Vauxhall Meriva years to avoid

Based on 100,517 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 2004 to 2009 and 2017. The worst is the 2005, which fails its MOT 27% more often than other cars of the same age.

Found a Vauxhall Meriva 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 Meriva 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 Meriva
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
2004	2,387	46.1%	26% worse
2005 Worst	3,191	46.0%	27% worse
2006	4,925	44.7%	24% worse
2007	5,805	44.3%	26% worse
2008	6,319	41.8%	20% worse
2009	6,162	40.5%	21% worse
2010	11,077	34.5%	about average
2011	15,927	29.5%	about average
2012	9,457	27.5%	about average
2013	8,089	28.6%	about average
2014	7,769	21.8%	about average
2015	8,342	21.0%	about average
2016	6,557	18.5%	about average
2017	4,510	16.5%	15% worse

How this is worked out

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