Mercedes-Benz E years to avoid: the later ones

Based on 235,369 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 2020. The worst is the 2020, which fails its MOT 36% more often than other cars of the same age. The 2002 is the strongest, failing 28% less often than average.

Found a Mercedes-Benz E 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 E 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 E
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
2002	1,258	25.4%	28% better
2003	3,741	26.9%	25% better
2004	5,021	28.2%	23% better
2005	4,970	28.7%	21% better
2006	4,304	27.7%	23% better
2007	6,270	27.3%	23% better
2008	4,864	26.8%	23% better
2009	7,501	27.4%	18% better
2010	12,292	26.3%	18% better
2011	14,367	25.5%	16% better
2012	15,259	24.7%	about average
2013	19,578	23.4%	about average
2014	20,946	20.4%	about average
2015	22,101	17.4%	about average
2016	21,374	14.5%	about average
2017	23,287	13.1%	about average
2018	21,890	12.6%	about average
2019	19,752	10.9%	about average
2020 Worst	6,594	12.5%	36% worse

How this is worked out

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