Pass rate
94.3%
Above average — 8.3 pts ahead of the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 53 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £35–£82
2017 MINI Mini MOT pass rate
- 2017
- 3 trims combined
- typical 45,321 mi
Only 53 tests of this exact model and year are in the DVSA data, below the 100 we ask for before a page goes in the index. The figures are still shown, because they are the only ones there are.
Most common fault
Tyres
44.7% 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 →
3.1 pts up across model years — 5.5% in 2001, 8.6% in 2014.
Which year to buy
- Best 2017 94.3% pass · this year
- Avoid 2001 68.2% pass
Across the 18 years on record, a spread of 26.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 94.0%
- Typical mileage
- 45k mi
The 2017 MINI Mini MOT pass rate is 94.3% of its MOT tests — 8.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 44.7% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how MINI Mini does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.3× the national share
Tyres make up 44.7% of everything recorded on the 2017 MINI Mini, against 19.8% nationally — 24.9 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.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 86.0% and this one manages 94.3% — 8.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 33% 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 Mini? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every MINI Mini first registered in 2017 is combined here — 3 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2017 MINI Mini compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 8.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 94.0%. The median 2017 MINI Mini in this dataset had covered 45,321 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm", noted on 3.77% of tests.
- 53 recorded tests behind this page.
- 94.3% overall pass rate, 94.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the MINI Mini, the average is 76.0% — best year 2017 (94.3%), worst 2001 (68.2%).
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
- 53
- Typical mileage (median)
- 45,321 mi
- Make and model
- MINI Mini
- 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 Mini MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 83% so small gaps stay visible.
What fails a 2017 Mini
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 Mini
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 tyre tread 3.8% 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 wipers and washers 3.8% 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 brakes 1.9% of tests
“brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick”
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 2017 Mini through its MOT
Across the 7 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £35–£82 — and 33% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 7 common items
- £35–£82
- Cheapest common item: reversing lamps inoperative
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 71%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 33%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 53 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 Mini, side by side
18 model years on record, from 2001 to 2018. Across them the pass rate runs from 68.2% to 94.3% — a spread of 26.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2001 68.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2002 69.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2003 70.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2004 70.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 70.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 71.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 72.0% position lamp not working
- 2008 73.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 74.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2010 79.6% position lamp not working
- 2011 81.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 83.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 84.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 86.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 91.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 89.7% wipers does not clear the…
- 2017 94.3%tread depth below requirements of…
- 2018 85.9% has a bulge, caused by separation…
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 MINI Mini 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
- Porsche Boxster 94.3%
- Porsche Cayman 94.6%
- Audi A8 93.8%
- Lexus Rx 94.9%
- Lexus Nx 93.5%
- Porsche Macan 93.4%
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 MINI Mini 7 failure items · 6 advisories · 7 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 38 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 | 17 | 44.70% | 19.76% | +24.94 |
| Brakes | 9 | 23.70% | 20.89% | +2.81 |
| Suspension | 3 | 7.90% | 20.98% | −13.08 |
| Visibility | 3 | 7.90% | 4.97% | +2.93 |
| Non-component advisories | 3 | 7.90% | 4.18% | +3.72 |
| Road Wheels | 2 | 5.30% | 0.75% | +4.55 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1 | 2.60% | 12.21% | −9.61 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 3.8% | £45–95 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 3.8% | £8–22 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.9% | £18–45 |
| Has a lump, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 1.9% | £45–95 |
| Reversing lamps inoperative Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.9% | £3–15 |
| Service brake performance excessively fluctuating Brakes | Major | 1.9% | £60–150 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.9% | £80–200 |
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 | 11.3% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 9.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 5.7% | £45–110 |
| Badly distorted Road Wheels | Advisory | 3.8% | £20–55 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 3.8% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 1.9% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 11 | 100.0% | 17,472 mi |
| 30-60k | 30 | 93.3% | 45,011 mi |
| 60-90k | 12 | 91.7% | 68,315 mi |
Source: 53 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 Mini MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2017 MINI Mini?
94.3% of the 53 2017 MINI Mini tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 94.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2017 MINI Mini?
The three most recorded items are tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (3.77%), wipers blade defective (3.77%), brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick (1.89%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2017 MINI Mini MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 91.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 MINI Mini in this dataset had covered 45,321 mi.