Volkswagen Golf years to avoid: the early ones

Based on 873,808 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. The worst is the 1998, which fails its MOT 16% more often than other cars of the same age. The 2015 is the strongest, failing 34% less often than average.

Found a Volkswagen Golf 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 Golf 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 Volkswagen Golf
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
1990	1,704	24.2%	about average
1991	1,737	24.6%	about average
1996	1,024	30.1%	about average
1997	1,075	31.0%	about average
1998 Worst	1,505	36.1%	16% worse
1999	3,325	36.5%	about average
2000	5,585	36.5%	about average
2001	9,694	36.0%	about average
2002	16,886	35.9%	about average
2003	19,728	34.9%	about average
2004	16,218	40.6%	about average
2005	24,869	38.5%	about average
2006	34,857	38.3%	about average
2007	46,123	35.5%	about average
2008	45,112	33.9%	about average
2009	47,389	30.6%	about average
2010	47,738	31.1%	about average
2011	52,407	28.7%	about average
2012	53,159	25.0%	about average
2013	55,784	18.5%	28% better
2014	65,163	15.9%	30% better
2015	68,107	12.9%	34% better
2016	65,746	11.3%	33% better
2017	70,372	10.4%	28% better
2018	62,380	9.2%	23% better
2019	49,095	8.7%	15% better
2020	7,026	6.9%	25% better

How this is worked out

Every MOT test recorded by DVSA in 2023 on a Volkswagen Golf, 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.