Pass rate
Below average — 8.2 pts behind the 82.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 56,533 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £38–£107
Pass rate
Below average — 8.2 pts behind the 82.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 56,533 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £38–£107
Most common fault
Brakes
22.9% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
Across the 10 years on record, a spread of 17.4 points. See every year →
The 2015 Dacia Sandero MOT pass rate is 73.9% of its MOT tests — 8.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 22.9% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Dacia Sandero does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 82.1%; this one manages 73.9% — 8.2 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 Dacia Sandero? Get an email when these numbers change .
Cars of this age and mileage average 82.1%, so this figure is 8.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 65.5%. The median 2015 Dacia Sandero in this dataset had covered 61,363 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 65% of tests, with a 75.6% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 74.2% of the time, April–September 73.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 6.16% of tests.
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Coil Spring
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 60% so small gaps stay visible.
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (65% of tests).
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 11,378 | 67.9% |
| North West | 7,717 | 75.4% |
| South East | 6,972 | 78.4% |
| Wales | 5,748 | 72.8% |
| South West | 5,255 | 75.7% |
| West Midlands | 4,786 | 76.2% |
| Yorkshire | 4,667 | 72.0% |
| East of England | 3,864 | 77.2% |
| North East | 2,900 | 72.6% |
| East Midlands | 2,408 | 75.4% |
| London | 838 | 84.0% |
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.
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
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 6.2% 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 4.2% of tests
“ball joint 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.
Check the horn 3.6% of tests
“horn not working”
Press it. That is the whole check, and a surprising number of cars fail on it.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £38–£107 — and 17% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 56,533 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 →
10 model years on record, from 2012 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 72.9% to 90.3% — a spread of 17.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
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.
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Closest pass rates among 2015 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.
Shares of the 88,953 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 | 20,638 | 22.90% | 20.89% | +2.01 |
| Tyres | 19,829 | 22.00% | 19.76% | +2.24 |
| Suspension | 18,129 | 20.10% | 20.98% | −0.88 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 10,260 | 11.40% | 12.21% | −0.81 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 5,697 | 6.30% | 5.57% | +0.73 |
| Visibility | 5,613 | 6.20% | 4.97% | +1.23 |
| Non-component advisories | 3,860 | 4.30% | 4.18% | +0.12 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2,273 | 2.50% | 5.52% | −3.02 |
| Steering | 1,874 | 2.10% | 2.57% | −0.47 |
| Road Wheels | 780 | 0.90% | 0.75% | +0.15 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 6.2% | £25–65 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 5.4% | £80–250 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 4.2% | £18–45 |
| Horn not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.6% | £8–25 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 2.1% | £60–150 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.8% | £30–80 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.7% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.6% | £30–80 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.6% | £8–22 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 1.5% | £45–110 |
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.
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 | 15.1% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 12.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 11.2% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 5.2% | £18–45 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Advisory | 3.8% | £60–150 |
| Linkage pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 3.0% | £40–150 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 4,901 | 86.1% | 22,025 mi |
| 30-60k | 22,188 | 76.6% | 46,629 mi |
| 60-90k | 20,406 | 70.6% | 73,112 mi |
| 90-120k | 7,075 | 68.1% | 101,585 mi |
| 120k+ | 1,942 | 68.4% | 141,264 mi |
Source: 56,533 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.
73.9% of the 56,533 2015 Dacia Sandero tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 82.1% for cars first used in 2015. First-attempt pass rate: 65.5%.
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (6.16%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (5.38%), ball joint excessively worn (4.17%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 86.1% of the time, falling to 68.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2015 Dacia Sandero in this dataset had covered 61,363 mi.
Petrol: 75.6% pass rate across 36,627 tests. Diesel: 70.8% pass rate across 19,906 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 74.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 73.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.