Pass rate
73.8%
Below average — 3.4 pts behind the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 6,299 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £23–£59
2012 Kia Soul MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 76,550 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
26.8% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2021 92.1% pass
- Avoid 2009 71.3% pass
Across the 13 years on record, a spread of 20.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 65.3%
- Typical mileage
- 77k mi
The 2012 Kia Soul MOT pass rate is 73.8% of its MOT tests — 3.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.8% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Steering: 3.8× the national share
Steering accounts for 9.7% of everything recorded on the 2012 Kia Soul, against 2.6% nationally — 7.1 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 26.8%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. Ask for the steering to be checked for play with the wheels on the ground, not on a jack.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 77.2%; this one manages 73.8% — 3.4 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 18% 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 Kia Soul? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 Kia Soul compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 3.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 65.3%. The median 2012 Kia Soul in this dataset had covered 76,550 mi.
70% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 73.6% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 73.1% of the time, April–September 74.5%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Track rod end ball joint has excessive play", noted on 9.62% of tests.
- 6,299 recorded tests behind this page.
- 73.8% overall pass rate, 65.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Kia Soul, the average is 80.0% — best year 2021 (92.1%), worst 2009 (71.3%).
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
- 6,299
- Typical mileage (median)
- 76,550 mi
- Make and model
- Kia Soul
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Soul MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 61% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (70% of tests).
Where the Kia Soul is most common
Across all Soul model years on record (2009–2021): 34,123 Kia Soul cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 87,773 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 948 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) | 948 | 84.3% |
| 2 | Sheffield (S) | 911 | 81.2% |
| 3 | Nottingham (NG) | 859 | 78.1% |
| 4 | Portsmouth (PO) | 785 | 80.0% |
| 5 | Peterborough (PE) | 724 | 81.8% |
| 6 | Brighton (BN) | 637 | 77.7% |
| 7 | Swansea (SA) | 538 | 79.1% |
| 8 | Leicester (LE) | 534 | 82.3% |
| 9 | Doncaster (DN) | 520 | 78.7% |
| 10 | Manchester (M) | 516 | 80.0% |
| 11 | Norwich (NR) | 513 | 79.6% |
| 12 | Derby (DE) | 488 | 80.0% |
| 13 | Ashford (TN) | 482 | 79.5% |
| 14 | Cardiff (CF) | 480 | 77.8% |
| 15 | Bristol (BS) | 478 | 78.0% |
| 16 | Guildford (GU) | 467 | 82.2% |
| 17 | Reading (RG) | 457 | 83.9% |
| 18 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 456 | 78.7% |
| 19 | Plymouth (PL) | 455 | 79.6% |
| 20 | Chelmsford (CM) | 455 | 83.1% |
The twenty areas with the most Kia Soul 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 Soul
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 1,258 | 75.6% |
| East of England | 780 | 76.8% |
| North West | 747 | 74.6% |
| Yorkshire | 734 | 73.0% |
| West Midlands | 667 | 74.5% |
| South West | 643 | 74.3% |
| East Midlands | 456 | 71.1% |
| Scotland | 383 | 65.5% |
| Wales | 332 | 69.0% |
| North East | 205 | 69.8% |
| London | 94 | 88.3% |
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 2012 Soul
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 Soul
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 9.6% of tests
“track rod end ball joint has excessive play”
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 lights 4.8% 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.
-
Check the windscreen 4.0% 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.
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 Soul through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £23–£59 — and 18% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £23–£59
- 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
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 18%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 6,299 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 Soul, side by side
13 model years on record, from 2009 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 71.3% to 92.1% — a spread of 20.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2009 71.3% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2010 72.7% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2011 73.2% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2012 73.8%track rod end ball joint has…
- 2013 75.4% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2014 82.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 85.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 86.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 88.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 90.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 91.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 91.7% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 92.1% has a cut in excess of the…
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 Kia Soul 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
- Peugeot 207 73.8%
- Hyundai IX20 73.8%
- Ford Galaxy 73.7%
- Hyundai Veloster 73.7%
- Citroen C3 74.0%
- Alfa Romeo Giulietta 74.1%
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 Kia Soul 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 12,928 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 | 3,495 | 26.80% | 20.89% | +5.91 |
| Suspension | 2,477 | 19.00% | 20.98% | −1.98 |
| Tyres | 2,443 | 18.70% | 19.76% | −1.06 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,331 | 10.20% | 12.21% | −2.01 |
| Steering | 1,272 | 9.70% | 2.57% | +7.13 |
| Visibility | 607 | 4.70% | 4.97% | −0.27 |
| Non-component advisories | 517 | 4.00% | 4.18% | −0.18 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 352 | 2.70% | 5.52% | −2.82 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 270 | 2.10% | 5.57% | −3.47 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 164 | 1.30% | 1.76% | −0.46 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 9.6% | £18–45 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.8% | £5–20 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.0% | £80–200 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 3.5% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 3.2% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.0% | £18–45 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.0% | £18–45 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 1.8% | £25–65 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.6% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.6% | £5–25 |
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 | 18.0% | £45–95 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 12.1% | £80–180 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 11.9% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 11.2% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.9% | £18–45 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Advisory | 6.5% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 244 | 86.9% | 21,561 mi |
| 30-60k | 1,499 | 77.9% | 48,049 mi |
| 60-90k | 2,518 | 73.3% | 75,046 mi |
| 90-120k | 1,461 | 70.0% | 102,660 mi |
| 120k+ | 572 | 69.4% | 139,100 mi |
Source: 6,299 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 Soul MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Kia Soul?
73.8% of the 6,299 2012 Kia Soul tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 65.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Kia Soul?
The three most recorded items are track rod end ball joint has excessive play (9.62%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (4.79%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (3.95%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Kia Soul MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 86.9% of the time, falling to 69.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Kia Soul in this dataset had covered 76,550 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 Kia Soul?
Diesel: 73.6% pass rate across 4,421 tests. Petrol: 74.3% pass rate across 1,875 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2012 Kia Soul MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 73.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 74.5%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.