Pass rate
86.8%
Above average — 1.1 pts behind the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 885 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £31–£82
2018 Ford Freedom MOT pass rate
- 2018
- typical 34,815 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
34.0% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2018 86.8% pass · this year
- Avoid 2020 84.8% pass
Across the 6 years on record, a spread of 2 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 84.9%
- Typical mileage
- 35k mi
The 2018 Ford Freedom MOT pass rate is 86.8% of its MOT tests — 1.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 34.0% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Ford Freedom does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.7× the national share
Tyres make up 34.0% of everything recorded on the 2018 Ford Freedom, against 19.8% nationally — 14.2 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.
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 Ford Freedom? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2018 Ford Freedom compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, so this figure is 1.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 84.9%. The median 2018 Ford Freedom in this dataset had covered 34,815 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 87.1% of the time, April–September 86.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively", noted on 2.49% of tests.
- 885 recorded tests behind this page.
- 86.8% overall pass rate, 84.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Ford Freedom, the average is 86.1% — best year 2018 (86.8%), worst 2020 (84.8%).
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
- 885
- Typical mileage (median)
- 34,815 mi
- Make and model
- Ford Freedom
- 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 Freedom MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 62% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Freedom
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| North West | 158 | 88.0% |
| Scotland | 126 | 80.2% |
| South East | 119 | 88.2% |
| East of England | 83 | 92.8% |
| West Midlands | 82 | 85.4% |
| South West | 81 | 84.0% |
| East Midlands | 66 | 89.4% |
| Yorkshire | 64 | 82.8% |
| North East | 42 | 85.7% |
| Wales | 38 | 94.7% |
| London | 26 | 92.3% |
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 2018 Freedom
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 2018 Freedom
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 2.5% 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 2.1% 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 windscreen 2.0% of tests
“windscreen damaged”
Check the driver’s side of the screen within the swept area for chips and cracks; anything larger than 10mm in the driver’s central view is a fail. Most chips can be resin-repaired for far less than a new screen.
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 2018 Freedom through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £31–£82 — and 39% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £31–£82
- Cheapest common item: wipers does not clear the windscreen…
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: on or after 01/01/2014 emissions exceed…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 39%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 885 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 Freedom, side by side
6 model years on record, from 2016 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 84.8% to 86.8% — a spread of 2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2016 86.0% wipers blade defective
- 2017 86.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 86.8%wipers does not clear the…
- 2019 85.2% wipers blade defective
- 2020 84.8% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2021 85.9% wipers blade defective
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 2018 Ford Freedom 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 2018 cars with a similar record
- Citroen C3 86.8%
- Audi A1 86.7%
- Alfa Romeo Giulietta 86.7%
- Nissan Qashqai 87.0%
- Audi A4 86.6%
- Vauxhall Insignia 86.6%
Closest pass rates among 2018 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 2018 Ford Freedom 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 760 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 | 261 | 34.00% | 19.76% | +14.24 |
| Brakes | 162 | 21.10% | 20.89% | +0.21 |
| Visibility | 90 | 11.70% | 4.97% | +6.73 |
| Non-component advisories | 59 | 7.70% | 4.18% | +3.52 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 50 | 6.50% | 5.57% | +0.93 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 45 | 5.90% | 12.21% | −6.31 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 36 | 4.70% | 0.82% | +3.88 |
| Suspension | 26 | 3.40% | 20.98% | −17.58 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 23 | 3.00% | 5.52% | −2.52 |
| Road Wheels | 8 | 1.00% | 0.75% | +0.25 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 2.5% | £8–22 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 2.1% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.0% | £80–200 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 1.9% | £8–22 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.4% | £8–22 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.1% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.0% | £45–95 |
| Exhaust system system insecure Body, chassis, structure | Major | 0.90% | £45–120 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.90% | £30–80 |
| On or after 01/01/2014 emissions exceed manufacturer's specified limit Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.79% | £60–250 |
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 | 16.3% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.6% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.1% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Play in steering rack inner joint(s) Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.5% | £120–300 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 2.0% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.0% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 367 | 91.8% | 18,202 mi |
| 30-60k | 322 | 85.4% | 42,602 mi |
| 60-90k | 113 | 83.2% | 72,332 mi |
| 90-120k | 36 | 80.6% | 102,594 mi |
| 120k+ | 47 | 70.2% | 170,141 mi |
Source: 885 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.
2018 Freedom MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 Ford Freedom?
86.8% of the 885 2018 Ford Freedom tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 84.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 Ford Freedom?
The three most recorded items are wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (2.49%), brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick (2.15%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.03%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 Ford Freedom MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.8% of the time, falling to 70.2% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 Ford Freedom in this dataset had covered 34,815 mi.
Does the season affect the 2018 Ford Freedom MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 87.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 86.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.