Nissan Micra years to avoid

Based on 251,703 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 1998 to 2000 and 2017 to 2018. The worst is the 2017, which fails its MOT 55% more often than other cars of the same age. The 2020 is the strongest, failing 32% less often than average.

Found a Nissan Micra 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 Micra 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 Nissan Micra
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
1998	1,685	39.2%	26% worse
1999	2,781	38.6%	20% worse
2000	3,498	40.5%	20% worse
2001	4,981	39.0%	about average
2002	8,415	37.7%	about average
2003	11,282	37.4%	about average
2004	12,015	36.5%	about average
2005	16,836	36.6%	about average
2006	18,800	32.7%	about average
2007	13,863	31.7%	about average
2008	14,822	29.4%	16% better
2009	16,159	28.8%	about average
2010	16,117	29.1%	about average
2011	12,750	26.2%	about average
2012	11,593	25.9%	about average
2013	11,480	23.9%	about average
2014	14,108	19.8%	about average
2015	12,970	17.0%	about average
2016	10,756	15.4%	about average
2017 Worst	12,732	22.2%	55% worse
2018	10,043	15.2%	27% worse
2019	8,625	8.9%	about average
2020	5,392	6.3%	32% better

How this is worked out

Every MOT test recorded by DVSA in 2023 on a Nissan Micra, 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.