55.4%
Mazda Bongo Friendee
Mazda Bongo Friendee MOT pass rate and common problems
The Mazda Bongo Friendee passed 55.4% of its initial MOT tests in 2025, 16.9 percentage points below the 72.3% UK average. The item testers recorded most often was component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength.
Checking a specific car? Its own results, advisories and recorded mileages are in a free MOT history check.
How the Bongo Friendee compares
Initial MOT tests in 2025, retests excluded. A car that failed and was repaired at the test station counts as a fail.
72.7%
Mazda average
72.3%
UK average, all cars
The Bongo Friendee runs 17.4 points behind the Mazda average. It is 10th of the 11 Mazda models in the data. The average Bongo Friendee arrived at its test 19.8 years old with 131,153 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.
Bongo Friendee MOT pass rate by age
The same 2025 tests split by the car's age at test.
Mazda Bongo Friendee cars aged 3 to 5 years passed 72.9% of MOT tests. For cars aged 11 years and over that fell to 54.8%, a drop of 18.1 percentage points.
| Age at test | Tests | Pass rate | vs UK average |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 to 5 years | 199 | 72.9% | 0.6 pts above |
| 6 to 10 years | 1,178 | 56.5% | 15.8 pts below |
| 11 years and over | 8,115 | 54.8% | 17.5 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 Bongo Friendee failures cluster
Every failure item recorded on Mazda Bongo Friendee cars in 2025, grouped into the DVSA's test areas.
Suspension and lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 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 Bongo Friendee MOT failures
Specific items recorded on Mazda Bongo Friendee cars that failed their 2025 MOT, as a share of all recorded failure items.
Together these 10 items make up 39.8% of everything testers recorded against failed Mazda Bongo Friendee cars. The rest is spread across many smaller items, and one failed test often records several at once.
What to look at on a Bongo Friendee
The recorded failures above, grouped by area, biggest first.
1
Suspension
Recorded most often: component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength, ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt and linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt. 16.7% of failure items.
2
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment
Recorded most often: rear fog lamp not working, position lamp not working and headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect. 10.5% of failure items.
3
Body, chassis, structure
Recorded most often: integral vehicle structure condition corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced, chassis condition or chassis has excessive corrosion, seriously affecting its strength within 30cm of a body mounting and chassis condition corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced. 8.6% of failure items.
4
Visibility
Recorded most often: wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively. 4.1% of failure items.
The car's own MOT history matters more than any model average. A free MOT history check shows whether a specific Bongo Friendee has failed on these items before, or had them noted as advisories. Buying one? See the used Mazda Bongo Friendee buying guide.
Already found one?
Check its finance, write-off, theft, mileage and keeper history with a £15 vehicle history report.
Mazda Bongo Friendee MOT FAQs
What is the Mazda Bongo Friendee MOT pass rate?
55.4% of Mazda Bongo Friendee cars passed their initial MOT first time in 2025, from 9,496 tests. That is 16.9 percentage points below the 72.3% average for all cars, and ranks 534th of 575 models.
What does a Mazda Bongo Friendee most commonly fail its MOT on?
The item testers recorded most often on Mazda Bongo Friendee cars failing their 2025 MOT was component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength, on 11.2% of failure items. Next were rear fog lamp not working (4.1%) and wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (4.1%).
Which area causes the most Mazda Bongo Friendee MOT failures?
Across every recorded failure item, the largest area was suspension at 26.6%, followed by lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment at 25.3%.
Do older Mazda Bongo Friendee cars fail their MOT more often?
Mazda Bongo Friendee cars aged 3 to 5 years passed 72.9% of MOT tests in 2025, against 54.8% for cars aged 11 years and over.
Does this mean every Mazda Bongo Friendee has these problems?
No. These are the items testers recorded across every Mazda Bongo Friendee 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 Mazda Bongo Friendee'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.