Volkswagen Passat years to avoid: the later ones

Based on 198,427 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 2019 to 2020. The worst is the 2020, which fails its MOT 24% more often than other cars of the same age.

Found a Volkswagen Passat 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 Passat 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 Passat
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
2001	1,304	36.2%	about average
2002	2,253	35.9%	about average
2003	3,471	35.0%	about average
2004	4,141	33.1%	about average
2005	5,216	33.2%	about average
2006	7,284	36.1%	about average
2007	10,490	33.8%	about average
2008	11,578	32.5%	about average
2009	13,128	31.1%	about average
2010	12,592	31.3%	about average
2011	17,729	28.8%	about average
2012	14,992	27.6%	about average
2013	12,821	25.0%	about average
2014	15,564	23.3%	about average
2015	16,320	17.2%	about average
2016	15,612	15.6%	about average
2017	14,313	13.5%	about average
2018	11,246	12.2%	about average
2019	6,648	12.5%	22% worse
2020 Worst	1,725	11.4%	24% worse

How this is worked out

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