Pass rate
91.0%
Above average — 3.1 pts ahead of the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 23,194 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £33–£80
2018 Kia Niro MOT pass rate
- 2018
- typical 56,287 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
48.6% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
2.8 pts down across model years — 5.1% in 2016, 2.3% in 2024.
Which year to buy
- Best 2025 100.0% pass
- Avoid 2016 88.5% pass
Across the 10 years on record, a spread of 11.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 90.2%
- Typical mileage
- 56k mi
The 2018 Kia Niro MOT pass rate is 91.0% of its MOT tests — 3.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 48.6% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.5× the national share
Tyres make up 48.6% of everything recorded on the 2018 Kia Niro, against 19.8% nationally — 28.8 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.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 87.9% and this one manages 91.0% — 3.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
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 Kia Niro? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2018 Kia Niro compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, so this figure is 3.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 90.2%. The median 2018 Kia Niro in this dataset had covered 56,287 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 91.3% of the time, April–September 90.7%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 1.69% of tests.
- 23,194 recorded tests behind this page.
- 91.0% overall pass rate, 90.2% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Kia Niro, the average is 92.0% — best year 2025 (100.0%), worst 2016 (88.5%).
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
- 23,194
- Typical mileage (median)
- 56,287 mi
- Make and model
- Kia Niro
- 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 Niro MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 82% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Kia Niro is most common
Across all Niro model years on record (2016–2025): 128,560 Kia Niro cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 240,731 tests. London (NW) has the most, with 5,028 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 | London (NW) | 5,028 | 93.9% |
| 2 | London (E) | 4,990 | 96.3% |
| 3 | London (SE) | 2,579 | 89.8% |
| 4 | Hounslow (TW) | 2,528 | 90.7% |
| 5 | Wembley (HA) | 2,508 | 94.6% |
| 6 | Birmingham (B) | 2,416 | 92.4% |
| 7 | Croydon (CR) | 2,323 | 90.6% |
| 8 | Romford (RM) | 2,289 | 96.2% |
| 9 | Peterborough (PE) | 2,139 | 91.0% |
| 10 | Sheffield (S) | 2,113 | 92.6% |
| 11 | London (N) | 2,105 | 94.7% |
| 12 | Leicester (LE) | 2,042 | 95.2% |
| 13 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 2,029 | 91.1% |
| 14 | London (W) | 1,990 | 96.9% |
| 15 | Guildford (GU) | 1,976 | 89.7% |
| 16 | Nottingham (NG) | 1,944 | 89.4% |
| 17 | Bristol (BS) | 1,913 | 88.6% |
| 18 | Enfield (EN) | 1,877 | 95.9% |
| 19 | Hayes (UB) | 1,857 | 94.7% |
| 20 | Reading (RG) | 1,759 | 91.8% |
The twenty areas with the most Kia Niro 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 Niro
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 7,362 | 90.8% |
| London | 5,185 | 93.9% |
| East of England | 2,105 | 91.2% |
| North West | 1,798 | 90.5% |
| South West | 1,339 | 89.3% |
| Yorkshire | 1,249 | 89.9% |
| West Midlands | 1,208 | 89.6% |
| Scotland | 1,085 | 85.0% |
| East Midlands | 1,017 | 90.1% |
| Wales | 511 | 90.6% |
| North East | 335 | 89.3% |
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 Niro
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 Niro
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 1.7% 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 wipers and washers 1.3% 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 lights 0.9% 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 2018 Niro through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £33–£80 — and 48% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £33–£80
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 48%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 23,194 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 Niro, side by side
10 model years on record, from 2016 to 2025. Across them the pass rate runs from 88.5% to 100.0% — a spread of 11.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2016 88.5% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2017 88.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 91.0%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 91.2% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 91.9% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 92.6% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 93.3% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 95.5% wipers blade defective
- 2024 97.6% tread depth below requirements of…
- 2025 100.0% no single leading item
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 Kia Niro 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
- MINI Countryman 91.0%
- Skoda Kodiaq 91.0%
- Vauxhall Viva 91.0%
- Jaguar Xj 91.0%
- MINI COOPER 90.9%
- Toyota Aygo 91.1%
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 Kia Niro 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 16,054 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 | 7,843 | 48.60% | 19.76% | +28.84 |
| Brakes | 3,126 | 19.40% | 20.89% | −1.49 |
| Visibility | 1,458 | 9.00% | 4.97% | +4.03 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,373 | 8.50% | 12.21% | −3.71 |
| Non-component advisories | 1,176 | 7.30% | 4.18% | +3.12 |
| Suspension | 484 | 3.00% | 20.98% | −17.98 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 207 | 1.30% | 1.76% | −0.46 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 161 | 1.00% | 5.52% | −4.52 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 128 | 0.80% | 5.57% | −4.77 |
| Steering | 98 | 0.60% | 2.57% | −1.97 |
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 | 1.7% | £80–200 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.3% | £8–22 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.2% | £8–22 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 1.1% | £8–22 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.91% | £5–20 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.85% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.85% | £45–95 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.63% | £5–20 |
| Service brake performance efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 0.54% | £60–150 |
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 | 13.5% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 10.2% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 5.8% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.3% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.2% | £20–80 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 2.2% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 3,342 | 91.1% | 21,899 mi |
| 30-60k | 9,159 | 90.5% | 44,488 mi |
| 60-90k | 4,697 | 90.1% | 72,493 mi |
| 90-120k | 2,382 | 92.2% | 103,717 mi |
| 120k+ | 3,601 | 92.6% | 163,804 mi |
Source: 23,194 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 Niro MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 Kia Niro?
91.0% of the 23,194 2018 Kia Niro tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 90.2%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 Kia Niro?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.69%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.54%), wipers blade defective (1.25%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 Kia Niro MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.1% of the time, falling to 92.6% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 Kia Niro in this dataset had covered 56,287 mi.
Does the season affect the 2018 Kia Niro MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 91.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 90.7%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.