70.5%
Kia Soul
Kia Soul MOT pass rate and common problems
The Kia Soul passed 70.5% of its initial MOT tests in 2025, 1.8 percentage points below the 72.3% UK average. The item testers recorded most often was track rod end ball joint has excessive play.
Checking a specific car? Its own results, advisories and recorded mileages are in a free MOT history check.
How the Soul 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 Soul runs 4.7 points behind the Kia average. It is 12th of the 16 Kia models in the data. The average Soul arrived at its test 10.7 years old with 69,870 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.
Soul MOT pass rate by age
The same 2025 tests split by the car's age at test.
Kia Soul cars aged 3 to 5 years passed 87.9% of MOT tests. For cars aged 11 years and over that fell to 58%, a drop of 29.9 percentage points.
| Age at test | Tests | Pass rate | vs UK average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 to 5 years | 2,374 | 87.9% | 15.6 pts above |
| 6 to 10 years | 10,030 | 79.5% | 7.2 pts above |
| 11 years and over | 11,672 | 58% | 14.4 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 Soul failures cluster
Every failure item recorded on Kia Soul cars in 2025, grouped into the DVSA's test areas.
Brakes and lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment together account for 43.8% of recorded failure items. These are recorded failures across the model, not faults every car has.
The 10 most common Soul MOT failures
Specific items recorded on Kia Soul cars that failed their 2025 MOT, as a share of all recorded failure items.
Together these 10 items make up 43.1% of everything testers recorded against failed Kia Soul cars. The rest is spread across many smaller items, and one failed test often records several at once.
What to look at on a Soul
The recorded failures above, grouped by area, biggest first.
1
Brakes
Recorded most often: rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements, brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick and rigid brake pipes excessively corroded. 9.7% of failure items.
2
Steering
Recorded most often: track rod end ball joint has excessive play. 9.4% of failure items.
3
Tyres
Recorded most often: tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm and condition has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords. 7.6% of failure items.
4
Visibility
Recorded most often: wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively and washers provides insufficient washer liquid. 6.7% of failure items.
The car's own MOT history matters more than any model average. A free MOT history check shows whether a specific Soul has failed on these items before, or had them noted as advisories. Buying one? See the used Kia Soul buying guide.
Already found one?
Check its finance, write-off, theft, mileage and keeper history with a £15 vehicle history report.
Kia Soul MOT FAQs
What is the Kia Soul MOT pass rate?
70.5% of Kia Soul cars passed their initial MOT first time in 2025, from 24,757 tests. That is 1.8 percentage points below the 72.3% average for all cars, and ranks 345th of 575 models.
What does a Kia Soul most commonly fail its MOT on?
The item testers recorded most often on Kia Soul cars failing their 2025 MOT was track rod end ball joint has excessive play, on 9.4% of failure items. Next were position lamp not working (5.9%) and tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (4.5%).
Which area causes the most Kia Soul MOT failures?
Across every recorded failure item, the largest area was brakes at 23.6%, followed by lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment at 20.2%.
Do older Kia Soul cars fail their MOT more often?
Kia Soul cars aged 3 to 5 years passed 87.9% of MOT tests in 2025, against 58% for cars aged 11 years and over.
Does this mean every Kia Soul has these problems?
No. These are the items testers recorded across every Kia Soul 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 Soul'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.