MOT pass rate · 2025 data
Mazda MX-5 MOT pass rate
The Mazda MX-5 passed 78.56% of its 89,385 initial MOT tests in 2025 — above the 77.3% average across all cars tested that year. That is 1.3 percentage points better than average.
How the Mazda MX-5 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 Mazda MX-5 grouped by the vehicle's age at the time of the test.
| Age at test | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| 3–5 years | 2,541 | 96.1% |
| 6–10 years | 19,883 | 91.42% |
| 11 years and over | 66,953 | 74.08% |
The Mazda MX-5 drops 22 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 Mazda MX-5 fails its MOT
Across every Mazda MX-5 that failed its 2025 MOT, the most common area of failure was suspension, accounting for 26.13% 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 | 26.13% | 13,837 |
| Brakes | 19.64% | 10,403 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 15.59% | 8,258 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 11.4% | 6,038 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 8.09% | 4,286 |
| Tyres | 7.28% | 3,856 |
How the Mazda MX-5 compares
Ranked on pass rate, the Mazda MX-5 sits 345th of 651 models in this data , and 8th of the 10 Mazda models covered . Mazda as a whole averaged 82.19%, so this model runs 3.6 points behind its own brand average.
What this means when buying a used Mazda MX-5
A pass rate is a population average, not a verdict on the specific car in front of you. The average Mazda MX-5 came to its 2025 test at 65,093 miles and 16.6 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 Mazda MX-5
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 Mazda models
- Mazda CX-5 83.22% pass rate · 69,486 tests
- Mazda CX-3 86.56% pass rate · 24,807 tests
- Mazda CX-30 93.71% pass rate · 18,666 tests
- Mazda Bongo 60.91% pass rate · 9,488 tests
- Mazda 2 GT 94.27% pass rate · 5,377 tests
- Mazda 2 SE-L 93.69% pass rate · 3,090 tests
Models with a similar pass rate
- Volkswagen Golf 79.21% pass rate
- BMW 3 Series 77.74% pass rate
- Hyundai I10 79.04% pass rate
- Audi A1 79.44% pass rate
- Mercedes-Benz A-Class 77.86% pass rate
- SEAT Leon 79.74% 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.