Pass rate
81.0%
Around average — 3.8 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 47,965 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £53–£146
2012 Audi A4 MOT pass rate
- 2012
- 2 trims combined
- typical 117,833 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
28.3% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £35–£75 for Suspension pin or bush excessively worn. What fitting it takes →
5.8 pts down across model years — 8.7% in 2000, 2.9% in 2018.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 91.4% pass
- Avoid 2000 73.5% pass
Across the 24 years on record, a spread of 17.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 76.9%
- Typical mileage
- 118k mi
The 2012 Audi A4 MOT pass rate is 81.0% of its MOT tests — 3.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 28.3% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Audi A4 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.3× the national share
Suspension accounts for 28.3% of everything recorded on the 2012 Audi A4, against 21.0% nationally — 7.3 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
- 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 81.0% — 3.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 0% 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 A4? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Audi A4 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 A4 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 3.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 76.9%. The median 2012 Audi A4 in this dataset had covered 117,833 mi.
86% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 80.4% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 81.1% of the time, April–September 80.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 3.84% of tests.
- 47,965 recorded tests behind this page.
- 81.0% overall pass rate, 76.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Audi A4, the average is 81.0% — best year 2023 (91.4%), worst 2000 (73.5%).
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
- 47,965
- Typical mileage (median)
- 117,833 mi
- Make and model
- Audi A4
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Windscreen
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the A4 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 71% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (86% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the A4
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 7,918 | 81.5% |
| North West | 5,988 | 80.9% |
| South West | 5,776 | 77.8% |
| Yorkshire | 5,331 | 81.7% |
| East of England | 5,123 | 82.7% |
| West Midlands | 4,825 | 82.8% |
| Scotland | 3,766 | 77.5% |
| East Midlands | 3,400 | 81.4% |
| North East | 2,529 | 80.3% |
| Wales | 2,177 | 81.0% |
| London | 1,132 | 87.4% |
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 2012 A4
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 A4
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 3.8% 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 coil springs 2.1% 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 suspension joints 2.1% 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 A4 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £53–£146 — and 0% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £53–£146
- Cheapest common item: ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated
- £18–£45
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot split or…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 0%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 47,965 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 A4, side by side
24 model years on record, from 2000 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 73.5% to 91.4% — a spread of 17.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 73.5% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2001 74.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2002 73.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2003 74.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2004 74.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 75.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 75.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 76.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 76.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2009 77.2% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2010 78.2% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2011 79.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2012 81.0%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2013 81.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2014 81.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 82.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 84.4% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2017 85.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2018 86.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2019 88.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 90.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2021 90.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 90.7% has ply or cords exposed
- 2023 91.4% has a cut in excess of the…
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 A4 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
- Toyota Auris 81.0%
- Toyota Avensis 81.1%
- MINI COOPER D 81.1%
- BMW X3 80.8%
- Land Rover Discovery 81.2%
- Mercedes-Benz Slk 81.2%
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 A4 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 75,237 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 21,516 | 28.30% | 20.98% | +7.32 |
| Tyres | 17,425 | 22.90% | 19.76% | +3.14 |
| Brakes | 13,683 | 18.00% | 20.89% | −2.89 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 7,051 | 9.30% | 12.21% | −2.91 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 4,090 | 5.40% | 5.57% | −0.17 |
| Visibility | 4,021 | 5.30% | 4.97% | +0.33 |
| Non-component advisories | 2,897 | 3.80% | 4.18% | −0.38 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2,251 | 3.00% | 5.52% | −2.52 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1,792 | 2.40% | 1.76% | +0.64 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 511 | 0.70% | 0.82% | −0.12 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.8% | £80–200 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 2.2% | £80–250 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 2.1% | £25–65 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.1% | £40–150 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 2.0% | £80–250 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.8% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.6% | £30–80 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 1.6% | £30–75 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.1% | £18–45 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.1% | £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 | 20.1% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 16.4% | £40–150 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.7% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 8.5% | £45–110 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 8.1% | £30–75 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.3% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 147 | 98.6% | 23,762 mi |
| 30-60k | 1,975 | 88.1% | 49,807 mi |
| 60-90k | 8,183 | 84.1% | 77,549 mi |
| 90-120k | 14,741 | 80.4% | 105,406 mi |
| 120k+ | 22,799 | 79.6% | 153,147 mi |
Source: 47,965 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 A4 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Audi A4?
81.0% of the 47,965 2012 Audi A4 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 76.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Audi A4?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (3.84%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (2.17%), coil spring fractured or broken (2.13%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Audi A4 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 98.6% of the time, falling to 79.6% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Audi A4 in this dataset had covered 117,833 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 Audi A4?
Diesel: 80.4% pass rate across 41,464 tests. Petrol: 84.7% pass rate across 6,497 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2012 Audi A4 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 81.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 80.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.