68%
Ford Focus
Ford Focus vs Toyota Corolla
Buying a used Ford Focus or Toyota Corolla? Compare their MOT pass rates, common problems, mileage and how they hold up as they get older.
Already found one of them? Check its finance, write-off, theft, mileage and keeper history with a £15 vehicle history report.
MOT pass rate head to head
Initial MOT tests in 2025, retests excluded. The UK average across all cars is 72.3%.
78.6%
Toyota Corolla
10.6
percentage point gap in the Toyota Corolla's favour
That is a wide gap by the standards of this data, and worth weighing. The figures come from 886,912 tests of the Ford Focus and 126,958 of the Toyota Corolla. The Ford Focus also arrives at test with roughly 10,145 more miles on average, which usually says more about who buys it and what they use it for than about how long it lasts.
A pass rate is not a reliability score. It records whether cars met the roadworthiness standard on test day.
Which one holds up better with age?
A headline pass rate mixes three-year-old cars with fifteen-year-old ones. Split by age, you can see what each model does over time.
The Ford Focus gives up less as it gets older. Between cars aged 3 to 5 years and those aged 11 years and over it loses 27.2 percentage points against 30.1 for the Toyota Corolla, a difference of 2.9 points.
| Age at test | Focus | Corolla |
|---|---|---|
| 3 to 5 years | 85.6% | 89.6% |
| 6 to 10 years | 76% | 87.2% |
| 11 years and over | 58.4% | 59.5% |
On a ten-year-old example that is the figure to weigh, not the headline number.
What each one fails on
The areas testers recorded most often across every failed 2025 test for each model, as a share of recorded failure items.
Ford Focus
Toyota Corolla
Both models fail most often on lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment, which tells you what to look at on either. The difference between them is in what comes next on each list. These are recorded failure categories, not faults every car has.
The specific items testers wrote down
One level deeper than the category: the individual defects recorded most often on each model.
Ford Focus
- Position lamp not working
- Tread depth tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm
- Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect
Toyota Corolla
- Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively
- Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect
- Position lamp not working
What this comparison can't tell you
Everything above describes two models across the whole UK fleet. It says nothing about the one car in the advert. Two Focuss of the same year and mileage can be worth thousands apart because of finance, a write-off, a theft record or a clocked odometer, none of which appear in MOT data.
Check the car you are about to buy. One £15 report, instant results, backed by a £30,000 data guarantee.
- Outstanding finance
- Write-off records
- Stolen markers
- Mileage history
- Previous keepers
Read more on each car
Other comparisons with these cars
Ford Focus vs Toyota Corolla FAQs
Is the Ford Focus or the Toyota Corolla more likely to pass its MOT?
The Toyota Corolla passed 78.6% of its initial MOT tests in the DVSA 2025 data against 68% for the Ford Focus, a gap of 10.6 percentage points. That is a fleet-wide average, not a prediction about the specific car you are looking at.
Does a higher MOT pass rate mean a more reliable car?
No. An MOT records whether a vehicle met the roadworthiness standard on the day it was tested. It does not test the engine, clutch or gearbox, and it does not measure how often a car breaks down. Pass rates are useful for comparing how two models are holding up across the whole UK fleet, and nothing more than that.
Which holds up better with age, the Ford Focus or the Toyota Corolla?
The Ford Focus. Between cars aged 3 to 5 years and those aged 11 years and over, it loses 27.2 percentage points of MOT pass rate against 30.1 for the Toyota Corolla in the 2025 data.
Which is cheaper to keep on the road, the Ford Focus or the Toyota Corolla?
This data does not price servicing or repairs, so it cannot answer that directly. What it does show is what each model most often fails on, which is a fair guide to where the money goes. The Ford Focus fails most often on lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment. The Toyota Corolla fails most often on lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment.
Which one has covered more miles by MOT time?
The average Ford Focus arrived at its 2025 MOT on 83,064 miles, against 72,919 for the Toyota Corolla. That usually reflects who buys each car and what they use it for rather than how long it will last.
How do I check the actual Toyota Corolla I have found?
Enter its registration. A Carpeep car history check reports outstanding finance, insurance write-off markers, stolen markers, the mileage recorded at every MOT, previous keepers, tax and MOT status, import and export markers and scrapped status in one £15 report. None of that appears in model-level MOT statistics.
MOT figures are aggregated from the DVSA MOT Anonymised data set for 2025 (class 4 initial tests, retests excluded), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. MOT results describe roadworthiness at test, not mechanical reliability.