Suzuki Swift vs Toyota Yaris

Buying a used Suzuki Swift or Toyota Yaris? 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%.

72.3%

Suzuki Swift

72.4%

Toyota Yaris

0.1

percentage point gap in the Toyota Yaris's favour

That gap is close enough that the specific car matters far more than the badge. The figures come from 135,247 tests of the Suzuki Swift and 460,778 of the Toyota Yaris.

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 Toyota Yaris gives up less as it gets older. Between cars aged 3 to 5 years and those aged 11 years and over it loses 28.1 percentage points against 29.6 for the Suzuki Swift, a difference of 1.5 points.

Age at testSwiftYaris
3 to 5 years 88.6% 89.2%
6 to 10 years 78% 80.6%
11 years and over 59.1% 61.1%

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.

Suzuki Swift

  • Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment27.6%
  • Brakes22.7%
  • Suspension19.7%
  • Tyres10.2%
  • Visibility10.2%

Full Suzuki Swift failure detail

Toyota Yaris

  • Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment33%
  • Suspension20.6%
  • Brakes13.2%
  • Visibility10%
  • Tyres9.9%

Full Toyota Yaris failure detail

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.

Suzuki Swift

  • Position lamp not working
  • Stop lamp not working
  • Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively

Toyota Yaris

  • Position lamp not working
  • Coil spring fractured or broken
  • Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively

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 Swifts 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

Suzuki Swift vs Toyota Yaris FAQs

Is the Suzuki Swift or the Toyota Yaris more likely to pass its MOT?

The Toyota Yaris passed 72.4% of its initial MOT tests in the DVSA 2025 data against 72.3% for the Suzuki Swift, a gap of 0.1 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 Suzuki Swift or the Toyota Yaris?

The Toyota Yaris. Between cars aged 3 to 5 years and those aged 11 years and over, it loses 28.1 percentage points of MOT pass rate against 29.6 for the Suzuki Swift in the 2025 data.

Which is cheaper to keep on the road, the Suzuki Swift or the Toyota Yaris?

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 Suzuki Swift fails most often on lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment. The Toyota Yaris fails most often on lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment.

How do I check the actual Toyota Yaris 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.