Pass rate
82.5%
Around average — 8.2 pts behind the 90.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 57 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £17–£55
2020 Dacia Sandero Sway Essential MOT pass rate
- 2020
- typical 29,298 mi
Only 57 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
27.8% 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 94.3% pass
- Avoid 2020 82.5% pass · this year
Across the 3 years on record, a spread of 11.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 78.7%
- Typical mileage
- 29k mi
The 2020 Dacia Sandero Sway Essential MOT pass rate is 82.5% of its MOT tests — 8.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.8% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Dacia Sandero Sway Essential does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Visibility: 3.4× the national share
Visibility accounts for 16.7% of everything recorded on the 2020 Dacia Sandero Sway Essential, against 5.0% nationally — 11.7 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 27.8%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. Wipers, washers and a chip in the driver’s eyeline are the three quickest ways to fail a test that the car otherwise deserves to pass.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 90.7%; this one manages 82.5% — 8.2 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 72% 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 Sway Essential? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2020 Dacia Sandero Sway Essential compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 90.7%, 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 78.7%. The median 2020 Dacia Sandero Sway Essential in this dataset had covered 29,298 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively", noted on 8.77% of tests.
- 57 recorded tests behind this page.
- 82.5% overall pass rate, 78.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Dacia Sandero Sway Essential, the average is 90.4% — best year 2022 (94.3%), worst 2020 (82.5%).
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
- 57
- Typical mileage (median)
- 29,298 mi
- Make and model
- Dacia Sandero Sway Essential
- 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 Sway Essential MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 58% so small gaps stay visible.
What fails a 2020 Sandero Sway Essential
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 Sway Essential
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 8.8% 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 lights 5.3% of tests
“rear fog lamp insecure”
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 brakes 1.8% of tests
“brake discs significantly and obviously worn”
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 2020 Sandero Sway Essential through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £17–£55 — and 72% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £17–£55
- Cheapest common item: rear fog lamp insecure
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: other body component component damaged
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 72%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 57 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 Sway Essential, side by side
3 model years on record, from 2020 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 82.5% to 94.3% — a spread of 11.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2020 82.5%wipers does not clear the…
- 2021 89.6% wipers does not clear the…
- 2022 94.3% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
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 Sway Essential 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
- Vauxhall Combo 83.1%
- Tesla Model 3 Performance 83.2%
- Mercedes-Benz Vito 83.3%
- Mercedes-Benz Citan 81.6%
- Toyota Estima 81.6%
- Tesla Model X 84.6%
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 Sway Essential 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 8 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 54 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 | 15 | 27.80% | 20.89% | +6.91 |
| Tyres | 14 | 25.90% | 19.76% | +6.14 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 9 | 16.70% | 12.21% | +4.49 |
| Visibility | 9 | 16.70% | 4.97% | +11.73 |
| Suspension | 4 | 7.40% | 20.98% | −13.58 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1 | 1.90% | 5.57% | −3.67 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 1 | 1.90% | 5.52% | −3.62 |
| Steering | 1 | 1.90% | 2.57% | −0.67 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 8.8% | £8–22 |
| Rear fog lamp insecure Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.3% | £3–15 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Rectified | 3.5% | £5–15 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 3.5% | £8–22 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Major | 1.8% | £45–110 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £5–25 |
| Linkage insecure and impairing directional stability Suspension | Major | 1.8% | £40–150 |
| Linkage pins and bushes pin or bush likely to become detached Suspension | Major | 1.8% | £40–150 |
| Other body component component damaged and likely to cause injury Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.8% | £80–250 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 21.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 10.5% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 7.0% | £45–110 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 3.5% | £45–110 |
| Linkage pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 3.5% | £40–150 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 1.8% | £200–700 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 29 | 86.2% | 17,412 mi |
| 30-60k | 23 | 78.3% | 40,081 mi |
| 60-90k | 3 | 66.7% | 61,091 mi |
| 90-120k | 1 | 100.0% | 94,249 mi |
| 120k+ | 1 | 100.0% | 122,327 mi |
Source: 57 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 Sway Essential MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2020 Dacia Sandero Sway Essential?
82.5% of the 57 2020 Dacia Sandero Sway Essential tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 90.7% for cars first used in 2020. First-attempt pass rate: 78.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2020 Dacia Sandero Sway Essential?
The three most recorded items are wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (8.77%), rear fog lamp insecure (5.26%), washers provides insufficient washer liquid (3.51%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2020 Dacia Sandero Sway Essential MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 86.2% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2020 Dacia Sandero Sway Essential in this dataset had covered 29,298 mi.