Ford Mondeo vs Vauxhall Insignia

Buying a used Ford Mondeo or Vauxhall Insignia? 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%.

67.2%

Ford Mondeo

67.4%

Vauxhall Insignia

0.3

percentage point gap in the Vauxhall Insignia's favour

That gap is close enough that the specific car matters far more than the badge. The figures come from 172,058 tests of the Ford Mondeo and 181,155 of the Vauxhall Insignia. The Ford Mondeo also arrives at test with roughly 12,890 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 Vauxhall Insignia gives up less as it gets older. Between cars aged 3 to 5 years and those aged 11 years and over it loses 20.4 percentage points against 25.4 for the Ford Mondeo, a difference of 5 points.

Age at testMondeoInsignia
3 to 5 years 85.1% 82.8%
6 to 10 years 78.9% 70.6%
11 years and over 59.7% 62.4%

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 Mondeo

  • Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment25.7%
  • Suspension20.5%
  • Brakes15.6%
  • Tyres14.6%
  • Body, chassis, structure6.3%

Full Ford Mondeo failure detail

Vauxhall Insignia

  • Suspension24.2%
  • Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment24.2%
  • Tyres17.1%
  • Brakes14%
  • Visibility6.7%

Full Vauxhall Insignia failure detail

The Ford Mondeo fails most often on lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment, the Vauxhall Insignia on suspension. Two different things to check on a viewing, and two different conversations to have with the seller. 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 Mondeo

  • Tread depth tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm
  • Position lamp not working
  • Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn

Vauxhall Insignia

  • Coil spring fractured or broken
  • Tread depth tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm
  • Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick

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 Mondeos 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

Ford Mondeo vs Vauxhall Insignia FAQs

Is the Ford Mondeo or the Vauxhall Insignia more likely to pass its MOT?

The Vauxhall Insignia passed 67.4% of its initial MOT tests in the DVSA 2025 data against 67.2% for the Ford Mondeo, a gap of 0.3 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 Mondeo or the Vauxhall Insignia?

The Vauxhall Insignia. Between cars aged 3 to 5 years and those aged 11 years and over, it loses 20.4 percentage points of MOT pass rate against 25.4 for the Ford Mondeo in the 2025 data.

Which is cheaper to keep on the road, the Ford Mondeo or the Vauxhall Insignia?

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 Mondeo fails most often on lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment. The Vauxhall Insignia fails most often on suspension.

Which one has covered more miles by MOT time?

The average Ford Mondeo arrived at its 2025 MOT on 116,487 miles, against 103,597 for the Vauxhall Insignia. 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 Vauxhall Insignia 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.