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2012 MINI Countryman COOPER MOT pass rate

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Pass rate

84.2%

Around average — 7.0 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.

Across 1,617 recorded tests.

Typical repair bill £34–£96

Which year to buy

  • Best 2022 94.0% pass
  • Avoid 2010 82.4% pass

Across the 7 years on record, a spread of 11.6 points. See every year →

First-attempt pass
81.5%
Typical mileage
73k mi

The 2012 MINI Countryman COOPER MOT pass rate is 84.2% of its MOT tests — 7.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 24.0% of what testers record.

MOT PASS RATES

The 2012 MINI Countryman COOPER on the real record

84.2% of 2012 MINI Countryman COOPER MOTs passed — 1,617 tests, 2023–2025

Pass rate

The answer from the DVSA's class-4 MOT records.

Expert verdict

Emissions & leaks: 2.2× the national share

Emissions & leaks make up 12.1% of everything recorded on the 2012 MINI Countryman Cooper, against 5.5% nationally — 6.6 points above. Tyres are still the single largest share at 24.0%, but at 19.8% nationally that one is ordinary. A smoky diesel or a leaking joint fails on emissions more often than on wear, so ask for a recent emissions printout.

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 Countryman COOPER? Get an email when these numbers change .

Every MINI Countryman COOPER 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 MINI Countryman COOPER compare?

Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 7.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 81.5%. The median 2012 MINI Countryman COOPER in this dataset had covered 72,788 mi.

97% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 84.4% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 84.9% of the time, April–September 83.5%.

The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 4.39% of tests.

  • 1,617 recorded tests behind this page.
  • 84.2% overall pass rate, 81.5% on a first attempt.
  • Across every year of the MINI Countryman COOPER, the average is 83.6% — best year 2022 (94.0%), worst 2010 (82.4%).

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
1,617
Typical mileage (median)
72,788 mi
Make and model
MINI Countryman COOPER
Updated
2026-11-07

Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.

Top part to budget for

Windscreen

Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.

Does mileage affect the Countryman COOPER MOT pass rate?

0-30k 86.8%
30-60k 88.5%
60-90k 84.4%
90-120k 80.3%
120k+ 69.8%

Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 61% so small gaps stay visible.

Fuel type and reliability

Petrol 84.4%
Diesel 77.4%

Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (97% of tests).

Where the MINI Countryman COOPER is most common

Across all Countryman COOPER model years on record (2010–2022): 2,399 MINI Countryman COOPER cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 5,238 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 90 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 Share of all Tests Pass rate
1 Birmingham (B) 90 3.8% 182 86.3%
2 Guildford (GU) 55 2.3% 129 79.1%
3 Ashford (TN) 55 2.3% 124 83.1%
4 Bristol (BS) 47 2% 97 80.4%
5 Kingston upon Thames (KT) 46 1.9% 105 87.6%
6 London (NW) 46 1.9% 90 84.4%
7 Slough (SL) 46 1.9% 85 84.7%
8 Leicester (LE) 44 1.8% 114 86.0%
9 Chelmsford (CM) 44 1.8% 92 92.4%
10 London (SE) 43 1.8% 92 87.0%
11 Brighton (BN) 41 1.7% 104 79.8%
12 Reading (RG) 40 1.7% 90 86.7%
13 Enfield (EN) 40 1.7% 83 90.4%
14 Portsmouth (PO) 38 1.6% 92 83.7%
15 Hounslow (TW) 37 1.5% 76 84.2%
16 London (SW) 36 1.5% 78 78.2%
17 Gloucester (GL) 35 1.5% 82 84.1%
18 Poole (BH) 34 1.4% 91 79.1%
19 Wembley (HA) 34 1.4% 59 93.2%
20 High Wycombe (HP) 33 1.4% 82 82.9%

The twenty areas with the most MINI Countryman 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 Countryman COOPER

Region Tests Pass rate
South East 458 85.6%
South West 215 81.9%
East of England 188 85.6%
London 149 85.9%
North West 138 83.3%
West Midlands 133 78.2%
East Midlands 90 90.0%
Yorkshire 84 83.3%
Scotland 70 78.6%
North East 51 90.2%
Wales 41 80.5%

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 2012 Countryman 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.

Tyres 24.0%
+4.2 pts vs national national 19.8% Compare tyre prices
Brakes 18.2%
−2.7 pts vs national national 20.9% Price brakes parts
Lamps & electrics 14.4%
+2.2 pts vs national national 12.2% Order bulbs & wipers
Emissions & leaks 12.1%
+6.6 pts vs national national 5.5% Price emissions & leaks parts
Show the other 6 fault categories
  • Suspension 12.0%
  • Visibility 6.7%
  • Advisories 5.2%
  • Body & chassis 4.0%
  • Road wheels 1.3%
  • Identification 1.1%

Shares are of every item recorded on 2012 MINI Countryman COOPER tests — a composition, so they add to 100% across all sections, not per test.

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 Countryman 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.

  1. Check the windscreen 4.4% 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.

  2. Check the lights 4.3% of tests

    “registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”

    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.

  3. Check the exhaust and emissions 1.0% of tests

    “catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits”

    Listen for a blow at idle and have someone rev it gently. Then look at the tailpipe smoke: blue is oil, white when warm is coolant, black is over-fuelling. Any of those and the emissions test is the least of it.

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 Countryman COOPER through its MOT

Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £34–£96 — and 54% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.

Average repair across the 10 common items
£34–£96
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
54%

Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 1,617 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 Countryman COOPER, side by side

7 model years on record, from 2010 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 82.4% to 94.0% — a spread of 11.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.

  1. 2010 82.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
  2. 2011 82.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
  3. 2012 84.2%
    windscreen damaged but not…
  4. 2013 85.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
  5. 2014 85.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
  6. 2021 91.0% has a cut in excess of the…
  7. 2022 94.0% 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 2012 MINI Countryman 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.

Compare 2012 with another year →

Compare two different cars instead →

Other 2012 cars with a similar record

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 MINI Countryman 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 2,228 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 24.00% 19.76% +4.24
Brakes 410 18.20% 20.89% −2.69
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 324 14.40% 12.21% +2.19
Noise, emissions and leaks 272 12.10% 5.52% +6.58
Suspension 269 12.00% 20.98% −8.98
Visibility 151 6.70% 4.97% +1.73
Non-component advisories 118 5.20% 4.18% +1.02
Body, chassis, structure 90 4.00% 5.57% −1.57
Road Wheels 30 1.30% 0.75% +0.55
Identification of the vehicle 24 1.10% 1.76% −0.66

The exact failure items, in the tester's words

Share of the 1,617 tests on this vehicle that recorded each item
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost Part
Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility Minor 4.4% £80–200 Windscreen →
Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Minor 4.3% £5–20 Number Plate Lamp →
Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Major 2.4% £5–25 Headlight Bulb →
Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Rectified 1.9% £5–25 Headlight Bulb →
Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres Major 1.6% £45–95 Tyres →
Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks Major 1.6% £3–12 Indicator Bulb →
Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure Minor 1.5% £80–250 Body Panel Repair →
Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks Major 0.99% £60–250 Emissions Repair →
Position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Minor 0.99% £5–25 Headlight Bulb →
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres Major 0.99% £45–95 Tyres →

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.

Items recorded as advisory on this vehicle
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres Advisory 16.0% £45–95
Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks Advisory 9.0% £200–700
Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres Advisory 8.3% £45–95
Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes Advisory 7.0% £45–110
Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes Advisory 6.7% £18–45
Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes Advisory 4.1% £45–110

Pass rate by mileage

Mileage Tests Pass rate Median odometer
0-30k 53 86.8% 22,922 mi
30-60k 416 88.5% 48,116 mi
60-90k 780 84.4% 74,510 mi
90-120k 305 80.3% 99,804 mi
120k+ 63 69.8% 134,598 mi

Source: 1,617 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 Countryman COOPER MOT questions

What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 MINI Countryman COOPER?

84.2% of the 1,617 2012 MINI Countryman COOPER tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 81.5%.

What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 MINI Countryman COOPER?

The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (4.39%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (4.27%), position lamp not working (2.41%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.

Does mileage affect the 2012 MINI Countryman COOPER MOT pass rate?

Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 86.8% of the time, falling to 69.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 MINI Countryman COOPER in this dataset had covered 72,788 mi.

Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 MINI Countryman COOPER?

Petrol: 84.4% pass rate across 1,564 tests. Diesel: 77.4% pass rate across 53 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.

Does the season affect the 2012 MINI Countryman COOPER MOT pass rate?

Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 84.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 83.5%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.