MOT pass rate · 2025 data
Lotus Elise MOT pass rate
The Lotus Elise passed 88.59% of its 4,934 initial MOT tests in 2025 — above the 77.3% average across all cars tested that year. That is 11.3 percentage points better than average.
How the Lotus Elise 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 Lotus Elise grouped by the vehicle's age at the time of the test.
| Age at test | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| 3–5 years | 146 | 96.58% |
| 6–10 years | 435 | 93.56% |
| 11 years and over | 4,353 | 87.82% |
The Lotus Elise loses 8.8 percentage points between its early years and the 11-plus bracket — a normal pattern for a car of this age, but still worth checking the individual history.
Why the Lotus Elise fails its MOT
Across every Lotus Elise that failed its 2025 MOT, the most common area of failure was lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment, accounting for 28.6% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 28.6% | 385 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 28.53% | 384 |
| Brakes | 13.3% | 179 |
| Suspension | 9.88% | 133 |
| Visibility | 8.92% | 120 |
| Tyres | 3.57% | 48 |
How the Lotus Elise compares
Ranked on pass rate, the Lotus Elise sits 139th of 651 models in this data . Lotus as a whole averaged 88.59%, so this model runs level with its own brand average.
What this means when buying a used Lotus Elise
A pass rate is a population average, not a verdict on the specific car in front of you. The average Lotus Elise came to its 2025 test at 48,721 miles and 20.9 years old. Most examples tested were petrol.
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 Lotus Elise
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
Models with a similar pass rate
- MINI Cooper 87.98% pass rate
- MINI Countryman 88.41% pass rate
- Mercedes-Benz GLC 88.01% pass rate
- Suzuki Vitara 89.5% pass rate
- Hyundai Kona 89.77% pass rate
- Jaguar F-Pace 87.53% 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.