Pass rate
93.0%
Above average — 1.8 pts ahead of the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 9,001 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £35–£80
2021 Fiat 500 Dolcevita MOT pass rate
- 2021
- 2 trims combined
- typical 18,308 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
57.9% 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 →
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 96.4% pass
- Avoid 2019 89.5% pass
Across the 5 years on record, a spread of 6.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 92.5%
- Typical mileage
- 18k mi
The 2021 Fiat 500 Dolcevita MOT pass rate is 93.0% of its MOT tests — 1.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 57.9% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Fiat 500 Dolcevita does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.9× the national share
Tyres make up 57.9% of everything recorded on the 2021 Fiat 500 Dolcevita, against 19.8% nationally — 38.1 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.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 30% 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 Dolcevita? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Fiat 500 Dolcevita first registered in 2021 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2021 Fiat 500 Dolcevita compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 1.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 92.5%. The median 2021 Fiat 500 Dolcevita in this dataset had covered 18,308 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 99% of tests, with a 93.0% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 93.2% of the time, April–September 92.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Has ply or cords exposed", noted on 2.28% of tests.
- 9,001 recorded tests behind this page.
- 93.0% overall pass rate, 92.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Fiat 500 Dolcevita, the average is 93.2% — best year 2023 (96.4%), worst 2019 (89.5%).
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
- 9,001
- Typical mileage (median)
- 18,308 mi
- Make and model
- Fiat 500 Dolcevita
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Tyres
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the 500 Dolcevita MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 58% 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 500 Dolcevita
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 1,604 | 93.0% |
| East of England | 1,329 | 92.1% |
| Scotland | 1,009 | 91.2% |
| North West | 930 | 94.5% |
| West Midlands | 857 | 93.5% |
| Yorkshire | 756 | 95.6% |
| South West | 664 | 92.0% |
| East Midlands | 613 | 91.8% |
| North East | 468 | 92.9% |
| Wales | 447 | 94.4% |
| London | 321 | 92.2% |
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 2021 500 Dolcevita
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 2021 500 Dolcevita
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 lights 0.9% of tests
“headlamp aim too low”
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 wipers and washers 0.8% of tests
“wipers blade defective”
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 tyre tread 0.8% of tests
“tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm”
Check all four tyres cold, including the inner shoulder where wear hides — 1.6mm across the central three-quarters is the legal limit, and most testers fail at 1.6mm without argument.
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 2021 500 Dolcevita through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £35–£80 — and 30% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £35–£80
- Cheapest common item: washers provides insufficient washer liquid
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 30%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 9,001 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 Dolcevita, side by side
5 model years on record, from 2019 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 89.5% to 96.4% — a spread of 6.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2019 89.5% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2020 92.6% stop lamp with a multiple light…
- 2021 93.0%has ply or cords exposed
- 2022 93.4% has ply or cords exposed
- 2023 96.4% has a cut in excess of 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 2021 Fiat 500 Dolcevita 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 2021 cars with a similar record
- Nissan Leaf 93.0%
- Hyundai Tucson Ultimate T-Gdi 93.0%
- Mazda Cx-5 93.0%
- Audi Q3 93.1%
- Mercedes-Benz Glc 92.9%
- BMW X1 93.1%
Closest pass rates among 2021 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 2021 Fiat 500 Dolcevita 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 4,643 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 | 2,705 | 57.90% | 19.76% | +38.14 |
| Brakes | 549 | 11.80% | 20.89% | −9.09 |
| Visibility | 399 | 8.50% | 4.97% | +3.53 |
| Non-component advisories | 324 | 6.90% | 4.18% | +2.72 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 279 | 6.00% | 12.21% | −6.21 |
| Suspension | 251 | 5.40% | 20.98% | −15.58 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 39 | 0.80% | 5.52% | −4.72 |
| Road Wheels | 37 | 0.80% | 0.75% | +0.05 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 30 | 0.60% | 5.57% | −4.97 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 30 | 0.60% | 1.76% | −1.16 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 2.3% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.86% | £30–80 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.82% | £8–22 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.80% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.76% | £45–95 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Rectified | 0.72% | £5–15 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 0.72% | £80–200 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 0.68% | £8–22 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.67% | £45–95 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 0.39% | £8–22 |
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 | 15.7% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 4.3% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 2.8% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.0% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.6% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 1.5% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 7,307 | 94.3% | 16,263 mi |
| 30-60k | 1,612 | 87.5% | 38,625 mi |
| 60-90k | 72 | 80.6% | 66,674 mi |
| 90-120k | 6 | 66.7% | 104,336 mi |
| 120k+ | 4 | 100.0% | 159,219 mi |
Source: 9,001 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.
2021 500 Dolcevita MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 Fiat 500 Dolcevita?
93.0% of the 9,001 2021 Fiat 500 Dolcevita tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 92.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 Fiat 500 Dolcevita?
The three most recorded items are has ply or cords exposed (2.28%), headlamp aim too low (0.86%), wipers blade defective (0.82%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 Fiat 500 Dolcevita MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 94.3% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 Fiat 500 Dolcevita in this dataset had covered 18,308 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2021 Fiat 500 Dolcevita?
Petrol: 93.0% pass rate across 8,867 tests. Hybrid: 94.0% pass rate across 134 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2021 Fiat 500 Dolcevita MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 93.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 92.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.