Pass rate
79.0%
Around average — 1.8 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 100 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £36–£86
2012 Mercedes-Benz C250 MOT pass rate
- 2012
- 2 trims combined
- typical 121,925 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
33.1% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2010 83.9% pass
- Avoid 2009 74.7% pass
Across the 4 years on record, a spread of 9.2 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 73.4%
- Typical mileage
- 122k mi
The 2012 Mercedes-Benz C250 MOT pass rate is 79.0% of its MOT tests — 1.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 33.1% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Mercedes-Benz C250 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.6× the national share
Suspension accounts for 33.1% of everything recorded on the 2012 Mercedes-Benz C250, against 21.0% nationally — 12.1 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 0% 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. 100 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 C250? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Mercedes-Benz C250 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 Mercedes-Benz C250 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 1.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 73.4%. The median 2012 Mercedes-Benz C250 in this dataset had covered 121,925 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 80.0% of the time, April–September 77.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated", noted on 6.00% of tests.
- 100 recorded tests behind this page.
- 79.0% overall pass rate, 73.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Mercedes-Benz C250, the average is 79.3% — best year 2010 (83.9%), worst 2009 (74.7%).
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
- 100
- Typical mileage (median)
- 121,925 mi
- Make and model
- Mercedes-Benz C250
- 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 C250 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 67% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the C250
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 31 | 77.4% |
| East of England | 21 | 85.7% |
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 C250
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 C250
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 6.0% 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 brake pipes 5.0% of tests
“rigid brake pipes excessively corroded”
Brake pipes run under the car, usually in front of the rear wheels. Flaking or crusty metal is what fails; a light dusting of surface rust does not. Worth asking a garage to look while it is on a ramp.
-
Check the windscreen 3.0% 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.
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 C250 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £36–£86 — and 0% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £36–£86
- Cheapest common item: ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated
- £18–£45
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 0%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 100 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 C250, side by side
4 model years on record, from 2009 to 2012. Across them the pass rate runs from 74.7% to 83.9% — a spread of 9.2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2009 74.7% ball joint excessively worn
- 2010 83.9% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2011 80.3% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2012 79.0%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 Mercedes-Benz C250 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
- Volkswagen Sharan 79.0%
- BMW 116 79.1%
- Citroen C1 79.2%
- Skoda Yeti 78.8%
- Volkswagen Golf 78.7%
- Toyota Aygo 79.3%
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 Mercedes-Benz C250 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 160 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 | 53 | 33.10% | 20.98% | +12.12 |
| Brakes | 46 | 28.80% | 20.89% | +7.91 |
| Tyres | 28 | 17.50% | 19.76% | −2.26 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 10 | 6.20% | 12.21% | −6.01 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 9 | 5.60% | 5.52% | +0.08 |
| Non-component advisories | 5 | 3.10% | 4.18% | −1.08 |
| Visibility | 3 | 1.90% | 4.97% | −3.07 |
| Steering | 3 | 1.90% | 2.57% | −0.67 |
| Road Wheels | 2 | 1.20% | 0.75% | +0.45 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1 | 0.60% | 5.57% | −4.97 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 6.0% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 6.0% | £18–45 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 5.0% | £80–180 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 3.0% | £18–45 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 3.0% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.0% | £80–200 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 2.0% | £18–45 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 2.0% | £25–65 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 2.0% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 2.0% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 22.0% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 14.0% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 9.0% | £40–150 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 7.0% | £200–700 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 6.0% | £18–45 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 6.0% | £180–450 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2 | 100.0% | 27,371 mi |
| 30-60k | 2 | 100.0% | 44,462 mi |
| 60-90k | 20 | 80.0% | 77,775 mi |
| 90-120k | 22 | 81.8% | 103,122 mi |
| 120k+ | 54 | 75.9% | 149,293 mi |
Source: 100 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 C250 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Mercedes-Benz C250?
79.0% of the 100 2012 Mercedes-Benz C250 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 73.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Mercedes-Benz C250?
The three most recorded items are ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (6.00%), ball joint excessively worn (6.00%), rigid brake pipes excessively corroded (5.00%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Mercedes-Benz C250 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 75.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Mercedes-Benz C250 in this dataset had covered 121,925 mi.
Does the season affect the 2012 Mercedes-Benz C250 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 80.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 77.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.