Pass rate
75.9%
Around average — 1.3 pts behind the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 54 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £15–£46
2012 Dacia Duster MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 91,730 mi
Only 54 tests of this exact model and year are in the DVSA data, below the 100 we ask for before a page goes in the index. The figures are still shown, because they are the only ones there are.
Most common fault
Brakes
19.8% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 91.4% pass
- Avoid 2013 73.8% pass
Across the 11 years on record, a spread of 17.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 70.5%
- Typical mileage
- 92k mi
The 2012 Dacia Duster MOT pass rate is 75.9% of its MOT tests — 1.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 19.8% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Dacia Duster does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Emissions & leaks: 2.3× the national share
Emissions & leaks make up 12.7% of everything recorded on the 2012 Dacia Duster, against 5.5% nationally — 7.2 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 19.8%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. A smoky diesel or a leaking joint fails on emissions more often than on wear, so ask for a recent emissions printout.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 71% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
- Based on a small sample. 54 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 Dacia Duster? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 Dacia Duster compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 1.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 70.5%. The median 2012 Dacia Duster in this dataset had covered 91,730 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 81% of tests, with a 79.5% pass rate.
The single most recorded failure item is "Horn not working", noted on 5.56% of tests.
- 54 recorded tests behind this page.
- 75.9% overall pass rate, 70.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Dacia Duster, the average is 83.0% — best year 2022 (91.4%), worst 2013 (73.8%).
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
- 54
- Typical mileage (median)
- 91,730 mi
- Make and model
- Dacia Duster
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Horn
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Duster MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 0% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (81% of tests).
What fails a 2012 Duster
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 Duster
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 horn 5.6% of tests
“horn not working”
Press it. That is the whole check, and a surprising number of cars fail on it.
-
Check the lights 5.6% 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.
-
Check the exhaust and emissions 3.7% of tests
“exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases”
Listen for a blow at idle and have someone rev it gently. Then look at the tailpipe smoke: blue is oil, white when warm is coolant, black is over-fuelling. Any of those and the emissions test is the least of it.
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 Duster through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £15–£46 — and 71% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £15–£46
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 71%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 54 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 Duster, side by side
11 model years on record, from 2012 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 73.8% to 91.4% — a spread of 17.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2012 75.9%horn not working
- 2013 73.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 75.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 78.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2016 81.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2017 83.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2018 85.3% wipers does not clear the…
- 2019 86.5% wipers does not clear the…
- 2020 89.5% headlamp not working on dipped…
- 2021 89.9% tread depth below requirements of…
- 2022 91.4% tread depth below requirements of…
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 Dacia Duster 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
- Hyundai I20 75.9%
- Vauxhall Zafira 76.0%
- Nissan Note 75.8%
- Volvo V40 75.8%
- Peugeot Rcz 76.2%
- Chevrolet Cruze 76.2%
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 Dacia Duster 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 125 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | 25 | 19.80% | 20.89% | −1.09 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 20 | 15.90% | 12.21% | +3.69 |
| Suspension | 19 | 15.10% | 20.98% | −5.88 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 16 | 12.70% | 5.52% | +7.18 |
| Tyres | 13 | 10.30% | 19.76% | −9.46 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 12 | 9.50% | 5.57% | +3.93 |
| Non-component advisories | 7 | 5.60% | 4.18% | +1.42 |
| Steering | 5 | 4.00% | 2.57% | +1.43 |
| Visibility | 4 | 3.20% | 4.97% | −1.77 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 4 | 3.20% | 0.82% | +2.38 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Horn not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 5.6% | £8–25 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 5.6% | £3–12 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 5.6% | £3–12 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.7% | £45–120 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.7% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.7% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.7% | £5–20 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 3.7% | £8–22 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.9% | £18–45 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.9% | £60–250 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 24.1% | £80–180 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 18.5% | £25–65 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 14.8% | £200–700 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 9.3% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 9.3% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 7.4% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1 | 0.0% | 11,922 mi |
| 30-60k | 3 | 100.0% | 51,027 mi |
| 60-90k | 22 | 81.8% | 82,197 mi |
| 90-120k | 18 | 77.8% | 102,198 mi |
| 120k+ | 10 | 60.0% | 135,396 mi |
Source: 54 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 Duster MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Dacia Duster?
75.9% of the 54 2012 Dacia Duster tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 70.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Dacia Duster?
The three most recorded items are horn not working (5.56%), malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (5.56%), srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault (5.56%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Dacia Duster MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 0.0% of the time, falling to 60.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Dacia Duster in this dataset had covered 91,730 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 Dacia Duster?
Diesel: 79.5% pass rate across 44 tests. Petrol: 60.0% pass rate across 10 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.