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Hyundai Santa Fe MOT pass rate and common problems

The Hyundai Santa Fe passed 68.8% of its initial MOT tests in 2025, 3.5 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 Santa Fe 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%

Hyundai Santa Fe

73.9%

Hyundai average

72.3%

UK average, all cars

The Santa Fe runs 5.2 points behind the Hyundai average. It is 9th of the 17 Hyundai models in the data. The average Santa Fe arrived at its test 10.9 years old with 87,585 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.

Santa Fe MOT pass rate by age

The same 2025 tests split by the car's age at test.

Hyundai Santa Fe cars aged 3 to 5 years passed 87.5% of MOT tests. For cars aged 11 years and over that fell to 54.9%, a drop of 32.7 percentage points.

Age at testTestsPass ratevs UK average
3 to 5 years 2,704 87.5% 15.2 pts above
6 to 10 years 13,425 77.3% 5 pts above
11 years and over 15,221 54.9% 17.4 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 Santa Fe failures cluster

Every failure item recorded on Hyundai Santa Fe cars in 2025, grouped into the DVSA's test areas.

  • Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment27%
  • Suspension20.7%
  • Brakes17.1%
  • Tyres11.1%
  • Body, chassis, structure6.8%
  • Steering6%

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment and suspension together account for 47.7% of recorded failure items. These are recorded failures across the model, not faults every car has.

The 10 most common Santa Fe MOT failures

Specific items recorded on Hyundai Santa Fe cars that failed their 2025 MOT, as a share of all recorded failure items.

  1. 1Position lamp not workingLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 6.3%
  2. 2Ball joint excessively wornSuspension 6%
  3. 3Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mmTyres 4.3%
  4. 4Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirtBody, chassis, structure 4.2%
  5. 5Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thickBrakes 4%
  6. 6Track rod end ball joint has excessive playSteering 4%
  7. 7Stop lamp not workingLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 3.7%
  8. 8Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively wornSuspension 3%
  9. 9Condition has ply or cords exposedTyres 2.9%
  10. 10Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectivelyVisibility 2.8%

Together these 10 items make up 41.2% of everything testers recorded against failed Hyundai Santa Fe cars. The rest is spread across many smaller items, and one failed test often records several at once.

What to look at on a Santa Fe

The recorded failures above, grouped by area, biggest first.

1

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment

Recorded most often: position lamp not working and stop lamp not working. 10% of failure items.

2

Suspension

Recorded most often: ball joint excessively worn and pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn. 9% of failure items.

3

Tyres

Recorded most often: tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm and condition has ply or cords exposed. 7.1% of failure items.

4

Body, chassis, structure

Recorded most often: joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt. 4.2% of failure items.

The car's own MOT history matters more than any model average. A free MOT history check shows whether a specific Santa Fe has failed on these items before, or had them noted as advisories. Buying one? See the used Hyundai Santa Fe buying guide.

Already found one?

Check its finance, write-off, theft, mileage and keeper history with a £15 vehicle history report.

Hyundai Santa Fe MOT FAQs

What is the Hyundai Santa Fe MOT pass rate?

68.8% of Hyundai Santa Fe cars passed their initial MOT first time in 2025, from 33,426 tests. That is 3.5 percentage points below the 72.3% average for all cars, and ranks 370th of 575 models.

What does a Hyundai Santa Fe most commonly fail its MOT on?

The item testers recorded most often on Hyundai Santa Fe cars failing their 2025 MOT was position lamp not working, on 6.3% of failure items. Next were ball joint excessively worn (6%) and tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (4.3%).

Which area causes the most Hyundai Santa Fe MOT failures?

Across every recorded failure item, the largest area was lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment at 27%, followed by suspension at 20.7%.

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, against 54.9% for cars aged 11 years and over.

Does this mean every Hyundai Santa Fe has these problems?

No. These are the items testers recorded across every Hyundai Santa Fe 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 Hyundai Santa Fe'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.