Pass rate
78.3%
Around average — 1.1 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 68,787 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £45–£129
2012 Audi A1 MOT pass rate
- 2012
- 2 trims combined
- typical 86,630 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
23.1% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
2.4 pts down across model years — 6.6% in 2010, 4.2% in 2022.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 95.3% pass
- Avoid 2010 76.0% pass
Across the 14 years on record, a spread of 19.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 72.8%
- Typical mileage
- 87k mi
The 2012 Audi A1 MOT pass rate is 78.3% of its MOT tests — 1.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 23.1% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
When it fails, it costs
Only 6% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
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 Audi A1? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Audi A1 first registered in 2012 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2012 Audi A1 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 1.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 72.8%. The median 2012 Audi A1 in this dataset had covered 86,630 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 56% of tests, with a 79.7% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 78.2% of the time, April–September 78.4%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 3.72% of tests.
- 68,787 recorded tests behind this page.
- 78.3% overall pass rate, 72.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Audi A1, the average is 83.2% — best year 2023 (95.3%), worst 2010 (76.0%).
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
- 68,787
- Typical mileage (median)
- 86,630 mi
- Make and model
- Audi A1
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Coil Spring
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the A1 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 66% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (56% of tests).
Where the Audi A1 is most common
Across all A1 model years on record (2010–2023): 335,584 Audi A1 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 757,296 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 11,237 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 | Birmingham (B) | 11,237 | 86.2% |
| 2 | Sheffield (S) | 7,239 | 84.4% |
| 3 | Cardiff (CF) | 6,898 | 80.4% |
| 4 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 6,512 | 82.0% |
| 5 | Manchester (M) | 5,933 | 83.9% |
| 6 | Nottingham (NG) | 5,879 | 80.6% |
| 7 | Peterborough (PE) | 5,822 | 84.6% |
| 8 | Glasgow (G) | 5,814 | 79.9% |
| 9 | Leicester (LE) | 5,690 | 83.6% |
| 10 | Bristol (BS) | 5,676 | 80.7% |
| 11 | Chelmsford (CM) | 5,268 | 85.4% |
| 12 | Reading (RG) | 4,753 | 84.9% |
| 13 | Derby (DE) | 4,632 | 83.8% |
| 14 | Coventry (CV) | 4,515 | 83.7% |
| 15 | Doncaster (DN) | 4,309 | 82.9% |
| 16 | Leeds (LS) | 4,290 | 79.7% |
| 17 | Guildford (GU) | 4,270 | 84.0% |
| 18 | Swansea (SA) | 4,196 | 80.3% |
| 19 | Wakefield (WF) | 4,152 | 83.7% |
| 20 | Northampton (NN) | 4,134 | 79.9% |
The twenty areas with the most Audi A1 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 A1
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 13,034 | 80.6% |
| South West | 8,099 | 76.0% |
| East of England | 7,990 | 79.6% |
| North West | 7,348 | 78.1% |
| West Midlands | 6,642 | 79.7% |
| Yorkshire | 6,543 | 78.3% |
| East Midlands | 5,038 | 77.1% |
| Wales | 4,619 | 75.8% |
| Scotland | 3,834 | 72.4% |
| North East | 3,053 | 75.9% |
| London | 2,584 | 85.8% |
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 A1
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 A1
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 coil springs 3.7% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
-
Check the windscreen 3.1% 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 suspension joints 3.0% of tests
“pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn”
With the car parked on level ground, rock the top of each front wheel in and out while someone watches the suspension arm. Clunks, or rubber boots split and greasy, are what testers record here.
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 A1 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £45–£129 — and 6% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £45–£129
- Cheapest common item: position lamp with a multiple light source up…
- £5–£25
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 6%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 68,787 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 A1, side by side
14 model years on record, from 2010 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 76.0% to 95.3% — a spread of 19.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2010 76.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2011 76.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2012 78.3%coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 78.9% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 81.0% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2015 82.8% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2016 82.9% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2017 84.4% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2018 86.7% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2019 89.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 91.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2021 92.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2022 93.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2023 95.3% 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 Audi A1 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
- SEAT Leon 78.3%
- BMW 118 78.3%
- Volvo V60 78.2%
- Hyundai I10 78.1%
- Ford C-Max 78.5%
- Mitsubishi Asx 78.5%
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 Audi A1 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 118,325 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 | 27,735 | 23.10% | 19.76% | +3.34 |
| Suspension | 27,463 | 22.90% | 20.98% | +1.92 |
| Brakes | 26,395 | 22.00% | 20.89% | +1.11 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 10,313 | 8.60% | 12.21% | −3.61 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 6,968 | 5.80% | 5.57% | +0.23 |
| Visibility | 5,371 | 4.50% | 4.97% | −0.47 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 5,155 | 4.30% | 5.52% | −1.22 |
| Non-component advisories | 3,941 | 3.30% | 4.18% | −0.88 |
| Steering | 2,684 | 2.20% | 2.57% | −0.37 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 2,300 | 1.90% | 1.76% | +0.14 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 3.7% | £25–65 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 3.7% | £80–250 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.1% | £80–200 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.0% | £40–150 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 2.1% | £18–45 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.8% | £18–45 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.8% | £18–45 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.8% | £80–250 |
| Position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.5% | £5–25 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.5% | £45–95 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 18.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 17.0% | £45–110 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 12.3% | £40–150 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 9.4% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 6.9% | £25–65 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 6.5% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1,632 | 89.5% | 22,769 mi |
| 30-60k | 11,332 | 83.6% | 48,130 mi |
| 60-90k | 24,435 | 78.9% | 75,810 mi |
| 90-120k | 21,105 | 75.9% | 103,376 mi |
| 120k+ | 10,260 | 74.3% | 139,964 mi |
Source: 68,787 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 A1 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Audi A1?
78.3% of the 68,787 2012 Audi A1 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 72.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Audi A1?
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (3.72%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (3.71%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (3.08%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Audi A1 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 89.5% of the time, falling to 74.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Audi A1 in this dataset had covered 86,630 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 Audi A1?
Petrol: 79.7% pass rate across 38,400 tests. Diesel: 76.5% pass rate across 30,386 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2012 Audi A1 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 78.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 78.4%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.