Pass rate
89.6%
Above average — 1.6 pts behind the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 20,278 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £39–£92
2021 Mercedes-Benz Cla MOT pass rate
- 2021
- 5 trims combined
- typical 33,071 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
49.5% 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 →
1.6 pts down across model years — 6.6% in 2013, 5.0% in 2022.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 93.8% pass
- Avoid 2013 80.1% pass
Across the 11 years on record, a spread of 13.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 88.5%
- Typical mileage
- 33k mi
The 2021 Mercedes-Benz Cla MOT pass rate is 89.6% of its MOT tests — 1.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 49.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Mercedes-Benz Cla does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.5× the national share
Tyres make up 49.5% of everything recorded on the 2021 Mercedes-Benz Cla, against 19.8% nationally — 29.7 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 20% 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.
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 Cla? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Mercedes-Benz Cla first registered in 2021 is combined here — 5 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2021 Mercedes-Benz Cla compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 1.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 88.5%. The median 2021 Mercedes-Benz Cla in this dataset had covered 33,071 mi.
65% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 89.7% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 89.3% of the time, April–September 89.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords", noted on 2.81% of tests.
- 20,278 recorded tests behind this page.
- 89.6% overall pass rate, 88.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Mercedes-Benz Cla, the average is 85.8% — best year 2023 (93.8%), worst 2013 (80.1%).
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
- 20,278
- Typical mileage (median)
- 33,071 mi
- Make and model
- Mercedes-Benz Cla
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Tyres
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Cla MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 78% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (65% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Cla
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 4,411 | 89.7% |
| North West | 2,988 | 90.6% |
| London | 2,039 | 87.6% |
| East of England | 1,942 | 88.3% |
| West Midlands | 1,885 | 90.6% |
| Yorkshire | 1,843 | 90.9% |
| Scotland | 1,683 | 89.1% |
| East Midlands | 1,180 | 89.4% |
| South West | 943 | 90.1% |
| North East | 758 | 88.9% |
| Wales | 604 | 89.7% |
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 2021 Cla
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 2021 Cla
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 2.2% 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 wipers and washers 1.6% of tests
“wipers blade defective”
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.
-
Check the tyre tread 1.5% 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.
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 2021 Cla through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £39–£92 — and 20% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £39–£92
- Cheapest common item: wipers blade defective
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 20%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 20,278 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 Cla, side by side
11 model years on record, from 2013 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 80.1% to 93.8% — a spread of 13.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2013 80.1% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 81.7% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2015 82.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2016 83.5% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2017 84.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 86.4% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2019 87.8% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 89.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 89.6%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 90.5% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 93.8% wipers blade 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 2021 Mercedes-Benz Cla 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 2021 cars with a similar record
- SEAT Arona Fr 89.6%
- BMW X5 XDRIVE30D 89.6%
- Hyundai Kona Ultimate Gdi 89.7%
- Peugeot Rifter 89.7%
- Hyundai I10 89.4%
- Polestar Polestar 89.4%
Closest pass rates among 2021 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 2021 Mercedes-Benz Cla 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 14,759 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 | 7,377 | 49.50% | 19.76% | +29.74 |
| Brakes | 3,425 | 23.00% | 20.89% | +2.11 |
| Visibility | 1,215 | 8.20% | 4.97% | +3.23 |
| Non-component advisories | 950 | 6.40% | 4.18% | +2.22 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 705 | 4.70% | 12.21% | −7.51 |
| Suspension | 450 | 3.00% | 20.98% | −17.98 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 232 | 1.60% | 1.76% | −0.16 |
| Road Wheels | 214 | 1.40% | 0.75% | +0.65 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 111 | 0.70% | 5.52% | −4.82 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 80 | 0.50% | 0.82% | −0.32 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 2.8% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.2% | £80–200 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.7% | £45–95 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.6% | £8–22 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.2% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.68% | £30–80 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 0.61% | £8–22 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.57% | £30–80 |
| Position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.51% | £5–25 |
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 | 13.3% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 9.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 7.5% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 3.1% | £45–110 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 3.0% | £45–110 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 2.6% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 8,559 | 91.8% | 20,784 mi |
| 30-60k | 9,939 | 88.1% | 41,809 mi |
| 60-90k | 1,540 | 87.1% | 70,265 mi |
| 90-120k | 196 | 86.7% | 100,846 mi |
| 120k+ | 40 | 90.0% | 139,617 mi |
Source: 20,278 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.
2021 Cla MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 Mercedes-Benz Cla?
89.6% of the 20,278 2021 Mercedes-Benz Cla tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 88.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 Mercedes-Benz Cla?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (2.81%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.16%), has ply or cords exposed (1.70%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 Mercedes-Benz Cla MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.8% of the time, falling to 90.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 Mercedes-Benz Cla in this dataset had covered 33,071 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2021 Mercedes-Benz Cla?
Petrol: 89.7% pass rate across 13,101 tests. Diesel: 89.8% pass rate across 4,220 tests. Hybrid: 89.0% pass rate across 2,957 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2021 Mercedes-Benz Cla MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 89.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 89.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.