63%
Kia Carens
Kia Carens MOT pass rate and common problems
The Kia Carens passed 63% of its initial MOT tests in 2025, 9.3 percentage points below the 72.3% UK average. The item testers recorded most often was stop lamp not working.
Checking a specific car? Its own results, advisories and recorded mileages are in a free MOT history check.
How the Carens compares
Initial MOT tests in 2025, retests excluded. A car that failed and was repaired at the test station counts as a fail.
75.2%
Kia average
72.3%
UK average, all cars
The Carens runs 12.2 points behind the Kia average. It is 15th of the 16 Kia models in the data. The average Carens arrived at its test 10.9 years old with 84,499 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.
Carens MOT pass rate by age
The same 2025 tests split by the car's age at test.
Kia Carens cars aged 6 to 10 years passed 68.2% of MOT tests. For cars aged 11 years and over that fell to 54.2%, a drop of 14 percentage points.
| Age at test | Tests | Pass rate | vs UK average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 to 5 years (small sample) | 37 | 75.7% | 3.4 pts above |
| 6 to 10 years | 8,560 | 68.2% | 4.1 pts below |
| 11 years and over | 5,123 | 54.2% | 18.1 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 Carens failures cluster
Every failure item recorded on Kia Carens cars in 2025, grouped into the DVSA's test areas.
Brakes and lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment together account for 47.9% of recorded failure items. These are recorded failures across the model, not faults every car has.
The 10 most common Carens MOT failures
Specific items recorded on Kia Carens cars that failed their 2025 MOT, as a share of all recorded failure items.
Together these 10 items make up 39.3% of everything testers recorded against failed Kia Carens cars. The rest is spread across many smaller items, and one failed test often records several at once.
What to look at on a Carens
The recorded failures above, grouped by area, biggest first.
1
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment
Recorded most often: stop lamp not working and headlamp not working on dipped beam. 10.8% of failure items.
2
Brakes
Recorded most often: brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick and rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements. 10.3% of failure items.
3
Tyres
Recorded most often: tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm, condition has ply or cords exposed and condition has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords. 9.2% of failure items.
4
Suspension
Recorded most often: ball joint excessively worn and pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn. 5.9% of failure items.
The car's own MOT history matters more than any model average. A free MOT history check shows whether a specific Carens has failed on these items before, or had them noted as advisories. Buying one? See the used Kia Carens buying guide.
Already found one?
Check its finance, write-off, theft, mileage and keeper history with a £15 vehicle history report.
Kia Carens MOT FAQs
What is the Kia Carens MOT pass rate?
63% of Kia Carens cars passed their initial MOT first time in 2025, from 13,721 tests. That is 9.3 percentage points below the 72.3% average for all cars, and ranks 461st of 575 models.
What does a Kia Carens most commonly fail its MOT on?
The item testers recorded most often on Kia Carens cars failing their 2025 MOT was stop lamp not working, on 6.8% of failure items. Next were brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick (5.9%) and rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements (4.4%).
Which area causes the most Kia Carens MOT failures?
Across every recorded failure item, the largest area was brakes at 24.5%, followed by lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment at 23.4%.
Do older Kia Carens cars fail their MOT more often?
Kia Carens cars aged 6 to 10 years passed 68.2% of MOT tests in 2025, against 54.2% for cars aged 11 years and over.
Does this mean every Kia Carens has these problems?
No. These are the items testers recorded across every Kia Carens 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 Kia Carens'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.