The MOT failures that should end a viewing
Which DVSA MOT fault classes actually predict a worse overall record across our first-car set, and which just show up everywhere regardless — derived, not a generic checklist.
Our MOT reliability ranking already tells you which first cars pass their MOT most and least often. This one goes a level deeper: of the DVSA fault classes those failures fall into, which ones actually predict a car's a worse overall record, and which just show up everywhere regardless? We split the 114 cars in our set with 2023 DVSA failure-rate data into the better-scoring and worse-scoring half (57 cars each) and checked how often each fault class appears in a car's recorded top faults on each side.
Every class, both halves
| DVSA class | Our taxonomy | Better half | Worse half | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | Suspension | 10/57 (18%) | 43/57 (75%) | 4.3× |
| Brakes | Brakes | 47/57 (82%) | 45/57 (79%) | 1.0× |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Lights & signalling | 20/57 (35%) | 39/57 (68%) | 2.0× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Corrosion & structure | 1/57 (2%) | 3/57 (5%) | too few cars |
| Tyres | Tyres & wheels | 57/57 (100%) | 33/57 (58%) | 0.6× |
| Steering | Steering | 1/57 (2%) | 4/57 (7%) | too few cars |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Exhaust & emissions | 0/57 (0%) | 2/57 (4%) | too few cars |
| Visibility | Visibility | 34/57 (60%) | 2/57 (4%) | 0.1× |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Seatbelts & airbags | 1/57 (2%) | 0/57 (0%) | too few cars |
Figures checked July 2026
What actually predicts a worse record
suspension (18% of the better-scoring half vs 75% of the worse-scoring half, roughly 4.3×), and lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment (35% of the better-scoring half vs 68% of the worse-scoring half, roughly 2.0×). These are the classes genuinely concentrated among our worse-failing cars, on a sample big enough on both sides to say so.
What doesn't predict anything
brakes show up at close to the same rate on both sides — near-universal entries in a car's top faults regardless of how the car scores overall. Seeing one of these classes named on a car's MOT history isn't a red flag on its own; almost every car in our set has it somewhere.
Too few cars to say
steering (5 cars total), body, chassis, structure (4 cars total), noise, emissions and leaks (2 cars total), and seat belts and supplementary restraint systems (1 car total) appear too rarely in our set to turn into a ratio that would mean anything — a handful of cars either way can swing a percentage wildly. We'd rather tell you the real count than a precise-looking number the sample can't carry.
What this means for a viewing
None of this replaces an actual look at a specific car's MOT history — this page is about which fault classes tend to predict a worse record across models, not about any one car you're looking at. Run the reg through our check tool to see that exact car's own MOT defect timeline, categorised the same way, including whether a fault was advised and then later failed on the same system — the clearest single sign of a car that's been let go.
These figures are derived from the 2023 DVSA compliance-survey classes recorded per model in our dataset, not from inspecting any individual car. Vouched does not give insurance or mechanical advice; a fault-class pattern across a model is not a verdict on any specific car of that model.
Sources
- DVSA MOT compliance-survey fault classes:
data/first-cars.json, read at build time. Taxonomy labels:lib/mot-defects.ts, the same classifier behind the live MOT defect timeline on /check.