Common Volkswagen Beetle MOT failures
Based on 604,208 Volkswagen Beetle tests on record carrying an official DVSA defect code, so every category below is counted from real failures rather than estimated.
Real DVSA defect codes
Every category comes from the official MOT Inspection Manual section code DVSA attaches to each defect, not guessed from keywords.
Choose a make or model
Filter the chart below to one make or one specific model, and it updates without leaving the page.
The whole national record
Built from DVSA's published MOT data for Great Britain, not only from vehicles looked up here.
See the breakdown for one make or model
Defaults to every make on record.
Where MOT tests find problems: Volkswagen Beetle
A test can find problems in more than one category, so the figures above do not sum to 100%. Each percentage is the share of classifiable tests that found at least one defect in that category. Based on 604,208 classifiable tests for Volkswagen Beetle.
What Volkswagen Beetle failures look like
604,208 Volkswagen Beetle tests on record carry the manual reference DVSA attaches to each defect. The most frequent problems were with axles, wheels, tyres and suspension on 349,029 tests (57.8%), with brakes on 185,606 tests (30.7%) and with lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment on 108,361 tests (17.9%). A test can fail on more than one thing, and an MOT can be failed on one defect while another is only advised, so these counts do not add up to the number of tests.
Narrowed down from the categories to the individual defects themselves, three come up on more than one test:
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Tyre worn close to legal limit/worn on edge
MOT inspection manual reference 5.2.3, in axles, wheels, tyres and suspension
Recorded on 168,269 of the 604,208 tests: 27,151 failures and 141,118 advisories or minors.
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Suspension arm pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement
MOT inspection manual reference 5.3.4, in axles, wheels, tyres and suspension
Recorded on 96,390 of the 604,208 tests: 30,939 failures and 65,451 advisories or minors.
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Brake disc worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened
MOT inspection manual reference 1.1.14, in brakes
Recorded on 79,900 of the 604,208 tests: 4,577 failures and 75,323 advisories or minors.
Where there is enough data to compare: Volkswagen Golf (9,364,231 tests), Volkswagen Polo (6,574,884 tests), Volkswagen Transporter (3,016,040 tests), Volkswagen Passat (2,340,118 tests), every Volkswagen model (33,000,442 tests).
Clauses are read from the manual reference at the end of every defect on the cached test records, and a defect shown here has to appear on at least two of them before it is named. The site-wide breakdown explains how that works and compares every make.