Pass rate
93.8%
Above average — 16.6 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 352 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £30–£75
2012 Aston Martin Dbs MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 22,336 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
39.9% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2020 97.0% pass
- Avoid 2012 93.8% pass · this year
Across the 10 years on record, a spread of 3.2 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 93.4%
- Typical mileage
- 22k mi
The 2012 Aston Martin Dbs MOT pass rate is 93.8% of its MOT tests — 16.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 39.9% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.0× the national share
Tyres make up 39.9% of everything recorded on the 2012 Aston Martin Dbs, against 19.8% nationally — 20.1 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 93.8% — 16.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Based on a small sample. 352 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 Dbs? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 Aston Martin Dbs compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 16.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 93.4%. The median 2012 Aston Martin Dbs in this dataset had covered 22,336 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 93.6% of the time, April–September 93.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp aim too low", noted on 1.70% of tests.
- 352 recorded tests behind this page.
- 93.8% overall pass rate, 93.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Aston Martin Dbs, the average is 95.4% — best year 2020 (97.0%), worst 2012 (93.8%).
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
- 352
- Typical mileage (median)
- 22,336 mi
- Make and model
- Aston Martin Dbs
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Headlight Alignment
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Dbs MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 75% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Aston Martin Dbs is most common
Across all Dbs model years on record (2008–2022): 2,477 Aston Martin Dbs cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 4,361 tests. Milton Keynes (MK) has the most, with 161 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 161 | 87.5% |
| 2 | Nottingham (NG) | 115 | 96.3% |
| 3 | Bristol (BS) | 106 | 92.8% |
| 4 | Stockport (SK) | 101 | 96.0% |
| 5 | Kingston upon Thames (KT) | 100 | 94.4% |
| 6 | Coventry (CV) | 100 | 94.8% |
| 7 | St Albans (AL) | 94 | 95.2% |
| 8 | Leeds (LS) | 93 | 96.4% |
| 9 | Reading (RG) | 88 | 98.8% |
| 10 | Chelmsford (CM) | 88 | 92.7% |
| 11 | Ashford (TN) | 85 | 95.6% |
| 12 | Gloucester (GL) | 83 | 98.1% |
| 13 | London (NW) | 82 | 94.3% |
| 14 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 64 | 98.2% |
| 15 | Bradford (BD) | 57 | 97.4% |
| 16 | Birmingham (B) | 57 | 100.0% |
| 17 | Derby (DE) | 50 | 98.4% |
| 18 | Edinburgh (EH) | 44 | 94.5% |
| 19 | Portsmouth (PO) | 44 | 93.0% |
| 20 | High Wycombe (HP) | 41 | 98.6% |
The twenty areas with the most Aston Martin Dbs cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
Regional pass rates for the Dbs
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 98 | 90.8% |
| East of England | 92 | 93.5% |
| North West | 33 | 97.0% |
| West Midlands | 27 | 96.3% |
| London | 25 | 96.0% |
| Yorkshire | 23 | 95.7% |
| South West | 22 | 90.9% |
| East Midlands | 19 | 100.0% |
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 Dbs
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 Dbs
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 1.7% of tests
“headlamp aim too low”
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 1.4% 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 tyre pressures and valves 0.6% of tests
“tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative”
Set the pressures to the figures on the door pillar, not the tyre wall, and check the valves do not hiss. A leaking valve is a two-minute fix that fails a test.
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 Dbs through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £30–£75 — and 39% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £30–£75
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 39%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 352 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 Dbs, side by side
10 model years on record, from 2008 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 93.8% to 97.0% — a spread of 3.2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2008 94.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2009 94.2% position lamp not working
- 2010 94.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2011 94.0% position lamp not working
- 2012 93.8%headlamp aim too low
- 2018 97.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 96.3% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 97.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 97.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 95.9% windscreen damaged but not…
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 Dbs 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 911 93.4%
- Bentley Continental 93.4%
- Porsche Boxster 91.6%
- Audi A8 90.2%
- 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 Dbs 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 10 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 162 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 | 65 | 39.90% | 19.76% | +20.14 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 31 | 19.00% | 12.21% | +6.79 |
| Brakes | 25 | 15.30% | 20.89% | −5.59 |
| Suspension | 22 | 13.50% | 20.98% | −7.48 |
| Visibility | 8 | 4.90% | 4.97% | −0.07 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 5 | 3.10% | 5.52% | −2.42 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 2 | 1.20% | 1.76% | −0.56 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 2 | 1.20% | 0.82% | +0.38 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1 | 0.60% | 5.57% | −4.97 |
| Non-component advisories | 1 | 0.60% | 4.18% | −3.58 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.7% | £30–80 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.4% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.4% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.1% | £30–80 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.1% | £3–12 |
| Headlamp cleaning device for LED or HID headlamp inoperative Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.85% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.85% | £5–20 |
| Individual direction indicators not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.57% | £3–12 |
| Tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative Tyres | Major | 0.57% | £45–95 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 0.57% | £8–22 |
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 | 10.2% | £45–95 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 3.4% | £80–180 |
| Linkage corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 2.8% | £180–450 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.3% | £45–95 |
| Flexible brake hoses ferrule excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 1.4% | £25–70 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 1.4% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 242 | 94.6% | 16,974 mi |
| 30-60k | 102 | 92.2% | 39,855 mi |
| 60-90k | 1 | 100.0% | 62,224 mi |
| 90-120k | 6 | 83.3% | 101,136 mi |
Source: 352 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 Dbs MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Aston Martin Dbs?
93.8% of the 352 2012 Aston Martin Dbs tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 93.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Aston Martin Dbs?
The three most recorded items are headlamp aim too low (1.70%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.42%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.42%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Aston Martin Dbs MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 94.6% of the time, falling to 83.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Aston Martin Dbs in this dataset had covered 22,336 mi.
Does the season affect the 2012 Aston Martin Dbs MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 93.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 93.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.