68.8%
Hyundai Santa Fe pass rate
Used Hyundai Santa Fe buying guide
In 2025, Hyundai Santa Fe cars passed 68.8% of 33,426 initial MOT tests, 3.5 points below the 72.3% UK average. Here is where it fails and what to check before you buy.
Looking at a specific Santa Fe? Check its finance, write-off, stolen, mileage and keeper history. £15, no account needed.
Hyundai Santa Fe MOT record in brief
Initial MOT tests in 2025, retests excluded.
72.3%
UK average, all cars
−3.5
percentage points below average
Ranked on pass rate the Santa Fe sits 370th of 575 models in the data. Hyundai as a brand averaged 73.9%, so this model runs 5.2 points behind its own brand. Hyundai Santa Fe cars aged 3 to 5 years passed 87.5% of MOT tests in 2025; for examples aged 11 years and over that fell to 54.9%.
A pass rate is not a reliability score. The full Hyundai Santa Fe MOT record has the pass rate by age, every common failure and how the Santa Fe compares with similar cars.
Santa Fe fuel types
Diesel made up 88.4% of Hyundai Santa Fe MOT tests in 2025, against 39.3% across all models in this data. Almost every used example you look at will be a diesel.
Where the Santa Fe fails its MOT
Where Hyundai Santa Fe cars that failed their 2025 MOT were marked down, as a share of all recorded failure items.
The specific items testers recorded most often were position lamp not working (6.3%), ball joint excessively worn (6%) and tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (4.3%). See every common Santa Fe MOT failure.
These are DVSA failure records across every Hyundai Santa Fe that failed, not a claim that every Santa Fe has these problems.
What should you check when buying a used Santa Fe?
The areas above, most common first, and what an MOT tester looks at in each.
1
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment
Walk round with every light on: headlights, brake lights, indicators, fog lights and the number plate lamp. Check no warning lights stay on after starting. 27% of Santa Fe failure items.
2
Suspension
Listen for knocks over bumps, check the car sits level, and look for leaking shock absorbers and split rubber gaiters. 20.7% of Santa Fe failure items.
3
Brakes
Make sure the pedal feels firm, the car stops in a straight line, the handbrake holds on a slope and no brake warning light is showing. 17.1% of Santa Fe failure items.
4
Tyres
Check tread depth across the full width of every tyre (the legal minimum is 1.6mm), and look for cuts, bulges and uneven wear. 11.1% of Santa Fe failure items.
5
Body, chassis, structure
Look underneath and along the sills for corrosion, and check for damaged or poorly repaired panels. 6.8% of Santa Fe failure items.
None of this replaces the car's own record. Run a free MOT history check on the registration to see every test, advisory and recorded mileage for that car.
What the MOT record doesn't tell you
Knowing Hyundai Santa Fe failures cluster around lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment and suspension tells you what to inspect. It tells you nothing about whether the car is safe to buy. An MOT does not show money still owed on the car, a write-off, a theft record or a clocked odometer.
Check the exact Santa Fe you are looking at. One £15 report, instant results, backed by a £30,000 data guarantee. More on the Hyundai history check.
- Outstanding finance
- Write-off records
- Stolen markers
- Mileage history
- Previous keepers
Other used Hyundai models
The most-tested Hyundai models in 2025, with how their MOT pass rate compares with the Santa Fe.
Used Hyundai Santa Fe FAQs
Is the Hyundai Santa Fe reliable?
MOT data does not measure reliability. It records whether a car met the roadworthiness standard on the day of its test. What it does show is a 68.8% first-time pass rate for the Hyundai Santa Fe across 33,426 tests in 2025, below the 72.3% average for all cars.
Do older Hyundai Santa Fe cars fail their MOT more often?
Hyundai Santa Fe cars aged 3 to 5 years passed 87.5% of MOT tests in 2025; for examples aged 11 years and over that fell to 54.9%. On an older example, the car's own MOT history tells you more than the model average.
What should I check before buying a used Hyundai Santa Fe?
On the car itself, start with the areas it most often fails on: lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment, suspension and brakes. Then check the individual car's history: outstanding finance, insurance write-off records, stolen markers, mileage and previous keepers. None of these appear in the MOT record or on the V5C.
How do I check a Hyundai Santa Fe's history?
Enter the registration of the specific car. A Carpeep car history check reports outstanding finance, write-off category, stolen markers, mileage history, previous keepers, MOT and tax status, import and export markers and scrapped status in one £15 report.
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.