Pass rate
95.6%
Above average — 4.4 pts ahead of the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 136 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £42–£105
2021 Kia Soul Maxx MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 22,045 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
47.5% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2021 95.6% pass · this year
- Avoid 2022 93.3% pass
Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 2.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 95.3%
- Typical mileage
- 22k mi
The 2021 Kia Soul Maxx MOT pass rate is 95.6% of its MOT tests — 4.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 47.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Kia Soul Maxx does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.4× the national share
Tyres make up 47.5% of everything recorded on the 2021 Kia Soul Maxx, against 19.8% nationally — 27.7 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 91.2% and this one manages 95.6% — 4.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Based on a small sample. 136 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 Kia Soul Maxx? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 Kia Soul Maxx compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 4.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 95.3%. The median 2021 Kia Soul Maxx in this dataset had covered 22,045 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Wipers blade defective", noted on 3.68% of tests.
- 136 recorded tests behind this page.
- 95.6% overall pass rate, 95.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Kia Soul Maxx, the average is 93.6% — best year 2021 (95.6%), worst 2022 (93.3%).
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
- 136
- Typical mileage (median)
- 22,045 mi
- Make and model
- Kia Soul Maxx
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Wiper Blade
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Soul Maxx MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 85% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Soul Maxx
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 29 | 100.0% |
| South West | 22 | 100.0% |
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 2021 Soul Maxx
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 2021 Soul Maxx
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 wipers and washers 3.7% 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 steering 2.2% of tests
“steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt”
With the wheels straight, rock the steering wheel gently with the engine off — more than about an inch of free play before the wheels move is worth investigating. Split rack gaiters are cheap to replace and commonly recorded.
-
Check the lights 0.7% of tests
“headlamp aim too high”
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 2021 Soul Maxx through its MOT
Across the 9 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £42–£105 — and 47% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 9 common items
- £42–£105
- Cheapest common item: wipers blade defective
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: steering rack gaiter missing or no longer…
- £120–£300
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 67%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 47%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 136 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 Maxx, side by side
2 model years on record, from 2021 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 93.3% to 95.6% — a spread of 2.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2021 95.6%wipers blade defective
- 2022 93.3% 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 2021 Kia Soul Maxx 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 2021 cars with a similar record
- Suzuki SX4 S-Cross 95.4%
- Toyota YARIS 95.3%
- Honda Cr-V 95.9%
- Porsche Macan 95.2%
- Volvo XC40 Inscription Pro 95.2%
- Suzuki Vitara 96.0%
Closest pass rates among 2021 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 2021 Kia Soul Maxx 9 failure items · 6 advisories · 7 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 59 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 | 28 | 47.50% | 19.76% | +27.74 |
| Non-component advisories | 10 | 16.90% | 4.18% | +12.72 |
| Brakes | 8 | 13.60% | 20.89% | −7.29 |
| Visibility | 8 | 13.60% | 4.97% | +8.63 |
| Steering | 3 | 5.10% | 2.57% | +2.53 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1 | 1.70% | 12.21% | −10.51 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1 | 1.70% | 5.57% | −3.87 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 3.7% | £8–22 |
| Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 2.2% | £120–300 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.5% | £8–22 |
| Driver's view to the front outside the swept area of the windscreen wipers restricted by an obstruction Visibility | Minor | 0.74% | £8–22 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Rectified | 0.74% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Rectified | 0.74% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.74% | £30–80 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 0.74% | £80–250 |
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 | 15.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 2.9% | £45–110 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.2% | £20–80 |
| Non-component advisories Items removed from drivers view prior to test Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.2% | £20–80 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Advisory | 1.5% | £60–150 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 99 | 96.0% | 18,621 mi |
| 30-60k | 30 | 93.3% | 40,314 mi |
| 60-90k | 6 | 100.0% | 72,940 mi |
| 90-120k | 1 | 100.0% | 90,380 mi |
Source: 136 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.
2021 Soul Maxx MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 Kia Soul Maxx?
95.6% of the 136 2021 Kia Soul Maxx tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 95.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 Kia Soul Maxx?
The three most recorded items are wipers blade defective (3.68%), steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (2.21%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.47%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 Kia Soul Maxx MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 96.0% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 Kia Soul Maxx in this dataset had covered 22,045 mi.