Pass rate
89.5%
Above average — 1.2 pts behind the 90.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 24,926 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £13–£36
2020 Dacia Sandero MOT pass rate
- 2020
- typical 22,634 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
35.7% 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 →
0.5 pts down across model years — 6.1% in 2013, 5.6% in 2021.
Which year to buy
- Best 2021 90.3% pass
- Avoid 2014 72.9% pass
Across the 10 years on record, a spread of 17.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 88.4%
- Typical mileage
- 23k mi
The 2020 Dacia Sandero MOT pass rate is 89.5% of its MOT tests — 1.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 35.7% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Dacia Sandero does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.8× the national share
Tyres make up 35.7% of everything recorded on the 2020 Dacia Sandero, against 19.8% nationally — 15.9 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.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 73% 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.
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 .
How does the 2020 Dacia Sandero compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 90.7%, so this figure is 1.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 88.4%. The median 2020 Dacia Sandero in this dataset had covered 22,634 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 99% of tests, with a 89.5% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 89.8% of the time, April–September 89.4%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively", noted on 3.55% of tests.
- 24,926 recorded tests behind this page.
- 89.5% overall pass rate, 88.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Dacia Sandero, the average is 79.9% — best year 2021 (90.3%), worst 2014 (72.9%).
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
- 24,926
- Typical mileage (median)
- 22,634 mi
- Make and model
- Dacia Sandero
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Wiper Blade
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Sandero MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 55% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (99% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Sandero
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 5,190 | 87.7% |
| South East | 3,400 | 89.3% |
| North West | 3,147 | 89.5% |
| South West | 2,333 | 89.5% |
| Wales | 2,144 | 91.5% |
| Yorkshire | 2,093 | 88.9% |
| West Midlands | 1,779 | 91.5% |
| East of England | 1,732 | 90.1% |
| North East | 1,475 | 91.5% |
| East Midlands | 1,191 | 89.6% |
| London | 442 | 91.0% |
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.
What fails a 2020 Sandero
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 2020 Sandero
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 wipers and washers 3.5% of tests
“wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively”
Run the wipers with the screen wet: they should clear it in one sweep without smearing or juddering. Top the washer bottle up and check both jets hit the screen.
-
Check the brakes 1.1% 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.
-
Check the lights 1.1% of tests
“headlamp aim too high”
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 2020 Sandero through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £13–£36 — and 73% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £13–£36
- Cheapest common item: washers provides insufficient washer liquid
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm
- £45–£95
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 73%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 24,926 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 Sandero, side by side
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.
- 2012 77.8% horn not working
- 2013 75.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2014 72.9% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2015 73.9% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2016 78.4% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2017 81.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2018 85.3% headlamp aim too low
- 2019 87.5% wipers does not clear the…
- 2020 89.5%wipers does not clear the…
- 2021 90.3% wipers does not clear the…
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 2020 Dacia Sandero 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 2020 cars with a similar record
- Renault Kadjar 89.5%
- Hyundai Tucson 89.6%
- Vauxhall Crossland X Griffin 89.6%
- BMW 320 89.6%
- Volkswagen E-Golf 89.6%
- Volkswagen Amarok 89.4%
Closest pass rates among 2020 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 2020 Dacia Sandero 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 19,559 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 | 7,032 | 35.70% | 19.76% | +15.94 |
| Brakes | 4,446 | 22.60% | 20.89% | +1.71 |
| Visibility | 2,956 | 15.00% | 4.97% | +10.03 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 2,260 | 11.50% | 12.21% | −0.71 |
| Non-component advisories | 1,707 | 8.70% | 4.18% | +4.52 |
| Suspension | 478 | 2.40% | 20.98% | −18.58 |
| Road Wheels | 251 | 1.30% | 0.75% | +0.55 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 181 | 0.90% | 5.52% | −4.62 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 141 | 0.70% | 5.57% | −4.87 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 107 | 0.50% | 1.76% | −1.26 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 3.5% | £8–22 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 2.4% | £8–22 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 2.2% | £8–22 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.1% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.1% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.0% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.91% | £5–25 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.89% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.87% | £5–25 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Rectified | 0.87% | £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 | 12.2% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 9.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 5.6% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 5.2% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 3.4% | £45–110 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.8% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 17,147 | 91.7% | 17,369 mi |
| 30-60k | 6,805 | 85.6% | 40,085 mi |
| 60-90k | 827 | 79.9% | 69,860 mi |
| 90-120k | 123 | 78.0% | 102,237 mi |
| 120k+ | 22 | 63.6% | 138,783 mi |
Source: 24,926 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.
2020 Sandero MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2020 Dacia Sandero?
89.5% of the 24,926 2020 Dacia Sandero tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 90.7% for cars first used in 2020. First-attempt pass rate: 88.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2020 Dacia Sandero?
The three most recorded items are wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (3.55%), wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (2.39%), wipers blade defective (2.20%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2020 Dacia Sandero MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.7% of the time, falling to 63.6% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2020 Dacia Sandero in this dataset had covered 22,634 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2020 Dacia Sandero?
Petrol: 89.5% pass rate across 24,777 tests. Diesel: 88.9% pass rate across 144 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2020 Dacia Sandero MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 89.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 89.4%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.