Pass rate
90.7%
Above average — 0.5 pts behind the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 1,385 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £43–£100
2021 Audi Q3 Technik MOT pass rate
- 2021
- 2 trims combined
- typical 27,956 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
42.8% 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 95.0% pass
- Avoid 2021 90.7% pass · this year
Across the 3 years on record, a spread of 4.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 89.8%
- Typical mileage
- 28k mi
The 2021 Audi Q3 Technik MOT pass rate is 90.7% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 42.8% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.2× the national share
Tyres make up 42.8% of everything recorded on the 2021 Audi Q3 Technik, against 19.8% nationally — 23.0 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 14% 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 Technik? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Audi Q3 Technik first registered in 2021 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2021 Audi Q3 Technik compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 0.5 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 89.8%. The median 2021 Audi Q3 Technik in this dataset had covered 27,956 mi.
76% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 91.2% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 91.8% of the time, April–September 89.8%.
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 3.39% of tests.
- 1,385 recorded tests behind this page.
- 90.7% overall pass rate, 89.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Audi Q3 Technik, the average is 91.1% — best year 2023 (95.0%), worst 2021 (90.7%).
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
- 1,385
- Typical mileage (median)
- 27,956 mi
- Make and model
- Audi Q3 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 Q3 Technik MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 73% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (76% of tests).
Where the Audi Q3 Technik is most common
Across all Q3 Technik model years on record (2021–2023): 2,474 Audi Q3 Technik cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 3,088 tests. Leicester (LE) has the most, with 68 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 | Leicester (LE) | 68 | 84.1% |
| 2 | Birmingham (B) | 68 | 93.8% |
| 3 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 56 | 97.0% |
| 4 | Glasgow (G) | 55 | 85.7% |
| 5 | Stoke On Trent (ST) | 54 | 95.2% |
| 6 | Edinburgh (EH) | 45 | 94.3% |
| 7 | Peterborough (PE) | 45 | 86.5% |
| 8 | Liverpool (L) | 44 | 87.0% |
| 9 | Chelmsford (CM) | 44 | 100.0% |
| 10 | Coventry (CV) | 44 | 94.2% |
| 11 | Northampton (NN) | 42 | 92.2% |
| 12 | Nottingham (NG) | 40 | 92.0% |
| 13 | Aberdeen (AB) | 36 | 91.1% |
| 14 | Cardiff (CF) | 36 | 87.8% |
| 15 | London (N) | 36 | 89.6% |
| 16 | Oldham (OL) | 36 | 97.7% |
| 17 | Warrington (WA) | 36 | 92.7% |
| 18 | Reading (RG) | 35 | 81.6% |
| 19 | Bristol (BS) | 35 | 82.6% |
| 20 | Doncaster (DN) | 35 | 92.5% |
The twenty areas with the most Audi Q3 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 Q3 Technik
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 252 | 90.1% |
| North West | 184 | 91.3% |
| Scotland | 172 | 91.9% |
| Yorkshire | 143 | 89.5% |
| East Midlands | 115 | 87.8% |
| East of England | 108 | 92.6% |
| West Midlands | 105 | 92.4% |
| South West | 104 | 88.5% |
| London | 94 | 92.6% |
| North East | 71 | 91.5% |
| Wales | 37 | 89.2% |
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 2021 Q3 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 2021 Q3 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 2.6% 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 tyre tread 1.9% of tests
“tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm”
Check all four tyres cold, including the inner shoulder where wear hides — 1.6mm across the central three-quarters is the legal limit, and most testers fail at 1.6mm without argument.
-
Check the brakes 1.3% of tests
“brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick”
Look through the spokes of each wheel at the pad — less than 3mm of friction material, or a lip on the disc edge, is the usual failure. Check the handbrake holds on a slope with a few clicks, not at the top of its travel.
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 2021 Q3 Technik through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £43–£100 — and 14% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £43–£100
- Cheapest common item: washers provides insufficient washer liquid
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 14%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 1,385 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 Technik, side by side
3 model years on record, from 2021 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 90.7% to 95.0% — a spread of 4.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2021 90.7%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 91.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2023 95.0% 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 2021 Audi Q3 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 2021 cars with a similar record
- Renault Zoe 90.7%
- BMW 420I 90.7%
- BMW X3 XDRIVE30E 90.7%
- Skoda Fabia 90.8%
- Vauxhall Astra Griffin 90.8%
- Vauxhall Mokka 90.6%
Closest pass rates among 2021 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 2021 Audi Q3 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 1,072 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 | 459 | 42.80% | 19.76% | +23.04 |
| Brakes | 291 | 27.10% | 20.89% | +6.21 |
| Non-component advisories | 103 | 9.60% | 4.18% | +5.42 |
| Visibility | 77 | 7.20% | 4.97% | +2.23 |
| Suspension | 67 | 6.20% | 20.98% | −14.78 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 31 | 2.90% | 12.21% | −9.31 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 27 | 2.50% | 1.76% | +0.74 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 9 | 0.80% | 5.52% | −4.72 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 6 | 0.60% | 0.82% | −0.22 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 2 | 0.20% | 5.57% | −5.37 |
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 | 3.4% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.6% | £80–200 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.3% | £18–45 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.65% | £45–95 |
| Rear reflectors defective or damaged by up to 50% of the reflecting surface Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.65% | £5–25 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 0.65% | £5–15 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.51% | £30–80 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 0.43% | £30–75 |
| Washers not working Visibility | Major | 0.43% | £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 | 16.0% | £45–95 |
| 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 | 8.4% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 6.1% | £45–95 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 4.2% | £30–75 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 3.8% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 781 | 92.8% | 20,279 mi |
| 30-60k | 517 | 88.4% | 40,549 mi |
| 60-90k | 70 | 84.3% | 69,957 mi |
| 90-120k | 11 | 81.8% | 105,623 mi |
| 120k+ | 6 | 100.0% | 139,224 mi |
Source: 1,385 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.
2021 Q3 Technik MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 Audi Q3 Technik?
90.7% of the 1,385 2021 Audi Q3 Technik tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 89.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 Audi Q3 Technik?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (3.39%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.60%), tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (1.88%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 Audi Q3 Technik MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 92.8% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 Audi Q3 Technik in this dataset had covered 27,956 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2021 Audi Q3 Technik?
Petrol: 91.2% pass rate across 1,053 tests. Diesel: 88.6% pass rate across 236 tests. Hybrid: 90.6% pass rate across 96 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2021 Audi Q3 Technik MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 91.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 89.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.