Pass rate
88.9%
Above average — 1.0 pts ahead of the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 1,841 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £58–£160
2018 Mercedes-Benz Gls MOT pass rate
- 2018
- 3 trims combined
- typical 52,152 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
42.3% 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 2017 90.7% pass
- Avoid 2021 87.9% pass
Across the 7 years on record, a spread of 2.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 87.6%
- Typical mileage
- 52k mi
The 2018 Mercedes-Benz Gls MOT pass rate is 88.9% of its MOT tests — 1.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 42.3% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Mercedes-Benz Gls does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.1× the national share
Tyres make up 42.3% of everything recorded on the 2018 Mercedes-Benz Gls, against 19.8% nationally — 22.5 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 4% 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 Gls? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Mercedes-Benz Gls first registered in 2018 is combined here — 3 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2018 Mercedes-Benz Gls compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, so this figure is 1.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 87.6%. The median 2018 Mercedes-Benz Gls in this dataset had covered 52,152 mi.
87% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 88.6% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 88.6% of the time, April–September 89.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated", noted on 4.62% of tests.
- 1,841 recorded tests behind this page.
- 88.9% overall pass rate, 87.6% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Mercedes-Benz Gls, the average is 89.6% — best year 2017 (90.7%), worst 2021 (87.9%).
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
- 1,841
- Typical mileage (median)
- 52,152 mi
- Make and model
- Mercedes-Benz Gls
- 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 Gls MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 76% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (87% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Gls
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 640 | 87.2% |
| London | 244 | 93.9% |
| East of England | 173 | 91.3% |
| North West | 170 | 86.5% |
| West Midlands | 130 | 90.8% |
| Yorkshire | 109 | 95.4% |
| Scotland | 102 | 90.2% |
| East Midlands | 99 | 82.8% |
| South West | 99 | 84.8% |
| Wales | 47 | 89.4% |
| North East | 28 | 78.6% |
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 2018 Gls
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 2018 Gls
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 2.7% 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 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.
-
Check the brakes 0.8% of tests
“brake pads worn down to wear indicator”
Look through the spokes of each wheel at the pad — less than 3mm of friction material, or a lip on the disc edge, is the usual failure. Check the handbrake holds on a slope with a few clicks, not at the top of its travel.
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 2018 Gls through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £58–£160 — and 4% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £58–£160
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 4%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 1,841 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 Gls, side by side
7 model years on record, from 2016 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 87.9% to 90.7% — a spread of 2.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2016 89.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 90.7% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2018 88.9%joints constant velocity boot…
- 2019 90.6% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2020 89.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 87.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2022 87.9% 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 2018 Mercedes-Benz Gls 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 2018 cars with a similar record
- MINI John COOPER Works 88.9%
- Alfa Romeo Giulia 88.9%
- BMW 3 Series 89.0%
- BMW 218 89.0%
- MINI Clubman 89.0%
- Hyundai I10 88.8%
Closest pass rates among 2018 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 2018 Mercedes-Benz Gls 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 1,272 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 | 540 | 42.30% | 19.76% | +22.54 |
| Brakes | 309 | 24.20% | 20.89% | +3.31 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 113 | 8.80% | 5.57% | +3.23 |
| Non-component advisories | 88 | 6.90% | 4.18% | +2.72 |
| Visibility | 72 | 5.60% | 4.97% | +0.63 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 41 | 3.20% | 12.21% | −9.01 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 41 | 3.20% | 5.52% | −2.32 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 33 | 2.60% | 1.76% | +0.84 |
| Suspension | 25 | 2.00% | 20.98% | −18.98 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 10 | 0.80% | 0.82% | −0.02 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 4.6% | £80–250 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.7% | £80–200 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 2.0% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.2% | £45–95 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.1% | £80–250 |
| Brake pads worn down to wear indicator Brakes | Major | 0.76% | £18–45 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.71% | £3–12 |
| Registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements Identification of the vehicle | Major | 0.71% | £20–80 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.65% | £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 | 15.8% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 5.7% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 4.7% | £45–110 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 3.2% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.9% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.4% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 213 | 93.4% | 22,799 mi |
| 30-60k | 988 | 89.6% | 45,733 mi |
| 60-90k | 494 | 86.2% | 71,594 mi |
| 90-120k | 115 | 84.3% | 103,032 mi |
| 120k+ | 31 | 93.5% | 139,646 mi |
Source: 1,841 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.
2018 Gls MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 Mercedes-Benz Gls?
88.9% of the 1,841 2018 Mercedes-Benz Gls tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 87.6%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 Mercedes-Benz Gls?
The three most recorded items are joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (4.62%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.66%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.96%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 Mercedes-Benz Gls MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.4% of the time, falling to 93.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 Mercedes-Benz Gls in this dataset had covered 52,152 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2018 Mercedes-Benz Gls?
Diesel: 88.6% pass rate across 1,606 tests. Petrol: 90.6% pass rate across 235 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2018 Mercedes-Benz Gls MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 88.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 89.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.