Pass rate
91.5%
Above average — 14.3 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 141 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £30–£89
2012 Aston Martin Cygnet MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 23,455 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
28.2% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2011 94.9% pass
- Avoid 2012 91.5% pass · this year
Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 3.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 90.7%
- Typical mileage
- 23k mi
The 2012 Aston Martin Cygnet MOT pass rate is 91.5% of its MOT tests — 14.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 28.2% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Aston Martin Cygnet does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.4× the national share
Tyres make up 28.2% of everything recorded on the 2012 Aston Martin Cygnet, against 19.8% nationally — 8.4 points above. Check all four tyres yourself, including the inner shoulders, and look at the date stamp — a tyre can pass on tread and still be six years old.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 77.2% and this one manages 91.5% — 14.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 59% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
Written from this page's own figures: fault shares against the national composition, the like-for-like pass rate, and the priced repair list. How these are worked out
Watching a Aston Martin Cygnet? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 Aston Martin Cygnet compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 14.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 90.7%. The median 2012 Aston Martin Cygnet in this dataset had covered 23,455 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 92.3% of the time, April–September 90.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 2.13% of tests.
- 141 recorded tests behind this page.
- 91.5% overall pass rate, 90.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Aston Martin Cygnet, the average is 93.4% — best year 2011 (94.9%), worst 2012 (91.5%).
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
This page's data
- Tests analysed
- 141
- Typical mileage (median)
- 23,455 mi
- Make and model
- Aston Martin Cygnet
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Cygnet MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 75% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Cygnet
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 59 | 88.1% |
| London | 29 | 96.6% |
| East of England | 16 | 93.8% |
Regions come from the postcode area recorded at the test station. Areas on region borders are assigned to the region with the majority of their population.
What fails a 2012 Cygnet
Everything a tester recorded on this vehicle, grouped into the inspection sections that produced it. The notch on each bar is the national share, so you can see at a glance whether this car is unusual or just ordinary.
A test can record several items, so these percentages do not add up to 100%. The exact strings, with prices, are in the full DVSA record at the bottom of this page.
Before your test
Three checks worth doing on a 2012 Cygnet
These are not generic tips — they are the faults recorded most often on this exact model, rewritten as things you can check yourself. All three take about ten minutes and cost nothing.
-
Check the lights 2.1% of tests
“registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”
Switch everything on and walk round the car: both headlamps on dip and main, every indicator, both brake lights, reverse, fog and the two number-plate lamps. A bulb is a few pounds and a five-minute job.
-
Check the windscreen 2.1% of tests
“windscreen damaged”
Check the driver’s side of the screen within the swept area for chips and cracks; anything larger than 10mm in the driver’s central view is a fail. Most chips can be resin-repaired for far less than a new screen.
-
Check the wipers and washers 2.1% of tests
“wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively”
Run the wipers with the screen wet: they should clear it in one sweep without smearing or juddering. Top the washer bottle up and check both jets hit the screen.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
What it costs to get a 2012 Cygnet through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £30–£89 — and 59% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £30–£89
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 59%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 141 MOT tests on this vehicle. They exclude diagnostics, retest fees and garage labour where the part is a DIY fit, and they are not figures from the DVSA dataset. Older and higher-mileage examples cost more than the average. How these estimates are built → · All MOT repair costs → · Cheapest cars to put through a test →
Every year of the Cygnet, side by side
2 model years on record, from 2011 to 2012. Across them the pass rate runs from 91.5% to 94.9% — a spread of 3.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2011 94.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 91.5%registration plate lamp(s)…
Colour is the pass rate on a fixed scale, so a block means the same thing on any model. Each year links to its own page with the full fault breakdown.
Compare the 2012 Aston Martin Cygnet with another year
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Other 2012 cars with a similar record
- Porsche Boxster 91.6%
- Audi A8 90.2%
- Porsche 911 93.4%
- Bentley Continental 93.4%
- Honda Fit 89.3%
- Toyota Estima 88.3%
Closest pass rates among 2012 cars with at least 2,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. See the full rankings: best and worst MOT pass rates.
The full DVSA record for the 2012 Aston Martin Cygnet 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 9 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 78 individual items recorded on this vehicle, and the same share across all cars nationally. A single test can record several items, so a row is not a percentage of tests.
| Category | Items | This car | Nationally | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 22 | 28.20% | 19.76% | +8.44 |
| Brakes | 17 | 21.80% | 20.89% | +0.91 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 12 | 15.40% | 12.21% | +3.19 |
| Visibility | 10 | 12.80% | 4.97% | +7.83 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 5 | 6.40% | 5.57% | +0.83 |
| Suspension | 4 | 5.10% | 20.98% | −15.88 |
| Non-component advisories | 4 | 5.10% | 4.18% | +0.92 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2 | 2.60% | 5.52% | −2.92 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 2 | 2.60% | 1.76% | +0.84 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.1% | £5–20 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.1% | £80–200 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 2.1% | £8–22 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) missing in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.4% | £5–20 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.71% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions emissions - engine idle speed too high Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.71% | £60–250 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.71% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.71% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.71% | £5–25 |
| Horn not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.71% | £8–25 |
Severity is as recorded: Major and Dangerous fail the test outright; Minor and Advisory do not. Costs are estimates from typical UK parts prices — see how they are built.
What testers noted without failing the car
Advisories are the early warnings — the same parts a year or two before they fail. Reading them is how you tell a car that has been maintained from one that has been patched.
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 6.4% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 5.7% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 4.3% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 2.8% | £45–110 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 2.8% | £40–150 |
| Exhaust system system insecure Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 2.1% | £45–120 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 94 | 93.6% | 18,833 mi |
| 30-60k | 35 | 85.7% | 43,325 mi |
| 60-90k | 6 | 100.0% | 63,630 mi |
| 120k+ | 6 | 83.3% | 143,319 mi |
Source: 141 recorded tests on this vehicle-year. Every row above is recomputed from the same DVSA extract as the rest of the page — see the methodology.
2012 Cygnet MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Aston Martin Cygnet?
91.5% of the 141 2012 Aston Martin Cygnet tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 90.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Aston Martin Cygnet?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (2.13%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.13%), wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (2.13%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Aston Martin Cygnet MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.6% of the time, falling to 83.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Aston Martin Cygnet in this dataset had covered 23,455 mi.
Does the season affect the 2012 Aston Martin Cygnet MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 92.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 90.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.