Pass rate
84.5%
Around average — 3.4 pts behind the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 103 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £17–£49
2018 Mazda E Series MOT pass rate
- 2018
- typical 92,397 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Lamps & electrics
22.4% of faults · 12.2% nationally
Which year to buy
- Best 2018 84.5% pass · this year
- Avoid 2012 63.9% pass
Across the 12 years on record, a spread of 20.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 82.0%
- Typical mileage
- 92k mi
The 2018 Mazda E Series MOT pass rate is 84.5% of its MOT tests — 3.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Lamps & electrics is the biggest single reason it fails, at 22.4% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.8× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 22.4% of everything recorded on the 2018 Mazda E Series, against 12.2% nationally — 10.2 points above. Walk round the car with the lights on before the test: bulbs, indicators and number-plate lamps are the cheapest failures to prevent and among the most common.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 87.9%; this one manages 84.5% — 3.4 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 64% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
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 Mazda E Series? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2018 Mazda E Series compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, 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 82.0%. The median 2018 Mazda E Series in this dataset had covered 92,397 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp lens slightly defective", noted on 13.59% of tests.
- 103 recorded tests behind this page.
- 84.5% overall pass rate, 82.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Mazda E Series, the average is 72.7% — best year 2018 (84.5%), worst 2012 (63.9%).
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
- 103
- Typical mileage (median)
- 92,397 mi
- Make and model
- Mazda E Series
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Headlight Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the E Series MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 63% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Mazda E Series is most common
Across all E Series model years on record (2000–2018): 929 Mazda E Series cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 2,566 tests. Portsmouth (PO) has the most, with 52 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 | Portsmouth (PO) | 52 | 75.0% |
| 2 | Poole (BH) | 47 | 63.1% |
| 3 | Plymouth (PL) | 41 | 63.9% |
| 4 | Bristol (BS) | 37 | 68.9% |
| 5 | Southampton (SO) | 29 | 73.4% |
| 6 | Exeter (EX) | 28 | 72.5% |
| 7 | Brighton (BN) | 26 | 69.6% |
| 8 | Leicester (LE) | 24 | 85.0% |
| 9 | Yeovil (BA) | 21 | 79.2% |
| 10 | Truro (TR) | 19 | 72.0% |
| 11 | Guildford (GU) | 17 | 75.0% |
| 12 | Edinburgh (EH) | 17 | 70.5% |
| 13 | Newton Abbot (TQ) | 16 | 62.1% |
| 14 | Norwich (NR) | 14 | 75.6% |
| 15 | Taunton (TA) | 14 | — |
| 16 | Dorchester (DT) | 13 | 71.9% |
| 17 | Birmingham (B) | 13 | 76.7% |
| 18 | Ashford (TN) | 13 | 70.0% |
| 19 | Crawley (RH) | 13 | — |
| 20 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 12 | 80.0% |
The twenty areas with the most Mazda E Series 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 E Series
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 37 | 78.4% |
| South East | 23 | 87.0% |
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 2018 E Series
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 E Series
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 13.6% of tests
“headlamp lens slightly defective”
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 suspension joints 4.8% of tests
“ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated”
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 wipers and washers 2.9% of tests
“wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively”
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.
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 E Series through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £17–£49 — and 64% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £17–£49
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp with a multiple light source up to…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: service brake performance efficiency below…
- £60–£150
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 64%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 103 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 E Series, side by side
12 model years on record, from 2000 to 2018. Across them the pass rate runs from 63.9% to 84.5% — a spread of 20.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 72.1% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2001 70.9% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2002 74.6% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2003 75.4% rear fog lamp not working
- 2004 69.7% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2011 64.1% component mounting prescribed…
- 2012 63.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2013 66.4% component mounting prescribed…
- 2014 75.1% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2015 73.6% component mounting prescribed…
- 2017 74.1% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2018 84.5%headlamp lens slightly defective
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 Mazda E Series 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
- Vauxhall Corsa 84.5%
- Citroen C4 84.6%
- Renault Megane 84.4%
- Vauxhall Crossland 84.7%
- SEAT Arona 84.3%
- Vauxhall Mokka 84.2%
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 Mazda E Series 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 196 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 44 | 22.40% | 12.21% | +10.19 |
| Suspension | 41 | 20.90% | 20.98% | −0.08 |
| Brakes | 39 | 19.90% | 20.89% | −0.99 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 26 | 13.30% | 5.52% | +7.78 |
| Tyres | 22 | 11.20% | 19.76% | −8.56 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 7 | 3.60% | 5.57% | −1.97 |
| Visibility | 7 | 3.60% | 4.97% | −1.37 |
| Steering | 6 | 3.10% | 2.57% | +0.53 |
| Non-component advisories | 4 | 2.00% | 4.18% | −2.18 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 13.6% | £5–25 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 4.8% | £18–45 |
| Position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.9% | £5–25 |
| Stop lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.9% | £3–12 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.9% | £3–15 |
| Service brake imbalance across an axle Brakes | Major | 2.9% | £45–110 |
| Service brake performance efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 2.9% | £60–150 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 2.9% | £60–150 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 2.9% | £8–22 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.9% | £18–45 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 21.4% | £200–700 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 12.6% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 11.7% | £45–95 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 8.7% | £18–45 |
| Linkage pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 7.8% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 5.8% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2 | 100.0% | 23,797 mi |
| 30-60k | 14 | 71.4% | 51,803 mi |
| 60-90k | 34 | 79.4% | 75,003 mi |
| 90-120k | 20 | 95.0% | 101,684 mi |
| 120k+ | 33 | 87.9% | 146,529 mi |
Source: 103 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 E Series MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 Mazda E Series?
84.5% of the 103 2018 Mazda E Series tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 82.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 Mazda E Series?
The three most recorded items are headlamp lens slightly defective (13.59%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (4.85%), position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning (3.88%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 Mazda E Series MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 87.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 Mazda E Series in this dataset had covered 92,397 mi.