Volkswagen Transporter years to avoid

Based on 268,798 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 1990, 1992 to 2001, and 2017 to 2019. The worst is the 1992, which fails its MOT 39% more often than other cars of the same age.

Found a Volkswagen Transporter 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 Transporter 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 Transporter
Registered	MOT tests	Fail rate	vs same-age cars
1990	1,181	30.9%	24% worse
1992 Worst	1,139	41.4%	39% worse
1993	1,094	41.0%	35% worse
1994	1,907	39.3%	33% worse
1995	2,180	39.4%	35% worse
1996	2,650	39.2%	28% worse
1997	3,182	40.7%	33% worse
1998	3,952	39.9%	29% worse
1999	4,271	39.7%	23% worse
2000	4,873	40.4%	19% worse
2001	6,658	40.7%	18% worse
2002	6,584	38.9%	about average
2003	7,109	39.6%	about average
2004	9,312	39.3%	about average
2005	10,214	37.9%	about average
2006	11,516	37.5%	about average
2007	13,542	34.8%	about average
2008	12,738	34.4%	about average
2009	9,168	32.0%	about average
2010	10,824	29.6%	about average
2011	12,073	27.4%	about average
2012	12,417	25.0%	about average
2013	14,352	22.9%	about average
2014	15,876	22.7%	about average
2015	17,872	20.9%	about average
2016	19,749	18.8%	about average
2017	19,643	18.1%	26% worse
2018	19,294	15.3%	28% worse
2019	13,428	13.1%	28% worse

How this is worked out

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