Pass rate
91.2%
Above average — 0.5 pts ahead of the 90.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 6,352 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £44–£101
2020 Audi A3 Technik MOT pass rate
- 2020
- 2 trims combined
- typical 30,616 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
48.7% 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 →
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 96.5% pass
- Avoid 2020 91.2% pass · this year
Across the 4 years on record, a spread of 5.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 90.5%
- Typical mileage
- 31k mi
The 2020 Audi A3 Technik MOT pass rate is 91.2% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 48.7% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.5× the national share
Tyres make up 48.7% of everything recorded on the 2020 Audi A3 Technik, against 19.8% nationally — 28.9 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.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 19% 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 A3 Technik? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Audi A3 Technik first registered in 2020 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2020 Audi A3 Technik compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 90.7%, so this figure is 0.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 90.5%. The median 2020 Audi A3 Technik in this dataset had covered 30,616 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 93% of tests, with a 91.4% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 91.7% of the time, April–September 90.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords", noted on 3.04% of tests.
- 6,352 recorded tests behind this page.
- 91.2% overall pass rate, 90.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Audi A3 Technik, the average is 91.9% — best year 2023 (96.5%), worst 2020 (91.2%).
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
- 6,352
- Typical mileage (median)
- 30,616 mi
- Make and model
- Audi A3 Technik
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Tyres
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the A3 Technik MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 77% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (93% of tests).
Where the Audi A3 Technik is most common
Across all A3 Technik model years on record (2020–2023): 8,466 Audi A3 Technik cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 12,656 tests. Glasgow (G) has the most, with 267 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 | Glasgow (G) | 267 | 90.4% |
| 2 | Birmingham (B) | 238 | 89.8% |
| 3 | Leicester (LE) | 197 | 87.1% |
| 4 | Peterborough (PE) | 196 | 91.3% |
| 5 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 191 | 94.0% |
| 6 | Northampton (NN) | 177 | 92.7% |
| 7 | Cardiff (CF) | 174 | 94.1% |
| 8 | Liverpool (L) | 165 | 93.1% |
| 9 | Manchester (M) | 156 | 94.0% |
| 10 | Sheffield (S) | 155 | 94.1% |
| 11 | Warrington (WA) | 151 | 94.2% |
| 12 | Edinburgh (EH) | 139 | 89.5% |
| 13 | Nottingham (NG) | 135 | 89.6% |
| 14 | Bristol (BS) | 135 | 94.5% |
| 15 | Stockport (SK) | 126 | 96.3% |
| 16 | Derby (DE) | 125 | 90.7% |
| 17 | Doncaster (DN) | 125 | 95.6% |
| 18 | Leeds (LS) | 124 | 84.8% |
| 19 | Bolton (BL) | 124 | 92.3% |
| 20 | Swansea (SA) | 120 | 87.1% |
The twenty areas with the most Audi A3 Technik 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 A3 Technik
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 1,065 | 89.4% |
| North West | 925 | 93.5% |
| Scotland | 913 | 89.4% |
| East of England | 578 | 92.7% |
| Yorkshire | 556 | 90.3% |
| West Midlands | 518 | 91.5% |
| East Midlands | 487 | 88.5% |
| South West | 423 | 93.6% |
| Wales | 330 | 92.1% |
| North East | 284 | 93.0% |
| London | 273 | 93.4% |
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 2020 A3 Technik
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 2020 A3 Technik
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 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 0.9% of tests
“wipers blade defective”
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.
-
Check the lights 0.7% 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.
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 2020 A3 Technik through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £44–£101 — and 19% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £44–£101
- Cheapest common item: srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 19%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 6,352 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 A3 Technik, side by side
4 model years on record, from 2020 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 91.2% to 96.5% — a spread of 5.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2020 91.2%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 92.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2022 92.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2023 96.5% headlamp aim too low
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 2020 Audi A3 Technik 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 2020 cars with a similar record
- Volkswagen Tiguan 91.2%
- Citroen C3 Aircross 91.2%
- BMW X4 91.2%
- Land Rover Range Rover 91.3%
- Mercedes-Benz Gle 91.3%
- Mercedes-Benz Glb 91.3%
Closest pass rates among 2020 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 2020 Audi A3 Technik 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 3,835 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 | 1,879 | 48.70% | 19.76% | +28.94 |
| Brakes | 799 | 20.70% | 20.89% | −0.19 |
| Non-component advisories | 310 | 8.00% | 4.18% | +3.82 |
| Visibility | 281 | 7.30% | 4.97% | +2.33 |
| Suspension | 234 | 6.10% | 20.98% | −14.88 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 128 | 3.30% | 12.21% | −8.91 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 98 | 2.50% | 1.76% | +0.74 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 42 | 1.10% | 0.82% | +0.28 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 35 | 0.90% | 5.52% | −4.62 |
| Road Wheels | 29 | 0.80% | 0.75% | +0.05 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 3.0% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.1% | £80–200 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.88% | £8–22 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.72% | £30–80 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.72% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.68% | £45–95 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 0.33% | £3–12 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.31% | £18–45 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.28% | £3–12 |
| Washers not working Visibility | Major | 0.28% | £5–15 |
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 | 11.8% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 7.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 5.8% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 4.0% | £18–45 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 2.6% | £30–75 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.3% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 3,053 | 92.7% | 20,632 mi |
| 30-60k | 2,846 | 90.2% | 40,964 mi |
| 60-90k | 412 | 87.6% | 69,405 mi |
| 90-120k | 34 | 91.2% | 97,495 mi |
| 120k+ | 7 | 85.7% | 162,154 mi |
Source: 6,352 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.
2020 A3 Technik MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2020 Audi A3 Technik?
91.2% of the 6,352 2020 Audi A3 Technik tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 90.7% for cars first used in 2020. First-attempt pass rate: 90.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2020 Audi A3 Technik?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (3.04%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.13%), wipers blade defective (0.88%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2020 Audi A3 Technik MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 92.7% of the time, falling to 85.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2020 Audi A3 Technik in this dataset had covered 30,616 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2020 Audi A3 Technik?
Petrol: 91.4% pass rate across 5,928 tests. Diesel: 89.1% pass rate across 421 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2020 Audi A3 Technik MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 91.7% 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.