Pass rate
77.5%
Around average — 0.3 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 62,853 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £26–£74
2012 Ford Ka MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 62,624 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
37.7% 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 →
18.6 pts down across model years — 22.0% in 2001, 3.4% in 2016.
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 92.6% pass
- Avoid 2008 66.2% pass
Across the 20 years on record, a spread of 26.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 71.7%
- Typical mileage
- 63k mi
The 2012 Ford Ka MOT pass rate is 77.5% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 37.7% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.8× the national share
Suspension accounts for 37.7% of everything recorded on the 2012 Ford Ka, against 21.0% nationally — 16.7 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.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 28% 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 Ford Ka? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 Ford Ka compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 0.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 71.7%. The median 2012 Ford Ka in this dataset had covered 62,624 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 99% of tests, with a 77.6% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 77.5% of the time, April–September 77.5%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn", noted on 3.78% of tests.
- 62,853 recorded tests behind this page.
- 77.5% overall pass rate, 71.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Ford Ka, the average is 78.0% — best year 2019 (92.6%), worst 2008 (66.2%).
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
- 62,853
- Typical mileage (median)
- 62,624 mi
- Make and model
- Ford Ka
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Suspension Component
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Ka MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 63% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (99% of tests).
Where the Ford Ka is most common
Across all Ka model years on record (2000–2019): 253,674 Ford Ka cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 655,731 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 8,526 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham (B) | 8,526 | 79.9% |
| 2 | Sheffield (S) | 5,823 | 79.8% |
| 3 | Cardiff (CF) | 5,618 | 74.4% |
| 4 | Nottingham (NG) | 5,150 | 75.7% |
| 5 | Leicester (LE) | 4,977 | 80.4% |
| 6 | Bristol (BS) | 4,861 | 74.1% |
| 7 | Chelmsford (CM) | 4,617 | 80.8% |
| 8 | Basildon (SS) | 4,434 | 81.1% |
| 9 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 4,214 | 78.2% |
| 10 | Manchester (M) | 3,981 | 78.3% |
| 11 | Peterborough (PE) | 3,967 | 80.2% |
| 12 | Portsmouth (PO) | 3,930 | 76.3% |
| 13 | Norwich (NR) | 3,848 | 79.7% |
| 14 | Maidstone (ME) | 3,809 | 80.5% |
| 15 | Liverpool (L) | 3,781 | 79.4% |
| 16 | Derby (DE) | 3,751 | 79.2% |
| 17 | Coventry (CV) | 3,719 | 78.4% |
| 18 | Ashford (TN) | 3,568 | 79.3% |
| 19 | Romford (RM) | 3,508 | 85.0% |
| 20 | Doncaster (DN) | 3,455 | 78.6% |
The twenty areas with the most Ford Ka cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
Regional pass rates for the Ka
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 10,981 | 80.1% |
| North West | 8,366 | 76.4% |
| East of England | 6,982 | 81.0% |
| West Midlands | 6,937 | 78.9% |
| South West | 6,802 | 75.6% |
| Yorkshire | 6,749 | 76.4% |
| East Midlands | 4,787 | 77.1% |
| Wales | 3,973 | 74.0% |
| Scotland | 2,956 | 70.2% |
| North East | 2,679 | 76.3% |
| London | 1,641 | 83.2% |
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 2012 Ka
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 2012 Ka
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 3.8% of tests
“pins and bushes pin or bush 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 shock absorbers 3.5% of tests
“shock absorbers has an excessively worn bush”
Press down hard on each corner of the car and let go. It should settle in one bounce; if it keeps rocking, or you can see oil weeping down a shock absorber, that is the fault a tester will find.
-
Check the lights 3.4% of tests
“registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”
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 2012 Ka through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £26–£74 — and 28% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £26–£74
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: pins
- £40–£150
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 28%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 62,853 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 Ka, side by side
20 model years on record, from 2000 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 66.2% to 92.6% — a spread of 26.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 69.7% component mounting prescribed…
- 2001 66.3% component mounting prescribed…
- 2002 67.2% component mounting prescribed…
- 2003 68.0% component mounting prescribed…
- 2004 66.7% component mounting prescribed…
- 2005 67.3% component mounting prescribed…
- 2006 66.8% component mounting prescribed…
- 2007 66.4% component mounting prescribed…
- 2008 66.2% component mounting prescribed…
- 2009 71.9% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2010 72.8% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2011 75.6% ball joint excessively worn
- 2012 77.5%pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2013 79.1% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2014 80.9% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2015 80.6% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2016 82.5% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2017 89.5% headlamp not working on dipped…
- 2018 88.7% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2019 92.6% windscreen damaged but not…
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 2012 Ford Ka 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 2012 cars with a similar record
- Volkswagen Passat 77.4%
- Fiat Panda 77.4%
- Volkswagen Scirocco 77.6%
- SEAT Altea 77.6%
- SEAT Exeo 77.6%
- Vauxhall Astra 77.7%
Closest pass rates among 2012 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 2012 Ford Ka 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 141,965 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 | 54,279 | 37.70% | 20.98% | +16.72 |
| Tyres | 22,864 | 15.90% | 19.76% | −3.86 |
| Brakes | 17,146 | 11.90% | 20.89% | −8.99 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 13,511 | 9.40% | 12.21% | −2.81 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 12,933 | 9.00% | 5.57% | +3.43 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 7,942 | 5.50% | 5.52% | −0.02 |
| Non-component advisories | 5,005 | 3.50% | 4.18% | −0.68 |
| Visibility | 4,291 | 3.00% | 4.97% | −1.97 |
| Steering | 2,064 | 1.40% | 2.57% | −1.17 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1,930 | 1.30% | 1.76% | −0.46 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.8% | £40–150 |
| Shock absorbers has an excessively worn bush Suspension | Major | 3.5% | £30–75 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.4% | £5–20 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 2.9% | £30–75 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.9% | £18–45 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 2.0% | £45–120 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.9% | £3–12 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.6% | £5–25 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.4% | £45–95 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 1.3% | £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 | 17.4% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 16.6% | £40–150 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 12.7% | £25–65 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 11.6% | £45–120 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 11.4% | £30–75 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 11.2% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 4,909 | 89.0% | 21,643 mi |
| 30-60k | 23,812 | 80.4% | 46,928 mi |
| 60-90k | 25,481 | 74.6% | 73,363 mi |
| 90-120k | 7,386 | 71.9% | 100,696 mi |
| 120k+ | 1,202 | 71.0% | 134,403 mi |
Source: 62,853 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.
2012 Ka MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Ford Ka?
77.5% of the 62,853 2012 Ford Ka tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 71.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Ford Ka?
The three most recorded items are pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn (3.78%), shock absorbers has an excessively worn bush (3.53%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (3.43%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Ford Ka MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 89.0% of the time, falling to 71.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Ford Ka in this dataset had covered 62,624 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 Ford Ka?
Petrol: 77.6% pass rate across 62,201 tests. Diesel: 72.7% pass rate across 652 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2012 Ford Ka MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 77.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 77.5%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.