Pass rate
74.2%
Below average — 7.9 pts behind the 82.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 62 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £22–£68
2015 Fiat 500 C MOT pass rate
- 2015
- typical 59,429 mi
Only 62 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
Suspension
40.0% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £35–£75 for Suspension pin or bush excessively worn. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2020 94.1% pass
- Avoid 2009 72.0% pass
Across the 10 years on record, a spread of 22.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 66.0%
- Typical mileage
- 59k mi
The 2015 Fiat 500 C MOT pass rate is 74.2% of its MOT tests — 7.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 40.0% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Fiat 500 C does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.9× the national share
Suspension accounts for 40.0% of everything recorded on the 2015 Fiat 500 C, against 21.0% nationally — 19.0 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 82.1%; this one manages 74.2% — 7.9 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 27% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
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 Fiat 500 C? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2015 Fiat 500 C compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 82.1%, so this figure is 7.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 66.0%. The median 2015 Fiat 500 C in this dataset had covered 59,429 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint excessively worn", noted on 8.06% of tests.
- 62 recorded tests behind this page.
- 74.2% overall pass rate, 66.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Fiat 500 C, the average is 74.9% — best year 2020 (94.1%), worst 2009 (72.0%).
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
- 62
- Typical mileage (median)
- 59,429 mi
- Make and model
- Fiat 500 C
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the 500 C MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 63% so small gaps stay visible.
What fails a 2015 500 C
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 2015 500 C
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 suspension joints 8.1% 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 brakes 4.8% 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 4.8% of tests
“position 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.
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 2015 500 C through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £22–£68 — and 27% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £22–£68
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: pins
- £40–£150
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 27%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 62 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 500 C, side by side
10 model years on record, from 2009 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 72.0% to 94.1% — a spread of 22.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2009 72.0% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2010 72.1% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2011 73.3% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2012 74.7% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2013 77.1% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2014 78.0% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2015 74.2%ball joint excessively worn
- 2019 90.5% has ply or cords exposed
- 2020 94.1% headlamp aim too high
- 2021 92.0% has ply or cords exposed
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 2015 Fiat 500 C 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 2015 cars with a similar record
- Peugeot Bipper 74.3%
- Renault Megane 74.1%
- DS DS3 74.4%
- Vauxhall Combo 74.0%
- Dacia Sandero 73.9%
- Citroen Nemo 73.9%
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.
The full DVSA record for the 2015 Fiat 500 C 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 75 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 30 | 40.00% | 20.98% | +19.02 |
| Brakes | 15 | 20.00% | 20.89% | −0.89 |
| Tyres | 12 | 16.00% | 19.76% | −3.76 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 11 | 14.70% | 12.21% | +2.49 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 4 | 5.30% | 5.57% | −0.27 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 1 | 1.30% | 5.52% | −4.22 |
| Visibility | 1 | 1.30% | 4.97% | −3.67 |
| Non-component advisories | 1 | 1.30% | 4.18% | −2.88 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 8.1% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 8.1% | £40–150 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 4.8% | £18–45 |
| Position lamp insecure Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.8% | £5–25 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 4.8% | £30–75 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.2% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.2% | £5–20 |
| Ball joint likely to become detached Suspension | Major | 1.6% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Major | 1.6% | £45–110 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Major | 1.6% | £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.
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 | 11.3% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 8.1% | £40–150 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 6.5% | £30–75 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 4.8% | £45–110 |
| Shock absorbers has an excessively worn bush Suspension | Advisory | 4.8% | £30–75 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 3.2% | £45–120 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 4 | 100.0% | 21,770 mi |
| 30-60k | 28 | 71.4% | 48,981 mi |
| 60-90k | 26 | 73.1% | 74,120 mi |
| 90-120k | 4 | 75.0% | 92,762 mi |
Source: 62 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.
2015 500 C MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2015 Fiat 500 C?
74.2% of the 62 2015 Fiat 500 C tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 82.1% for cars first used in 2015. First-attempt pass rate: 66.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2015 Fiat 500 C?
The three most recorded items are ball joint excessively worn (8.06%), pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn (8.06%), brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick (4.84%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2015 Fiat 500 C MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 75.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2015 Fiat 500 C in this dataset had covered 59,429 mi.