Pass rate
69.8%
Below average — 7.4 pts behind the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 868 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £34–£89
2012 Great Wall Steed MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 84,924 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
25.1% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Part only £25–£55 for Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2015 75.7% pass
- Avoid 2012 69.8% pass · this year
Across the 6 years on record, a spread of 5.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 62.6%
- Typical mileage
- 85k mi
The 2012 Great Wall Steed MOT pass rate is 69.8% of its MOT tests — 7.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 25.1% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Body & chassis: 2.4× the national share
Body & chassis accounts for 13.5% of everything recorded on the 2012 Great Wall Steed, against 5.6% nationally — 7.9 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 25.1%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. Look underneath for corrosion near the jacking points and suspension mounts; surface rust is normal, flaking metal is not.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 77.2%; this one manages 69.8% — 7.4 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 35% 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 Great Wall Steed? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 Great Wall Steed compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 7.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 62.6%. The median 2012 Great Wall Steed in this dataset had covered 84,924 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 69.5% of the time, April–September 70.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp lens slightly defective", noted on 7.49% of tests.
- 868 recorded tests behind this page.
- 69.8% overall pass rate, 62.6% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Great Wall Steed, the average is 72.3% — best year 2015 (75.7%), worst 2012 (69.8%).
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
- 868
- Typical mileage (median)
- 84,924 mi
- Make and model
- Great Wall Steed
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Headlight Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Steed MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 59% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Great Wall Steed is most common
Across all Steed model years on record (2012–2017): 1,804 Great Wall Steed cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 4,168 tests. Peterborough (PE) has the most, with 71 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 | Peterborough (PE) | 71 | 74.2% |
| 2 | Swansea (SA) | 56 | 71.3% |
| 3 | Wrexham (LL) | 56 | 72.8% |
| 4 | Cardiff (CF) | 40 | 74.7% |
| 5 | Doncaster (DN) | 38 | 70.3% |
| 6 | Nottingham (NG) | 37 | 78.1% |
| 7 | Sheffield (S) | 36 | 77.6% |
| 8 | Lincoln (LN) | 35 | 69.0% |
| 9 | Birmingham (B) | 35 | 79.4% |
| 10 | Exeter (EX) | 34 | 64.1% |
| 11 | Taunton (TA) | 33 | 62.6% |
| 12 | Newport (NP) | 33 | 68.6% |
| 13 | Gloucester (GL) | 32 | 75.0% |
| 14 | Oxford (OX) | 28 | 72.0% |
| 15 | Shrewsbury (SY) | 28 | 76.8% |
| 16 | Portsmouth (PO) | 27 | 70.0% |
| 17 | Ipswich (IP) | 27 | 80.9% |
| 18 | York (YO) | 26 | 71.2% |
| 19 | Coventry (CV) | 25 | 68.4% |
| 20 | Norwich (NR) | 24 | 65.7% |
The twenty areas with the most Great Wall Steed 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 Steed
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| West Midlands | 127 | 69.3% |
| South East | 118 | 74.6% |
| East of England | 112 | 75.9% |
| Wales | 102 | 65.7% |
| South West | 98 | 63.3% |
| Scotland | 79 | 67.1% |
| North West | 77 | 66.2% |
| East Midlands | 64 | 70.3% |
| Yorkshire | 62 | 69.4% |
| North 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 Steed
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 Steed
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 7.5% of tests
“headlamp lens slightly defective”
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 suspension joints 4.8% of tests
“ball joint 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 brake pipes 4.6% of tests
“rigid brake pipes excessively corroded”
Brake pipes run under the car, usually in front of the rear wheels. Flaking or crusty metal is what fails; a light dusting of surface rust does not. Worth asking a garage to look while it is on a ramp.
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 Steed through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £34–£89 — and 35% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £34–£89
- Cheapest common item: mirrors slightly damaged
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 35%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 868 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 Steed, side by side
6 model years on record, from 2012 to 2017. Across them the pass rate runs from 69.8% to 75.7% — a spread of 5.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2012 69.8%headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2013 70.3% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2014 72.5% rigid brake pipes excessively…
- 2015 75.7% ball joint excessively worn
- 2016 74.1% ball joint excessively worn
- 2017 74.4% ball joint excessively worn
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 Great Wall Steed 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
- Renault Grand Scenic 69.9%
- Vauxhall Combo 70.0%
- Nissan Qashqai 70.1%
- Renault Megane 70.2%
- Citroen DS3 70.4%
- Peugeot 5008 70.4%
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 Great Wall Steed 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 3,201 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 | 818 | 25.10% | 20.89% | +4.21 |
| Suspension | 723 | 22.20% | 20.98% | +1.22 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 521 | 16.00% | 12.21% | +3.79 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 440 | 13.50% | 5.57% | +7.93 |
| Tyres | 191 | 5.90% | 19.76% | −13.86 |
| Visibility | 174 | 5.30% | 4.97% | +0.33 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 157 | 4.80% | 5.52% | −0.72 |
| Steering | 82 | 2.50% | 2.57% | −0.07 |
| Non-component advisories | 56 | 1.70% | 4.18% | −2.48 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 39 | 1.20% | 0.82% | +0.38 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 7.5% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 7.5% | £5–20 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 6.5% | £30–80 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 6.1% | £45–110 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 4.8% | £18–45 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 4.6% | £80–180 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.6% | £80–200 |
| Parking brake performance inoperative on one side Brakes | Major | 3.9% | £60–150 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.9% | £40–150 |
| Mirrors slightly damaged Visibility | Minor | 3.3% | £3–15 |
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 | 35.9% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 13.7% | £45–95 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 13.4% | £18–45 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 12.7% | £200–700 |
| Wheel bearings has excessive play Suspension | Advisory | 9.1% | £20–55 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 6.8% | £40–150 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 5 | 100.0% | 19,290 mi |
| 30-60k | 143 | 76.2% | 49,044 mi |
| 60-90k | 361 | 67.3% | 75,707 mi |
| 90-120k | 248 | 69.4% | 102,940 mi |
| 120k+ | 111 | 69.4% | 135,016 mi |
Source: 868 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 Steed MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Great Wall Steed?
69.8% of the 868 2012 Great Wall Steed tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 62.6%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Great Wall Steed?
The three most recorded items are headlamp lens slightly defective (7.49%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (7.49%), headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (6.45%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Great Wall Steed MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 69.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Great Wall Steed in this dataset had covered 84,924 mi.
Does the season affect the 2012 Great Wall Steed MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 69.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 70.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.