Pass rate
72.4%
Below average — 4.8 pts behind the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 58 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £41–£121
2012 Ford Transit Custom MOT pass rate
- 2012
- Van
- typical 135,211 mi
Only 58 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.
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
27.1% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2024 100.0% pass
- Avoid 2012 72.4% pass · this year
Across the 13 years on record, a spread of 27.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 63.6%
- Typical mileage
- 135k mi
The 2012 Ford Transit Custom MOT pass rate is 72.4% of its MOT tests — 4.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.1% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Brakes: 1.3× the national share
Brakes make up 27.1% of everything recorded on the 2012 Ford Transit Custom, against 20.9% nationally — 6.2 points above. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, vans this age and mileage expect about 77.2%; this one manages 72.4% — 4.8 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- Based on a small sample. 58 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 Transit Custom? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 Ford Transit Custom compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 4.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 63.6%. The median 2012 Ford Transit Custom in this dataset had covered 135,211 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 15.52% of tests.
- 58 recorded tests behind this page.
- 72.4% overall pass rate, 63.6% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Ford Transit Custom, the average is 86.2% — best year 2024 (100.0%), worst 2012 (72.4%).
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
- 58
- Typical mileage (median)
- 135,211 mi
- Make and model
- Ford Transit Custom
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Windscreen
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Transit Custom MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 52% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Ford Transit Custom is most common
Across all Transit Custom model years on record (2012–2024): 263,836 Ford Transit Custom cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 485,964 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 6,629 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) | 6,629 | 86.7% |
| 2 | Sheffield (S) | 6,352 | 87.4% |
| 3 | Bristol (BS) | 5,920 | 84.6% |
| 4 | Glasgow (G) | 4,741 | 84.4% |
| 5 | Nottingham (NG) | 4,605 | 85.8% |
| 6 | Leicester (LE) | 4,585 | 87.8% |
| 7 | Chelmsford (CM) | 4,571 | 87.6% |
| 8 | Cardiff (CF) | 4,559 | 85.4% |
| 9 | Peterborough (PE) | 4,199 | 86.2% |
| 10 | Reading (RG) | 4,019 | 88.2% |
| 11 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 3,958 | 88.0% |
| 12 | Manchester (M) | 3,788 | 87.0% |
| 13 | Maidstone (ME) | 3,602 | 86.3% |
| 14 | Chester (CH) | 3,596 | 84.5% |
| 15 | Dartford (DA) | 3,502 | 88.9% |
| 16 | Portsmouth (PO) | 3,488 | 83.1% |
| 17 | Derby (DE) | 3,488 | 87.7% |
| 18 | Southampton (SO) | 3,421 | 85.6% |
| 19 | Ashford (TN) | 3,392 | 85.6% |
| 20 | Doncaster (DN) | 3,376 | 86.4% |
The twenty areas with the most Ford Transit Custom 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 Transit Custom
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 17 | 70.6% |
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 Transit Custom
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 Transit Custom
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 windscreen 15.5% 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.
-
Check the lights 8.6% of tests
“registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps”
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 5.2% of tests
“washers provides insufficient washer liquid”
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.
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 Transit Custom through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £41–£121 — and 48% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £41–£121
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot split or…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 48%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 58 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 Transit Custom, side by side
13 model years on record, from 2012 to 2024. Across them the pass rate runs from 72.4% to 100.0% — a spread of 27.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2012 72.4%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2013 72.7% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2014 73.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 75.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2016 81.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 81.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 85.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 86.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 86.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2021 86.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2022 86.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2023 90.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2024 100.0% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
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 Transit Custom 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 vans with a similar record
- Peugeot Expert 72.4%
- Citroen Berlingo 72.5%
- Fiat Doblo Cargo 72.3%
- Fiat Doblo 72.8%
- Fiat Scudo 71.4%
- Citroen Dispatch 71.3%
Closest pass rates among 2012 vans with at least 1,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. Full rankings: best vans and worst vans for MOT pass rates.
The full DVSA record for the 2012 Ford Transit Custom 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 187 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | 51 | 27.10% | 20.89% | +6.21 |
| Suspension | 37 | 19.70% | 20.98% | −1.28 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 30 | 16.00% | 12.21% | +3.79 |
| Tyres | 16 | 8.50% | 19.76% | −11.26 |
| Visibility | 16 | 8.50% | 4.97% | +3.53 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 14 | 7.40% | 5.52% | +1.88 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 13 | 6.90% | 5.57% | +1.33 |
| Steering | 6 | 3.20% | 2.57% | +0.63 |
| Non-component advisories | 2 | 1.10% | 4.18% | −3.08 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 2 | 1.10% | 1.76% | −0.66 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 15.5% | £80–200 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 12.1% | £80–250 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 8.6% | £5–20 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 5.2% | £80–250 |
| Leaf spring fractured Suspension | Major | 5.2% | £40–150 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 5.2% | £3–12 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 5.2% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.2% | £5–20 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 5.2% | £3–12 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 5.2% | £5–15 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 29.3% | £80–180 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 20.7% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 19.0% | £45–110 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 19.0% | £40–150 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 12.1% | £200–700 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 8.6% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 5 | 60.0% | 26,089 mi |
| 30-60k | 2 | 100.0% | 32,821 mi |
| 60-90k | 6 | 83.3% | 82,546 mi |
| 90-120k | 11 | 63.6% | 103,026 mi |
| 120k+ | 34 | 73.5% | 160,827 mi |
Source: 58 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 Transit Custom MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Ford Transit Custom?
72.4% of the 58 2012 Ford Transit Custom tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 63.6%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Ford Transit Custom?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (15.52%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (12.07%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps (8.62%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Ford Transit Custom MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 60.0% of the time, falling to 73.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Ford Transit Custom in this dataset had covered 135,211 mi.