Pass rate
86.7%
Above average — 2.7 pts ahead of the 84.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 248 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £31–£71
2016 Mercedes-Benz 220 MOT pass rate
- 2016
- typical 80,121 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
38.3% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 96.5% pass
- Avoid 2013 70.0% pass
Across the 15 years on record, a spread of 26.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 84.9%
- Typical mileage
- 80k mi
The 2016 Mercedes-Benz 220 MOT pass rate is 86.7% of its MOT tests — 2.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 38.3% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Mercedes-Benz 220 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.9× the national share
Tyres make up 38.3% of everything recorded on the 2016 Mercedes-Benz 220, against 19.8% nationally — 18.5 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.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 21% 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.
- Based on a small sample. 248 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 Mercedes-Benz 220? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2016 Mercedes-Benz 220 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 84.0%, so this figure is 2.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 84.9%. The median 2016 Mercedes-Benz 220 in this dataset had covered 80,121 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 87.0% of the time, April–September 86.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated", noted on 1.61% of tests.
- 248 recorded tests behind this page.
- 86.7% overall pass rate, 84.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Mercedes-Benz 220, the average is 78.7% — best year 2019 (96.5%), worst 2013 (70.0%).
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
- 248
- Typical mileage (median)
- 80,121 mi
- Make and model
- Mercedes-Benz 220
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
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 220 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 76% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 220
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 56 | 83.9% |
| West Midlands | 31 | 83.9% |
| London | 31 | 90.3% |
| North West | 24 | 91.7% |
| Scotland | 21 | 76.2% |
| East Midlands | 18 | 83.3% |
| East of England | 17 | 100.0% |
| Wales | 15 | 80.0% |
| Yorkshire | 15 | 93.3% |
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 2016 220
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 2016 220
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 1.6% 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 tyre tread 1.6% of tests
“tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm”
Check all four tyres cold, including the inner shoulder where wear hides — 1.6mm across the central three-quarters is the legal limit, and most testers fail at 1.6mm without argument.
-
Check the lights 1.2% 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.
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 2016 220 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £31–£71 — and 21% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £31–£71
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £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
- 21%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 248 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 220, side by side
15 model years on record, from 2005 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 70.0% to 96.5% — a spread of 26.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2005 75.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 73.9% ball joint excessively worn
- 2007 71.3% rigid brake pipes excessively…
- 2008 72.5% ball joint excessively worn
- 2009 73.4% ball joint excessively worn
- 2010 76.6% ball joint excessively worn
- 2011 74.1% ball joint excessively worn
- 2012 73.5% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2013 70.0% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2014 85.8% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2015 83.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 86.7%ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2017 86.8% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2018 84.4% tread depth below requirements of…
- 2019 96.5% has ply or cords exposed
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 2016 Mercedes-Benz 220 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 2016 cars with a similar record
Closest pass rates among 2016 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 2016 Mercedes-Benz 220 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 253 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 | 97 | 38.30% | 19.76% | +18.54 |
| Brakes | 62 | 24.50% | 20.89% | +3.61 |
| Suspension | 39 | 15.40% | 20.98% | −5.58 |
| Non-component advisories | 23 | 9.10% | 4.18% | +4.92 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 12 | 4.70% | 12.21% | −7.51 |
| Visibility | 9 | 3.60% | 4.97% | −1.37 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 5 | 2.00% | 5.52% | −3.52 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 4 | 1.60% | 1.76% | −0.16 |
| Steering | 1 | 0.40% | 2.57% | −2.17 |
| Road Wheels | 1 | 0.40% | 0.75% | −0.35 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.6% | £18–45 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.6% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.6% | £45–95 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.2% | £3–12 |
| Tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative Tyres | Major | 1.2% | £45–95 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Rectified | 1.2% | £5–15 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.81% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.81% | £30–80 |
| Service brake performance efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 0.81% | £60–150 |
| Tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative Tyres | Rectified | 0.81% | £45–95 |
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 | 19.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 9.7% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 7.7% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.7% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 5.2% | £45–95 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 4.4% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 6 | 100.0% | 15,713 mi |
| 30-60k | 69 | 87.0% | 47,896 mi |
| 60-90k | 76 | 86.8% | 76,490 mi |
| 90-120k | 59 | 84.7% | 103,717 mi |
| 120k+ | 38 | 86.8% | 161,935 mi |
Source: 248 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.
2016 220 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2016 Mercedes-Benz 220?
86.7% of the 248 2016 Mercedes-Benz 220 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 84.0% for cars first used in 2016. First-attempt pass rate: 84.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2016 Mercedes-Benz 220?
The three most recorded items are ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (1.61%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.61%), tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (1.61%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2016 Mercedes-Benz 220 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 86.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2016 Mercedes-Benz 220 in this dataset had covered 80,121 mi.
Does the season affect the 2016 Mercedes-Benz 220 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 87.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 86.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.