2015 Kia Sportage MOT pass rate

Pass rate

81.5%

Around average — 0.6 pts behind the 82.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.

Across 75,111 recorded tests.

Typical repair bill £38–£93

Most common fault

Brakes

33.4% of faults · 20.9% nationally

mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.

Part only £25–£40 for Brake pads under 1.5 mm. What fitting it takes →

3.1 pts down across model years — 5.0% in 2005, 1.9% in 2022.

Every failure, with what it costs →

Which year to buy

  • Best 2024 95.9% pass
  • Avoid 2007 67.0% pass

Across the 21 years on record, a spread of 28.9 points. See every year →

First-attempt pass
77.6%
Typical mileage
72k mi

The 2015 Kia Sportage MOT pass rate is 81.5% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 33.4% of what testers record.

MOT PASS RATES

The 2015 Kia Sportage on the real record

81.5% of 2015 Kia Sportage MOTs passed — 75,111 tests, 2023–2025

Pass rate

The answer from the DVSA's class-4 MOT records.

Check your postcode

MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Kia Sportage does in your corner of the country.

How one model's pass rate varies by postcode →

Expert verdict

Brakes: 1.6× the national share

Brakes make up 33.4% of everything recorded on the 2015 Kia Sportage, against 20.9% nationally — 12.5 points above. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.

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 Sportage? Get an email when these numbers change .

How does the 2015 Kia Sportage compare?

Cars of this age and mileage average 82.1%, so this figure is 0.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 77.6%. The median 2015 Kia Sportage in this dataset had covered 72,329 mi.

The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 79% of tests, with a 81.9% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 81.2% of the time, April–September 81.7%.

The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 2.85% of tests.

  • 75,111 recorded tests behind this page.
  • 81.5% overall pass rate, 77.6% on a first attempt.
  • Across every year of the Kia Sportage, the average is 83.3% — best year 2024 (95.9%), worst 2007 (67.0%).

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
75,111
Typical mileage (median)
72,329 mi
Make and model
Kia Sportage
Updated
2026-11-05

Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.

Top part to budget for

Number Plate Lamp

Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.

Does mileage affect the Sportage MOT pass rate?

0-30k 91.2%
30-60k 86.4%
60-90k 80.6%
90-120k 76.8%
120k+ 76.1%

Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 68% so small gaps stay visible.

Fuel type and reliability

Diesel 81.9%
Petrol 79.7%

Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (79% of tests).

Regional pass rates for the Sportage

Region Tests Pass rate
South East 13,120 83.4%
North West 10,262 81.2%
Yorkshire 8,434 81.9%
Scotland 7,769 75.2%
East of England 7,673 82.8%
West Midlands 7,188 83.6%
South West 6,994 80.3%
East Midlands 5,445 82.9%
Wales 3,853 80.0%
North East 3,014 79.4%
London 1,359 87.9%

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 2015 Sportage

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.

Brakes 33.4%
+12.5 pts vs national national 20.9% Price brakes parts
Tyres 25.4%
+5.6 pts vs national national 19.8% Compare tyre prices
Suspension 12.6%
−8.4 pts vs national national 21.0% Price suspension parts
Lamps & electrics 10.2%
−2.0 pts vs national national 12.2% Order bulbs & wipers
Show the other 6 fault categories
  • Advisories 6.0%
  • Visibility 4.8%
  • Emissions & leaks 3.8%
  • Steering 1.6%
  • Body & chassis 1.1%
  • Identification 0.6%

Shares are of every item recorded on 2015 Kia Sportage tests — a composition, so they add to 100% across all sections, not per test.

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 2015 Sportage

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.

  1. Check the lights 2.9% 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.

  2. Check tyre pressures and valves 2.2% of tests

    “tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative”

    Set the pressures to the figures on the door pillar, not the tyre wall, and check the valves do not hiss. A leaking valve is a two-minute fix that fails a test.

  3. Check the windscreen 2.2% 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 2015 Sportage through its MOT

Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £38–£93 — and 22% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.

Average repair across the 10 common items
£38–£93
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
70%
Repairs that still cost under £30
22%

Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 75,111 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 Sportage, side by side

21 model years on record, from 2003 to 2024. Across them the pass rate runs from 67.0% to 95.9% — a spread of 28.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.

  1. 2003 74.5% headlamp lens slightly defective
  2. 2005 67.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
  3. 2006 67.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
  4. 2007 67.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
  5. 2008 70.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
  6. 2009 71.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
  7. 2010 73.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
  8. 2011 73.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
  9. 2012 73.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
  10. 2013 74.9% track rod end ball joint dust…
  11. 2014 80.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
  12. 2015 81.5%
    registration plate lamp(s)…
  13. 2016 84.0% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
  14. 2017 85.8% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
  15. 2018 87.7% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
  16. 2019 88.7% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
  17. 2020 89.7% wipers does not clear the…
  18. 2021 90.4% wipers does not clear the…
  19. 2022 92.6% wipers does not clear the…
  20. 2023 95.0% has a cut in excess of the…
  21. 2024 95.9% 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 2015 Kia Sportage 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.

Compare 2015 with another year →

Compare two different cars instead →

Other 2015 cars with a similar record

Closest pass rates among 2015 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 2015 Kia Sportage 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 110,865 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 37,160 33.40% 20.89% +12.51
Tyres 28,334 25.40% 19.76% +5.64
Suspension 13,985 12.60% 20.98% −8.38
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 11,398 10.20% 12.21% −2.01
Non-component advisories 6,693 6.00% 4.18% +1.82
Visibility 5,322 4.80% 4.97% −0.17
Noise, emissions and leaks 4,283 3.80% 5.52% −1.72
Steering 1,761 1.60% 2.57% −0.97
Body, chassis, structure 1,215 1.10% 5.57% −4.47
Identification of the vehicle 714 0.60% 1.76% −1.16

The exact failure items, in the tester's words

Share of the 75,111 tests on this vehicle that recorded each item
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost Part
Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Minor 2.9% £5–20 Number Plate Lamp →
Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes Major 2.5% £45–110 Brake Discs and Pads Set →
Tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative Tyres Major 2.2% £45–95 Tyres →
Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility Minor 2.2% £80–200 Windscreen →
Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes Major 1.9% £18–45 Brake Pads Set →
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres Major 1.7% £45–95 Tyres →
Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes Major 1.3% £60–150 Brake Servicing →
Ball joint excessively worn Suspension Major 1.3% £18–45 Ball Joint →
Parking brake performance inoperative on one side Brakes Major 1.3% £60–150 Brake Servicing →
Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Major 1.1% £5–25 Headlight Bulb →

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.

Items recorded as advisory on this vehicle
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres Advisory 17.0% £45–95
Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes Advisory 13.8% £18–45
Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes Advisory 12.4% £45–110
Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres Advisory 11.2% £45–95
Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension Advisory 5.4% £40–150
Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories Advisory 4.4% £20–80

Pass rate by mileage

Mileage Tests Pass rate Median odometer
0-30k 1,716 91.2% 23,445 mi
30-60k 20,300 86.4% 48,766 mi
60-90k 34,922 80.6% 74,193 mi
90-120k 14,445 76.8% 101,611 mi
120k+ 3,723 76.1% 137,773 mi

Source: 75,111 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.

2015 Sportage MOT questions

What is the MOT pass rate for a 2015 Kia Sportage?

81.5% of the 75,111 2015 Kia Sportage tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 82.1% for cars first used in 2015. First-attempt pass rate: 77.6%.

What are the most common MOT failures on a 2015 Kia Sportage?

The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (2.85%), rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements (2.50%), tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative (2.23%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.

Does mileage affect the 2015 Kia Sportage MOT pass rate?

Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.2% of the time, falling to 76.1% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2015 Kia Sportage in this dataset had covered 72,329 mi.

Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2015 Kia Sportage?

Diesel: 81.9% pass rate across 59,439 tests. Petrol: 79.7% pass rate across 15,672 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.

Does the season affect the 2015 Kia Sportage MOT pass rate?

Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 81.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 81.7%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.