Pass rate
92.1%
Above average — 0.9 pts ahead of the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 71,472 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £37–£85
2021 MINI COOPER MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 21,198 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
60.0% 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 →
2.7 pts down across model years — 4.7% in 2002, 2.0% in 2023.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 96.9% pass
- Avoid 2001 68.1% pass
Across the 23 years on record, a spread of 28.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 91.5%
- Typical mileage
- 21k mi
The 2021 MINI COOPER MOT pass rate is 92.1% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 60.0% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 3.0× the national share
Tyres make up 60.0% of everything recorded on the 2021 MINI Cooper, against 19.8% nationally — 40.2 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 34% 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 MINI COOPER? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 MINI COOPER compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, 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 91.5%. The median 2021 MINI COOPER in this dataset had covered 21,198 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 75% of tests, with a 92.6% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 92.4% of the time, April–September 91.8%.
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 2.54% of tests.
- 71,472 recorded tests behind this page.
- 92.1% overall pass rate, 91.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the MINI COOPER, the average is 89.6% — best year 2023 (96.9%), worst 2001 (68.1%).
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
- 71,472
- Typical mileage (median)
- 21,198 mi
- Make and model
- MINI COOPER
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
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 COOPER 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 (75% of tests).
Where the MINI COOPER is most common
Across all COOPER model years on record (2001–2023): 489,455 MINI COOPER cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 1,001,724 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 12,859 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham (B) | 12,859 | 90.7% |
| 2 | Guildford (GU) | 10,203 | 88.8% |
| 3 | Reading (RG) | 9,485 | 88.9% |
| 4 | Sheffield (S) | 9,181 | 91.1% |
| 5 | Glasgow (G) | 9,150 | 86.8% |
| 6 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 8,866 | 91.5% |
| 7 | Nottingham (NG) | 8,444 | 88.5% |
| 8 | Bristol (BS) | 8,422 | 88.1% |
| 9 | Peterborough (PE) | 8,260 | 90.9% |
| 10 | Coventry (CV) | 7,960 | 90.6% |
| 11 | Leicester (LE) | 7,805 | 90.6% |
| 12 | Chelmsford (CM) | 7,424 | 89.5% |
| 13 | Brighton (BN) | 7,405 | 87.7% |
| 14 | Ashford (TN) | 7,262 | 88.7% |
| 15 | Edinburgh (EH) | 7,256 | 87.0% |
| 16 | Oxford (OX) | 7,229 | 91.2% |
| 17 | Northampton (NN) | 7,213 | 88.5% |
| 18 | Kingston upon Thames (KT) | 6,970 | 91.2% |
| 19 | Derby (DE) | 6,725 | 91.2% |
| 20 | Stockport (SK) | 6,620 | 89.4% |
The twenty areas with the most MINI COOPER cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
Regional pass rates for the COOPER
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 16,462 | 91.6% |
| North West | 8,947 | 92.5% |
| East of England | 7,389 | 92.0% |
| South West | 6,760 | 92.1% |
| Scotland | 6,597 | 90.1% |
| West Midlands | 6,534 | 92.9% |
| Yorkshire | 6,240 | 93.2% |
| East Midlands | 4,673 | 92.5% |
| North East | 2,952 | 94.5% |
| London | 2,692 | 91.4% |
| Wales | 2,223 | 93.5% |
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 2021 COOPER
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 COOPER
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 2.0% 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 wipers and washers 1.7% 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 lights 0.7% of tests
“headlamp aim too high”
Switch everything on and walk round the car: both headlamps on dip and main, every indicator, both brake lights, reverse, fog and the two number-plate lamps. A bulb is a few pounds and a five-minute job.
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 COOPER through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £37–£85 — and 34% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £37–£85
- Cheapest common item: wipers blade defective
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 34%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 71,472 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 COOPER, side by side
23 model years on record, from 2001 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 68.1% to 96.9% — a spread of 28.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2001 68.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2002 68.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2003 71.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2004 70.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2005 70.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2006 72.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2007 73.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2008 73.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 76.0% position lamp not working
- 2010 80.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2011 82.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 84.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 84.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 86.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 88.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 89.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 89.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 90.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 92.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 92.3% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 92.1%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 92.9% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 96.9% 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 2021 MINI COOPER 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
- Fiat 500 Lounge 92.1%
- MG Hs Excite 92.1%
- Audi Q7 92.1%
- Audi Q2 Technik 92.1%
- Hyundai I20 Element T-Gdi 92.1%
- Mitsubishi Outlander Dynamic 92.1%
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 MINI COOPER 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 35,459 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 | 21,370 | 60.00% | 19.76% | +40.24 |
| Visibility | 5,009 | 14.10% | 4.97% | +9.13 |
| Brakes | 3,674 | 10.30% | 20.89% | −10.59 |
| Non-component advisories | 2,554 | 7.20% | 4.18% | +3.02 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 989 | 2.80% | 12.21% | −9.41 |
| Road Wheels | 979 | 2.80% | 0.75% | +2.05 |
| Suspension | 394 | 1.10% | 20.98% | −19.88 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 315 | 0.90% | 1.76% | −0.86 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 94 | 0.30% | 5.57% | −5.27 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 81 | 0.20% | 0.82% | −0.62 |
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 | 2.5% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.0% | £80–200 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.7% | £8–22 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.4% | £8–22 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 1.2% | £45–95 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 1.1% | £8–22 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.95% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.72% | £30–80 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.50% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.30% | £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 | 10.4% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 7.7% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 2.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 2.7% | £18–45 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 1.6% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.6% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 53,999 | 92.9% | 17,647 mi |
| 30-60k | 16,428 | 90.1% | 38,705 mi |
| 60-90k | 940 | 86.7% | 68,923 mi |
| 90-120k | 82 | 91.5% | 99,718 mi |
| 120k+ | 8 | 87.5% | 145,554 mi |
Source: 71,472 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 COOPER MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 MINI COOPER?
92.1% of the 71,472 2021 MINI COOPER tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 91.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 MINI COOPER?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (2.54%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.01%), wipers blade defective (1.72%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 MINI COOPER MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 92.9% of the time, falling to 87.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 MINI COOPER in this dataset had covered 21,198 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2021 MINI COOPER?
Petrol: 92.6% pass rate across 53,321 tests. Electric: 90.9% pass rate across 13,092 tests. Hybrid: 90.4% pass rate across 5,051 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2021 MINI COOPER MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 92.4% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 91.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.