69%
Nissan Qashqai
Nissan Qashqai vs Volkswagen Tiguan
Buying a used Nissan Qashqai or Volkswagen Tiguan? 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%.
81.4%
Volkswagen Tiguan
12.4
percentage point gap in the Volkswagen Tiguan's favour
That is a wide gap by the standards of this data, and worth weighing. The figures come from 600,115 tests of the Nissan Qashqai and 255,819 of the Volkswagen Tiguan. The Nissan Qashqai also arrives at test with roughly 5,216 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 Volkswagen Tiguan gives up less as it gets older. Between cars aged 3 to 5 years and those aged 11 years and over it loses 22.6 percentage points against 36.7 for the Nissan Qashqai, a difference of 14.1 points.
| Age at test | Qashqai | Tiguan |
|---|---|---|
| 3 to 5 years | 86.7% | 88.8% |
| 6 to 10 years | 73.5% | 82.1% |
| 11 years and over | 50% | 66.2% |
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.
Nissan Qashqai
Volkswagen Tiguan
Both models fail most often on suspension, 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.
Nissan Qashqai
- Track rod end ball joint has excessive play
- Ball joint ball joint excessively worn
- Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
Volkswagen Tiguan
- Tread depth tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm
- Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn
- Coil spring fractured or broken
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 Qashqais 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
Nissan Qashqai vs Volkswagen Tiguan FAQs
Is the Nissan Qashqai or the Volkswagen Tiguan more likely to pass its MOT?
The Volkswagen Tiguan passed 81.4% of its initial MOT tests in the DVSA 2025 data against 69% for the Nissan Qashqai, a gap of 12.4 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 Nissan Qashqai or the Volkswagen Tiguan?
The Volkswagen Tiguan. Between cars aged 3 to 5 years and those aged 11 years and over, it loses 22.6 percentage points of MOT pass rate against 36.7 for the Nissan Qashqai in the 2025 data.
Which is cheaper to keep on the road, the Nissan Qashqai or the Volkswagen Tiguan?
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 Nissan Qashqai fails most often on suspension. The Volkswagen Tiguan fails most often on suspension.
Which one has covered more miles by MOT time?
The average Nissan Qashqai arrived at its 2025 MOT on 73,159 miles, against 67,943 for the Volkswagen Tiguan. 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 Volkswagen Tiguan 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.