68%
Ford Focus
Ford Focus MOT pass rate and common problems
The Ford Focus passed 68% of its initial MOT tests in 2025, 4.3 percentage points below the 72.3% UK average. The item testers recorded most often was position lamp not working.
Checking a specific car? Its own results, advisories and recorded mileages are in a free MOT history check.
How the Focus compares
Initial MOT tests in 2025, retests excluded. A car that failed and was repaired at the test station counts as a fail.
68.8%
Ford average
72.3%
UK average, all cars
The Focus runs 0.8 points behind the Ford average. It is 16th of the 27 Ford models in the data. The average Focus arrived at its test 11.7 years old with 83,064 miles recorded.
A pass rate records whether cars met the roadworthiness standard on test day. It is not a reliability score, and part of any gap reflects how old the tested cars were.
Focus MOT pass rate by age
The same 2025 tests split by the car's age at test.
Ford Focus cars aged 3 to 5 years passed 85.6% of MOT tests. For cars aged 11 years and over that fell to 58.4%, a drop of 27.2 percentage points.
| Age at test | Tests | Pass rate | vs UK average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 to 5 years | 98,978 | 85.6% | 13.3 pts above |
| 6 to 10 years | 307,500 | 76% | 3.7 pts above |
| 11 years and over | 467,451 | 58.4% | 13.9 pts below |
That is a steep decline with age, so the headline rate flatters older examples. The UK average of 72.3% covers cars of every age, so compare like with like.
Where Focus failures cluster
Every failure item recorded on Ford Focus cars in 2025, grouped into the DVSA's test areas.
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment and suspension together account for 51.9% of recorded failure items. These are recorded failures across the model, not faults every car has.
The 10 most common Focus MOT failures
Specific items recorded on Ford Focus cars that failed their 2025 MOT, as a share of all recorded failure items.
Together these 10 items make up 37.1% of everything testers recorded against failed Ford Focus cars. The rest is spread across many smaller items, and one failed test often records several at once.
What to look at on a Focus
The recorded failures above, grouped by area, biggest first.
1
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment
Recorded most often: position lamp not working, headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect, stop lamp not working, headlamp aim too low and headlamp not working on dipped beam. 18.5% of failure items.
2
Suspension
Recorded most often: coil spring fractured or broken and pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn. 8% of failure items.
3
Tyres
Recorded most often: tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm and condition has ply or cords exposed. 7.9% of failure items.
4
Brakes
Recorded most often: brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick. 2.7% of failure items.
The car's own MOT history matters more than any model average. A free MOT history check shows whether a specific Focus has failed on these items before, or had them noted as advisories. Buying one? See the used Ford Focus buying guide.
Already found one?
Check its finance, write-off, theft, mileage and keeper history with a £15 vehicle history report.
Ford Focus MOT FAQs
What is the Ford Focus MOT pass rate?
68% of Ford Focus cars passed their initial MOT first time in 2025, from 886,912 tests. That is 4.3 percentage points below the 72.3% average for all cars, and ranks 385th of 575 models.
What does a Ford Focus most commonly fail its MOT on?
The item testers recorded most often on Ford Focus cars failing their 2025 MOT was position lamp not working, on 5.9% of failure items. Next were tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (4.9%) and headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (4.7%).
Which area causes the most Ford Focus MOT failures?
Across every recorded failure item, the largest area was lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment at 32%, followed by suspension at 19.9%.
Do older Ford Focus cars fail their MOT more often?
Ford Focus cars aged 3 to 5 years passed 85.6% of MOT tests in 2025, against 58.4% for cars aged 11 years and over.
Does this mean every Ford Focus has these problems?
No. These are the items testers recorded across every Ford Focus that failed in 2025. They show where the model most often needs attention, not the condition of any individual car.
How do I see a specific Ford Focus's MOT history?
Enter its registration on the free Carpeep MOT history check to see that car's own test results, failures, advisories and recorded mileages.
MOT figures are aggregated from the DVSA MOT Anonymised data set for 2025: class 4 initial tests, retests excluded, with failure items from failed tests (advisories and minor defects excluded), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. MOT results describe roadworthiness at test, not mechanical reliability.