Mercedes-Benz CLS years to avoid: the later ones

Based on 24,875 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 2019. The worst is the 2019, which fails its MOT 61% more often than other cars of the same age. The 2005 is the strongest, failing 35% less often than average.

Found a Mercedes-Benz CLS 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 CLS 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 CLS
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
2005	1,047	23.7%	35% better
2006	1,690	26.0%	28% better
2007	1,969	27.8%	21% better
2008	1,536	28.5%	19% better
2009	1,215	30.9%	about average
2010	1,166	29.4%	about average
2011	1,269	21.5%	29% better
2012	1,175	22.5%	20% better
2013	3,189	22.9%	about average
2014	1,867	21.4%	about average
2015	2,956	15.2%	22% better
2016	2,154	16.8%	about average
2017	1,526	14.8%	about average
2018	1,000	15.3%	28% worse
2019 Worst	1,116	16.5%	61% worse

How this is worked out

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