,010	13.1%	28% worse
2020 Worst	5,135	12.5%	36% worse

How this is worked out

Every MOT test recorded by DVSA in 2023 on a Mercedes-Benz CLA, 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.