Pass rate
79.9%
Around average — 2.7 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 199 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £26–£67
2012 Mercedes-Benz A MOT pass rate
- 2012
- 3 trims combined
- typical 93,176 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
24.9% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 95.5% pass
- Avoid 2008 72.0% pass
Across the 16 years on record, a spread of 23.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 75.8%
- Typical mileage
- 93k mi
The 2012 Mercedes-Benz A MOT pass rate is 79.9% of its MOT tests — 2.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 24.9% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Mercedes-Benz A does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.3× the national share
Tyres make up 24.9% of everything recorded on the 2012 Mercedes-Benz A, against 19.8% nationally — 5.1 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 18% 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. 199 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 A? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Mercedes-Benz A first registered in 2012 is combined here — 3 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2012 Mercedes-Benz A compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, 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 75.8%. The median 2012 Mercedes-Benz A in this dataset had covered 93,176 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 74% of tests, with a 78.9% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 79.9% of the time, April–September 80.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 5.03% of tests.
- 199 recorded tests behind this page.
- 79.9% overall pass rate, 75.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Mercedes-Benz A, the average is 90.3% — best year 2023 (95.5%), worst 2008 (72.0%).
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
- 199
- Typical mileage (median)
- 93,176 mi
- Make and model
- Mercedes-Benz A
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Windscreen
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the A MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 63% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (74% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the A
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 34 | 85.3% |
| West Midlands | 30 | 80.0% |
| East of England | 27 | 74.1% |
| Yorkshire | 24 | 83.3% |
| East Midlands | 21 | 71.4% |
| North West | 17 | 76.5% |
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 A
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 A
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 windscreen 5.0% 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.
-
Check the suspension joints 4.5% of tests
“linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt”
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 coil springs 3.5% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
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 A through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £26–£67 — and 18% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £26–£67
- Cheapest common item: srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 18%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 199 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 A, side by side
16 model years on record, from 2005 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 72.0% to 95.5% — a spread of 23.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2005 77.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2006 74.6% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2007 75.7% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2008 72.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2012 79.9%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2013 78.9% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2014 79.0% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2015 83.5% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2016 86.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 88.8% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2018 87.3% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2019 89.9% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2020 91.1% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 91.8% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 92.7% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 95.5% 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 2012 Mercedes-Benz A 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
- Audi Q3 79.9%
- Volvo XC90 79.9%
- Volkswagen Cc 79.8%
- Nissan Pixo 79.8%
- Peugeot 107 80.1%
- Volvo XC60 80.1%
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 Mercedes-Benz A 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 310 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 | 79 | 24.90% | 19.76% | +5.14 |
| Brakes | 75 | 23.70% | 20.89% | +2.81 |
| Suspension | 62 | 19.60% | 20.98% | −1.38 |
| Visibility | 22 | 6.90% | 4.97% | +1.93 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 21 | 6.60% | 12.21% | −5.61 |
| Non-component advisories | 16 | 5.00% | 4.18% | +0.82 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 11 | 3.50% | 5.52% | −2.02 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 11 | 3.50% | 1.76% | +1.74 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 8 | 2.50% | 0.82% | +1.68 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 5 | 1.60% | 5.57% | −3.97 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 5.0% | £80–200 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 4.5% | £18–45 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 4.5% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 4.0% | £18–45 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 3.5% | £25–65 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 3.5% | £3–12 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.5% | £3–12 |
| Registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements Identification of the vehicle | Rectified | 2.0% | £20–80 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.5% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.5% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 22.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 12.6% | £45–110 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 7.0% | £18–45 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 6.5% | £80–180 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 5.5% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 4.5% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 16 | 93.8% | 50,593 mi |
| 60-90k | 78 | 71.8% | 77,330 mi |
| 90-120k | 51 | 84.3% | 104,278 mi |
| 120k+ | 54 | 83.3% | 144,934 mi |
Source: 199 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 A MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Mercedes-Benz A?
79.9% of the 199 2012 Mercedes-Benz A tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 75.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Mercedes-Benz A?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (5.03%), linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (4.52%), linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (4.52%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Mercedes-Benz A MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.8% of the time, falling to 83.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Mercedes-Benz A in this dataset had covered 93,176 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 Mercedes-Benz A?
Diesel: 78.9% pass rate across 147 tests. Petrol: 82.7% pass rate across 52 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2012 Mercedes-Benz A MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 79.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 80.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.