Pass rate
85.9%
Above average — 5.3 pts behind the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 199 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £18–£46
2021 Ford Freedom MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 22,766 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
33.3% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2018 86.8% pass
- Avoid 2020 84.8% pass
Across the 6 years on record, a spread of 2 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 83.7%
- Typical mileage
- 23k mi
The 2021 Ford Freedom MOT pass rate is 85.9% of its MOT tests — 5.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 33.3% 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 33.3% of everything recorded on the 2021 Ford Freedom, against 19.8% nationally — 13.5 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.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 91.2%; this one manages 85.9% — 5.3 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 57% 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 Ford Freedom? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 Ford Freedom compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 5.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 83.7%. The median 2021 Ford Freedom in this dataset had covered 22,766 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 88.2% of the time, April–September 84.7%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Wipers blade defective", noted on 4.52% of tests.
- 199 recorded tests behind this page.
- 85.9% overall pass rate, 83.7% 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
- 199
- Typical mileage (median)
- 22,766 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 71% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Freedom
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 33 | 90.9% |
| South East | 31 | 90.3% |
| Yorkshire | 24 | 79.2% |
| North West | 24 | 79.2% |
| West Midlands | 23 | 95.7% |
| East Midlands | 17 | 88.2% |
| East of England | 15 | 80.0% |
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 2021 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 2021 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 4.5% 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 brakes 3.5% 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 2.5% of tests
“malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction”
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 2021 Freedom through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £18–£46 — and 57% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £18–£46
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: webbing significantly weakened
- £40–£120
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 57%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 199 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 2021 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 2021 cars with a similar record
- BMW X5 XDRIVE45E 85.9%
- Citroen E-C4 85.8%
- Toyota Hilux 85.6%
- Vauxhall Corsa E 86.3%
- Fiat 500E La Prima 86.5%
- Tesla Model 3 Performance 85.3%
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 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 162 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 | 54 | 33.30% | 19.76% | +13.54 |
| Brakes | 29 | 17.90% | 20.89% | −2.99 |
| Visibility | 24 | 14.80% | 4.97% | +9.83 |
| Non-component advisories | 20 | 12.30% | 4.18% | +8.12 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 13 | 8.00% | 0.82% | +7.18 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 11 | 6.80% | 12.21% | −5.41 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 7 | 4.30% | 5.52% | −1.22 |
| Suspension | 2 | 1.20% | 20.98% | −19.78 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1 | 0.60% | 5.57% | −4.97 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1 | 0.60% | 1.76% | −1.16 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 4.5% | £8–22 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 3.5% | £18–45 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 3.0% | £8–22 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.5% | £3–12 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 2.5% | £8–22 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 2.0% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 2.0% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 2.0% | £30–80 |
| Rear reflectors defective or damaged by up to 50% of the reflecting surface Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.0% | £5–25 |
| Webbing significantly weakened Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 1.5% | £40–120 |
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 | 14.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 7.0% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 4.0% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 3.5% | £20–80 |
| Non-component advisories Items removed from drivers view prior to test Non-component advisories | Advisory | 3.5% | £20–80 |
| Damaged Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Advisory | 3.0% | £40–120 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 133 | 88.0% | 16,592 mi |
| 30-60k | 59 | 79.7% | 39,878 mi |
| 60-90k | 4 | 100.0% | 74,326 mi |
| 90-120k | 2 | 100.0% | 106,280 mi |
| 120k+ | 1 | 100.0% | 139,330 mi |
Source: 199 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 Freedom MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 Ford Freedom?
85.9% of the 199 2021 Ford Freedom tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 83.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 Ford Freedom?
The three most recorded items are wipers blade defective (4.52%), brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick (3.52%), wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (3.02%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 Ford Freedom MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.0% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 Ford Freedom in this dataset had covered 22,766 mi.
Does the season affect the 2021 Ford Freedom MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 88.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 84.7%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.