MOT pass rate · 2025 data
Audi A3 MOT pass rate
The Audi A3 passed 79.9% of its 418,009 initial MOT tests in 2025 — above the 77.3% average across all cars tested that year. That is 2.6 percentage points better than average.
How the Audi A3 holds up with age
Every car fails the MOT more often as it gets older. What matters when you are buying is how steeply that happens for this particular model. These are the 2025 pass rates for the Audi A3 grouped by the vehicle's age at the time of the test.
| Age at test | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| 3–5 years | 51,688 | 90.28% |
| 6–10 years | 161,204 | 86.68% |
| 11 years and over | 204,155 | 71.84% |
The Audi A3 drops 18.4 percentage points between its early years and the 11-plus bracket, which is a steep decline. On an older example, the MOT history is worth reading closely before you buy.
Why the Audi A3 fails its MOT
Across every Audi A3 that failed its 2025 MOT, the most common area of failure was suspension, accounting for 27.34% of all recorded failure items. These are the areas worth having checked before you buy, and worth budgeting for on an older example.
| Failure area | Share of failure items | Recorded items |
|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 27.34% | 53,468 |
| Tyres | 18.2% | 35,587 |
| Brakes | 16.37% | 32,016 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 15.92% | 31,138 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 6.73% | 13,152 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 6.42% | 12,550 |
| Tyres | 68.54% | 3,100 |
| Suspension | 7.74% | 350 |
| Visibility | 6.26% | 283 |
| Brakes | 5.62% | 254 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2.7% | 122 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 2.56% | 116 |
| Tyres | 53.4% | 424 |
| Brakes | 9.82% | 78 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 8.82% | 70 |
| Suspension | 8.69% | 69 |
| Visibility | 5.92% | 47 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 4.91% | 39 |
| Tyres | 65.57% | 1,101 |
| Suspension | 7.27% | 122 |
| Visibility | 6.43% | 108 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 6.08% | 102 |
| Brakes | 5.96% | 100 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 2.86% | 48 |
How the Audi A3 compares
Ranked on pass rate, the Audi A3 sits 321st of 651 models in this data , and 18th of the 21 Audi models covered . Audi as a whole averaged 81.59%, so this model runs 1.7 points behind its own brand average.
What this means when buying a used Audi A3
A pass rate is a population average, not a verdict on the specific car in front of you. The average Audi A3 came to its 2025 test at 88,311 miles and 10.8 years old. Most examples tested were diesel.
The useful check is the individual car's own MOT record: how many times it has failed, what for, and whether advisories keep reappearing. A recurring advisory on corrosion, suspension or brakes tells you far more than a model-wide average, and a mileage that does not move consistently between tests is a warning in itself.
Check a specific Audi A3
Run the registration through a free MOT history check to see that car's test results, advisories and recorded mileages. For the risks an MOT never covers — outstanding finance, insurance write-off records, stolen markers and ownership history — a full car history check brings them together in one £15 report.
Also useful: mileage check · write-off check · free car check
Other Audi models
- Audi A4 77.09% pass rate · 238,277 tests
- Audi A1 79.44% pass rate · 233,854 tests
- Audi Q3 84.17% pass rate · 135,125 tests
- Audi A5 80.48% pass rate · 124,402 tests
- Audi A6 83.04% pass rate · 118,740 tests
- Audi Q5 86.09% pass rate · 116,282 tests
Models with a similar pass rate
- Volkswagen Golf 79.21% pass rate
- Toyota Yaris 80.34% pass rate
- Honda Jazz 80.64% pass rate
- Kia Sportage 80.57% pass rate
- Hyundai I10 79.04% pass rate
- Skoda Octavia 79.8% pass rate
Figures aggregated from the DVSA MOT Anonymised data set for 2025, class 4 initial tests only, contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Retests are excluded, so these are first-time pass rates.