Pass rate
86.9%
Above average — 0.9 pts ahead of the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 42,941 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £46–£129
2017 Mercedes-Benz Gla MOT pass rate
- 2017
- 6 trims combined
- typical 52,888 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
36.7% 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 →
2.2 pts down across model years — 6.1% in 2014, 3.9% in 2022.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 96.4% pass
- Avoid 2015 84.6% pass
Across the 10 years on record, a spread of 11.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 85.1%
- Typical mileage
- 53k mi
The 2017 Mercedes-Benz Gla MOT pass rate is 86.9% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 36.7% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Mercedes-Benz Gla does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.9× the national share
Tyres make up 36.7% of everything recorded on the 2017 Mercedes-Benz Gla, against 19.8% nationally — 16.9 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 8% 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 Gla? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Mercedes-Benz Gla first registered in 2017 is combined here — 6 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2017 Mercedes-Benz Gla compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 0.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 85.1%. The median 2017 Mercedes-Benz Gla in this dataset had covered 52,888 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 78% of tests, with a 86.6% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 87.0% of the time, April–September 86.7%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt", noted on 2.80% of tests.
- 42,941 recorded tests behind this page.
- 86.9% overall pass rate, 85.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Mercedes-Benz Gla, the average is 88.6% — best year 2023 (96.4%), worst 2015 (84.6%).
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
- 42,941
- Typical mileage (median)
- 52,888 mi
- Make and model
- Mercedes-Benz Gla
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Body Panel Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Gla MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 71% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (78% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Gla
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 8,683 | 87.5% |
| North West | 5,683 | 85.8% |
| East of England | 4,180 | 87.7% |
| Scotland | 3,902 | 83.9% |
| West Midlands | 3,898 | 88.5% |
| Yorkshire | 3,529 | 86.9% |
| South West | 3,183 | 86.5% |
| London | 3,160 | 88.0% |
| East Midlands | 2,849 | 87.5% |
| Wales | 2,099 | 85.3% |
| North East | 1,773 | 87.6% |
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 2017 Gla
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 2017 Gla
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 1.5% of tests
“linkage ball joint dust cover 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 coil springs 1.4% 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.
-
Check the windscreen 1.3% 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 2017 Gla through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £46–£129 — and 8% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £46–£129
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot split or…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 8%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 42,941 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 Gla, side by side
10 model years on record, from 2014 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 84.6% to 96.4% — a spread of 11.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2014 85.6% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2015 84.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2016 85.3% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2017 86.9%joints constant velocity boot…
- 2018 88.8% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2019 90.5% tread depth below requirements of…
- 2020 93.1% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 93.4% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 93.4% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 96.4% windscreen damaged but not…
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 2017 Mercedes-Benz Gla 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 2017 cars with a similar record
- Volkswagen Passat 86.9%
- Hyundai I40 87.0%
- BMW X4 87.0%
- Mitsubishi L200 86.8%
- Hyundai I30 86.8%
- Volvo XC90 86.8%
Closest pass rates among 2017 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 2017 Mercedes-Benz Gla 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 39,839 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 | 14,722 | 36.70% | 19.76% | +16.94 |
| Brakes | 10,639 | 26.50% | 20.89% | +5.61 |
| Suspension | 3,732 | 9.30% | 20.98% | −11.68 |
| Non-component advisories | 2,922 | 7.30% | 4.18% | +3.12 |
| Visibility | 2,212 | 5.50% | 4.97% | +0.53 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 2,034 | 5.10% | 5.57% | −0.47 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,916 | 4.80% | 12.21% | −7.41 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 888 | 2.20% | 5.52% | −3.32 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 635 | 1.60% | 1.76% | −0.16 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 139 | 0.30% | 0.82% | −0.52 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 2.8% | £80–250 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.5% | £18–45 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 1.4% | £80–250 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 1.4% | £25–65 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.3% | £80–200 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.2% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.2% | £45–95 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.2% | £3–12 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.1% | £18–45 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.0% | £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 | 16.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 9.5% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 8.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 7.5% | £45–110 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 4.4% | £45–110 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 3.0% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 4,533 | 93.2% | 22,947 mi |
| 30-60k | 22,491 | 87.9% | 45,857 mi |
| 60-90k | 12,750 | 84.1% | 71,800 mi |
| 90-120k | 2,612 | 81.6% | 100,580 mi |
| 120k+ | 547 | 79.0% | 138,456 mi |
Source: 42,941 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.
2017 Gla MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2017 Mercedes-Benz Gla?
86.9% of the 42,941 2017 Mercedes-Benz Gla tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 85.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2017 Mercedes-Benz Gla?
The three most recorded items are joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (2.80%), linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (1.53%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (1.43%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2017 Mercedes-Benz Gla MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.2% of the time, falling to 79.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 Mercedes-Benz Gla in this dataset had covered 52,888 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2017 Mercedes-Benz Gla?
Diesel: 86.6% pass rate across 33,596 tests. Petrol: 87.9% pass rate across 9,345 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2017 Mercedes-Benz Gla MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 87.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 86.7%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.