Pass rate
79.9%
Around average — 2.7 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 24,483 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £38–£101
2012 Audi Q3 MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 97,687 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
26.6% 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 →
0.8 pts down across model years — 3.2% in 2011, 2.4% in 2018.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 97.5% pass
- Avoid 2011 79.2% pass
Across the 13 years on record, a spread of 18.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 75.1%
- Typical mileage
- 98k mi
The 2012 Audi Q3 MOT pass rate is 79.9% of its MOT tests — 2.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.6% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.3× the national share
Suspension accounts for 26.6% of everything recorded on the 2012 Audi Q3, against 21.0% nationally — 5.6 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.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 15% 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 Q3? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 Audi Q3 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 2.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 75.1%. The median 2012 Audi Q3 in this dataset had covered 97,687 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 83% of tests, with a 79.1% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 79.6% of the time, April–September 80.2%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 7.13% of tests.
- 24,483 recorded tests behind this page.
- 79.9% overall pass rate, 75.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Audi Q3, the average is 87.1% — best year 2023 (97.5%), worst 2011 (79.2%).
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
- 24,483
- Typical mileage (median)
- 97,687 mi
- Make and model
- Audi Q3
- 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 Q3 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 68% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (83% of tests).
Where the Audi Q3 is most common
Across all Q3 model years on record (2011–2023): 199,107 Audi Q3 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 433,694 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 5,653 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) | 5,653 | 89.0% |
| 2 | Glasgow (G) | 3,906 | 84.5% |
| 3 | Sheffield (S) | 3,849 | 87.8% |
| 4 | Peterborough (PE) | 3,647 | 89.0% |
| 5 | Leicester (LE) | 3,547 | 86.6% |
| 6 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 3,540 | 86.9% |
| 7 | Nottingham (NG) | 3,306 | 86.3% |
| 8 | Reading (RG) | 3,140 | 88.3% |
| 9 | Cardiff (CF) | 3,111 | 84.9% |
| 10 | Chelmsford (CM) | 3,050 | 89.4% |
| 11 | Guildford (GU) | 2,906 | 86.3% |
| 12 | Manchester (M) | 2,900 | 86.6% |
| 13 | Derby (DE) | 2,622 | 88.5% |
| 14 | Stockport (SK) | 2,553 | 87.0% |
| 15 | Leeds (LS) | 2,499 | 82.9% |
| 16 | Bristol (BS) | 2,484 | 85.6% |
| 17 | Kingston upon Thames (KT) | 2,464 | 90.7% |
| 18 | Hounslow (TW) | 2,420 | 91.1% |
| 19 | Coventry (CV) | 2,410 | 87.1% |
| 20 | Edinburgh (EH) | 2,344 | 83.8% |
The twenty areas with the most Audi Q3 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 Q3
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 4,820 | 81.6% |
| North West | 3,000 | 79.7% |
| South West | 2,941 | 76.7% |
| East of England | 2,721 | 80.7% |
| Yorkshire | 2,371 | 80.0% |
| West Midlands | 2,238 | 82.0% |
| East Midlands | 1,813 | 80.8% |
| Scotland | 1,429 | 74.2% |
| Wales | 1,315 | 77.0% |
| North East | 980 | 78.4% |
| London | 855 | 86.2% |
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 Q3
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 Q3
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 7.1% 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 windscreen 2.7% 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 lights 2.2% of tests
“malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction”
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 2012 Q3 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £38–£101 — and 15% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £38–£101
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 15%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 24,483 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 Q3, side by side
13 model years on record, from 2011 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 79.2% to 97.5% — a spread of 18.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2011 79.2% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2012 79.9%coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 80.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 82.3% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2015 83.9% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2016 85.9% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2017 88.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2018 89.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 92.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 93.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2021 93.1% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 94.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2023 97.5% 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 Q3 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
- Volvo XC90 79.9%
- Volkswagen Cc 79.8%
- Nissan Pixo 79.8%
- Peugeot 107 80.1%
- Volvo XC60 80.1%
- Skoda Fabia 79.6%
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 Q3 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 36,455 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 | 9,788 | 26.60% | 20.98% | +5.62 |
| Tyres | 9,007 | 24.50% | 19.76% | +4.74 |
| Brakes | 7,545 | 20.50% | 20.89% | −0.39 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 3,108 | 8.50% | 12.21% | −3.71 |
| Non-component advisories | 1,791 | 4.90% | 4.18% | +0.72 |
| Visibility | 1,749 | 4.80% | 4.97% | −0.17 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1,197 | 3.30% | 5.57% | −2.27 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 1,143 | 3.10% | 5.52% | −2.42 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 722 | 2.00% | 1.76% | +0.24 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 405 | 1.10% | 0.82% | +0.28 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 7.1% | £25–65 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.7% | £80–200 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.2% | £3–12 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 2.1% | £80–250 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.9% | £45–95 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £18–45 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.2% | £8–22 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.2% | £40–150 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.1% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.0% | £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 | 20.2% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 13.2% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.7% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 7.4% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 4.5% | £25–65 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 4.5% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 224 | 89.7% | 23,338 mi |
| 30-60k | 2,164 | 86.0% | 49,536 mi |
| 60-90k | 7,439 | 81.6% | 76,795 mi |
| 90-120k | 8,423 | 79.0% | 103,999 mi |
| 120k+ | 6,224 | 76.5% | 143,213 mi |
Source: 24,483 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 Q3 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Audi Q3?
79.9% of the 24,483 2012 Audi Q3 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 75.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Audi Q3?
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (7.13%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.74%), malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (2.16%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Audi Q3 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 89.7% of the time, falling to 76.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Audi Q3 in this dataset had covered 97,687 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 Audi Q3?
Diesel: 79.1% pass rate across 20,210 tests. Petrol: 83.2% pass rate across 4,273 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2012 Audi Q3 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 79.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 80.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.