Pass rate
74.0%
Below average — 3.2 pts behind the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 58,409 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £23–£68
2012 Citroen C3 MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 74,952 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Lamps & electrics
18.3% of faults · 12.2% nationally
Part only £6–£18 for Registration plate lamp inoperative (multiple lamps). What fitting it takes →
6.0 pts down across model years — 6.8% in 2002, 0.8% in 2020.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 95.7% pass
- Avoid 2003 68.2% pass
Across the 22 years on record, a spread of 27.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 65.7%
- Typical mileage
- 75k mi
The 2012 Citroen C3 MOT pass rate is 74.0% of its MOT tests — 3.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Lamps & electrics is the biggest single reason it fails, at 18.3% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.5× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 18.3% of everything recorded on the 2012 Citroen C3, against 12.2% nationally — 6.1 points above. Walk round the car with the lights on before the test: bulbs, indicators and number-plate lamps are the cheapest failures to prevent and among the most common.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 77.2%; this one manages 74.0% — 3.2 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
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 Citroen C3? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 Citroen C3 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 3.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 65.7%. The median 2012 Citroen C3 in this dataset had covered 74,952 mi.
55% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 73.0% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 73.8% of the time, April–September 74.2%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 7.82% of tests.
- 58,409 recorded tests behind this page.
- 74.0% overall pass rate, 65.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Citroen C3, the average is 77.7% — best year 2023 (95.7%), worst 2003 (68.2%).
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
- 58,409
- Typical mileage (median)
- 74,952 mi
- Make and model
- Citroen C3
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the C3 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 60% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (55% of tests).
Where the Citroen C3 is most common
Across all C3 model years on record (2002–2023): 274,772 Citroen C3 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 710,110 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 8,507 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) | 8,507 | 81.7% |
| 2 | Sheffield (S) | 7,022 | 79.6% |
| 3 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 6,562 | 77.8% |
| 4 | Cardiff (CF) | 5,604 | 75.2% |
| 5 | Peterborough (PE) | 5,544 | 78.8% |
| 6 | Nottingham (NG) | 5,208 | 76.3% |
| 7 | Bristol (BS) | 5,068 | 75.5% |
| 8 | Coventry (CV) | 4,698 | 80.2% |
| 9 | Portsmouth (PO) | 4,621 | 76.9% |
| 10 | Manchester (M) | 4,544 | 79.5% |
| 11 | Swansea (SA) | 4,530 | 77.7% |
| 12 | Glasgow (G) | 4,443 | 77.7% |
| 13 | Doncaster (DN) | 4,254 | 77.5% |
| 14 | Leicester (LE) | 4,188 | 78.7% |
| 15 | Derby (DE) | 4,171 | 79.5% |
| 16 | Plymouth (PL) | 4,150 | 73.7% |
| 17 | Brighton (BN) | 3,896 | 76.6% |
| 18 | Norwich (NR) | 3,845 | 77.0% |
| 19 | Edinburgh (EH) | 3,740 | 74.3% |
| 20 | Ashford (TN) | 3,737 | 78.2% |
The twenty areas with the most Citroen C3 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 C3
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 8,368 | 76.6% |
| South West | 7,516 | 73.3% |
| North West | 7,377 | 73.8% |
| Yorkshire | 6,688 | 73.2% |
| East of England | 6,079 | 77.0% |
| West Midlands | 5,563 | 76.2% |
| Wales | 4,372 | 71.4% |
| Scotland | 4,255 | 67.8% |
| East Midlands | 3,914 | 73.6% |
| North East | 3,389 | 71.7% |
| London | 882 | 82.9% |
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 C3
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 C3
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 lights 7.8% of tests
“registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”
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.
-
Check the coil springs 4.7% 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 suspension joints 4.1% of tests
“track rod end ball joint has excessive play”
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 C3 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £23–£68 — and 47% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £23–£68
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot split or…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 47%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 58,409 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 C3, side by side
22 model years on record, from 2002 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 68.2% to 95.7% — a spread of 27.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2002 68.6% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2003 68.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2004 69.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 69.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 70.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 70.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 69.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 70.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 70.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 72.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 74.0%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 75.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 77.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 80.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2016 81.4% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2017 83.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2018 86.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2019 89.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2020 92.5% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 93.3% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 94.0% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2023 95.7% headlamp aim too high
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 Citroen C3 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
- Alfa Romeo Giulietta 74.1%
- Peugeot 207 73.8%
- Kia Sportage 73.8%
- Hyundai IX20 73.8%
- Kia Soul 73.8%
- Peugeot 208 74.3%
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 Citroen C3 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 132,510 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 24,458 | 18.30% | 12.21% | +6.09 |
| Brakes | 23,615 | 17.60% | 20.89% | −3.29 |
| Suspension | 23,592 | 17.60% | 20.98% | −3.38 |
| Tyres | 22,104 | 16.50% | 19.76% | −3.26 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 14,066 | 10.50% | 5.57% | +4.93 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 7,622 | 5.70% | 5.52% | +0.18 |
| Steering | 5,923 | 4.40% | 2.57% | +1.83 |
| Visibility | 5,395 | 4.00% | 4.97% | −0.97 |
| Non-component advisories | 4,238 | 3.20% | 4.18% | −0.98 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1,497 | 1.10% | 1.76% | −0.66 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 7.8% | £5–20 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 4.7% | £25–65 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 4.1% | £18–45 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.9% | £3–12 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.8% | £5–25 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.5% | £80–250 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.1% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.2% | £80–200 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 2.1% | £3–12 |
| Exhaust system system insecure Body, chassis, structure | Major | 2.0% | £45–120 |
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 | 18.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 16.5% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 10.7% | £45–95 |
| Exhaust system system insecure Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 10.3% | £45–120 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 10.2% | £40–150 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 8.5% | £200–700 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2,015 | 86.7% | 22,996 mi |
| 30-60k | 15,256 | 79.0% | 47,623 mi |
| 60-90k | 22,841 | 73.2% | 74,516 mi |
| 90-120k | 12,967 | 70.1% | 102,774 mi |
| 120k+ | 5,308 | 68.2% | 139,342 mi |
Source: 58,409 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 C3 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Citroen C3?
74.0% of the 58,409 2012 Citroen C3 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 65.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Citroen C3?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (7.82%), coil spring fractured or broken (4.72%), track rod end ball joint has excessive play (4.14%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Citroen C3 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 86.7% of the time, falling to 68.2% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Citroen C3 in this dataset had covered 74,952 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 Citroen C3?
Diesel: 73.0% pass rate across 32,240 tests. Petrol: 75.3% pass rate across 26,169 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2012 Citroen C3 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 73.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 74.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.