Vauxhall Corsa years to avoid

Based on 880,991 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 2001 to 2006 and 2012 to 2019. The worst is the 2019, which fails its MOT 41% more often than other cars of the same age.

Found a Vauxhall Corsa 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 Corsa 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 Vauxhall Corsa
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
1999	1,274	34.3%	about average
2000	1,736	36.5%	about average
2001	4,209	42.8%	24% worse
2002	6,312	42.7%	21% worse
2003	9,563	43.9%	22% worse
2004	11,262	43.6%	19% worse
2005	15,191	43.5%	20% worse
2006	21,509	42.2%	17% worse
2007	40,410	37.9%	about average
2008	51,349	36.6%	about average
2009	54,138	35.6%	about average
2010	57,831	34.8%	about average
2011	63,377	32.2%	about average
2012	76,897	32.5%	16% worse
2013	75,675	31.9%	25% worse
2014	76,476	31.8%	40% worse
2015	88,962	25.5%	31% worse
2016	76,517	20.8%	23% worse
2017	52,479	17.6%	23% worse
2018	53,161	14.9%	24% worse
2019 Worst	42,663	14.5%	41% worse

How this is worked out

Every MOT test recorded by DVSA in 2023 on a Vauxhall Corsa, 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.