Pass rate
91.3%
Above average — 14.1 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 126 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £15–£48
2012 Lotus Evora MOT pass rate
- 2012
- 2 trims combined
- typical 47,020 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
26.2% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2020 98.3% pass
- Avoid 2009 88.4% pass
Across the 12 years on record, a spread of 9.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 90.8%
- Typical mileage
- 47k mi
The 2012 Lotus Evora MOT pass rate is 91.3% of its MOT tests — 14.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.2% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Brakes: 1.3× the national share
Brakes make up 26.2% of everything recorded on the 2012 Lotus Evora, against 20.9% nationally — 5.3 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 26.2%, but at 21.0% nationally that one is ordinary. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.
- 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 77.2% and this one manages 91.3% — 14.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Based on a small sample. 126 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 Lotus Evora? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Lotus Evora first registered in 2012 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2012 Lotus Evora compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 14.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 90.8%. The median 2012 Lotus Evora in this dataset had covered 47,020 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 94.2% of the time, April–September 89.2%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction", noted on 1.59% of tests.
- 126 recorded tests behind this page.
- 91.3% overall pass rate, 90.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Lotus Evora, the average is 91.8% — best year 2020 (98.3%), worst 2009 (88.4%).
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
- 126
- Typical mileage (median)
- 47,020 mi
- Make and model
- Lotus Evora
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Indicator Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Evora MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 72% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Lotus Evora is most common
Across all Evora model years on record (2009–2020): 1,258 Lotus Evora cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 2,402 tests. Guildford (GU) has the most, with 90 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 | Guildford (GU) | 90 | 91.2% |
| 2 | Northampton (NN) | 84 | 90.4% |
| 3 | Norwich (NR) | 41 | 90.1% |
| 4 | Crewe (CW) | 40 | 94.4% |
| 5 | Edinburgh (EH) | 38 | 87.2% |
| 6 | Chelmsford (CM) | 38 | 95.4% |
| 7 | Ashford (TN) | 37 | 89.6% |
| 8 | Southampton (SO) | 34 | 89.5% |
| 9 | Nottingham (NG) | 33 | 88.7% |
| 10 | Derby (DE) | 31 | 98.4% |
| 11 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 28 | 82.8% |
| 12 | Reading (RG) | 27 | 86.0% |
| 13 | Bristol (BS) | 26 | 91.3% |
| 14 | Ipswich (IP) | 25 | 87.2% |
| 15 | Birmingham (B) | 25 | 95.7% |
| 16 | Leicester (LE) | 24 | 84.6% |
| 17 | Peterborough (PE) | 22 | 90.7% |
| 18 | Poole (BH) | 20 | 88.9% |
| 19 | Gloucester (GL) | 18 | 90.3% |
| 20 | Oxford (OX) | 17 | 89.5% |
The twenty areas with the most Lotus Evora 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 Evora
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 41 | 92.7% |
| East Midlands | 22 | 86.4% |
| East of England | 15 | 80.0% |
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 2012 Evora
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 Evora
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 1.6% of tests
“malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction”
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 number plates 1.6% of tests
“registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements”
Check both plates are present, legible and correctly spaced, with the postcode of the supplier and the BS AU 145e mark. A private plate in the wrong style is a fail before the car is even looked at.
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 Evora through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £15–£48 — and 54% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £15–£48
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: lever ratchet not holding correctly
- £45–£110
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 54%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 126 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 Evora, side by side
12 model years on record, from 2009 to 2020. Across them the pass rate runs from 88.4% to 98.3% — a spread of 9.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2009 88.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2010 89.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2011 90.2% position lamp with a multiple…
- 2012 91.3%malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2013 92.0% position lamp with a multiple…
- 2014 90.9% catalyst emissions lambda reading…
- 2015 90.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 94.6% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2017 94.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 94.9% anti-lock braking system warning…
- 2019 95.5% anti-lock braking system warning…
- 2020 98.3% ball joint dust cover severely…
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 Lotus Evora 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
- Porsche Boxster 91.6%
- Audi A8 90.2%
- Honda Fit 89.3%
- Porsche 911 93.4%
- Bentley Continental 93.4%
- Toyota Estima 88.3%
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 Lotus Evora 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 9 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 61 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 16 | 26.20% | 20.98% | +5.22 |
| Brakes | 16 | 26.20% | 20.89% | +5.31 |
| Tyres | 11 | 18.00% | 19.76% | −1.76 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 7 | 11.50% | 12.21% | −0.71 |
| Non-component advisories | 3 | 4.90% | 4.18% | +0.72 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2 | 3.30% | 5.52% | −2.22 |
| Visibility | 2 | 3.30% | 4.97% | −1.67 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 2 | 3.30% | 1.76% | +1.54 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 2 | 3.30% | 0.82% | +2.48 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.6% | £3–12 |
| Registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements Identification of the vehicle | Major | 1.6% | £20–80 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 1.6% | £3–12 |
| Headlamp aim too far to the right Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.79% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.79% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.79% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.79% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp not working on main beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.79% | £5–25 |
| Individual direction indicators not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.79% | £3–12 |
| Lever ratchet not holding correctly Brakes | Major | 0.79% | £45–110 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 6.3% | £45–110 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 4.0% | £18–45 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 3.2% | £25–65 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 3.2% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.4% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.4% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 31 | 96.8% | 21,688 mi |
| 30-60k | 71 | 90.1% | 46,982 mi |
| 60-90k | 19 | 89.5% | 71,618 mi |
| 90-120k | 5 | 80.0% | 104,843 mi |
Source: 126 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 Evora MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Lotus Evora?
91.3% of the 126 2012 Lotus Evora tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 90.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Lotus Evora?
The three most recorded items are malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (1.59%), registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements (1.59%), srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault (1.59%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Lotus Evora MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 96.8% of the time, falling to 80.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Lotus Evora in this dataset had covered 47,020 mi.
Does the season affect the 2012 Lotus Evora MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 94.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 89.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.