Pass rate
85.5%
Above average — 8.3 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 186 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £15–£44
2012 MINI Roadster MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 63,654 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
22.2% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2016 92.4% pass
- Avoid 2012 85.5% pass · this year
Across the 5 years on record, a spread of 6.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 84.0%
- Typical mileage
- 64k mi
The 2012 MINI Roadster MOT pass rate is 85.5% of its MOT tests — 8.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 22.2% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
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 77.2% and this one manages 85.5% — 8.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 66% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
- Based on a small sample. 186 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 Roadster? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 MINI Roadster compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, 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 84.0%. The median 2012 MINI Roadster in this dataset had covered 63,654 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 81% of tests, with a 88.0% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 86.1% of the time, April–September 85.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Position lamp not working", noted on 3.23% of tests.
- 186 recorded tests behind this page.
- 85.5% overall pass rate, 84.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the MINI Roadster, the average is 86.9% — best year 2016 (92.4%), worst 2012 (85.5%).
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
- 186
- Typical mileage (median)
- 63,654 mi
- Make and model
- MINI Roadster
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Headlight Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Roadster MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 64% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (81% of tests).
Where the MINI Roadster is most common
Across all Roadster model years on record (2012–2016): 3,860 MINI Roadster cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 9,016 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 126 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) | 126 | 90.2% |
| 2 | Sheffield (S) | 97 | 87.4% |
| 3 | Leicester (LE) | 88 | 88.2% |
| 4 | Peterborough (PE) | 85 | 93.5% |
| 5 | Derby (DE) | 83 | 87.2% |
| 6 | Nottingham (NG) | 80 | 84.3% |
| 7 | Bristol (BS) | 72 | 88.4% |
| 8 | Brighton (BN) | 69 | 79.7% |
| 9 | Reading (RG) | 67 | 86.6% |
| 10 | Gloucester (GL) | 65 | 85.1% |
| 11 | Norwich (NR) | 63 | 90.4% |
| 12 | Stoke On Trent (ST) | 61 | 82.5% |
| 13 | Walsall (WS) | 58 | 82.2% |
| 14 | Coventry (CV) | 57 | 87.7% |
| 15 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 56 | 84.2% |
| 16 | Oxford (OX) | 55 | 88.8% |
| 17 | Chelmsford (CM) | 55 | 89.7% |
| 18 | Northampton (NN) | 54 | 81.4% |
| 19 | Ashford (TN) | 54 | 81.7% |
| 20 | Warrington (WA) | 53 | 86.3% |
The twenty areas with the most MINI Roadster 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 Roadster
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 48 | 87.5% |
| Yorkshire | 26 | 80.8% |
| South West | 24 | 87.5% |
| East of England | 22 | 86.4% |
| West Midlands | 17 | 76.5% |
| Scotland | 17 | 76.5% |
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 Roadster
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 2012 Roadster
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 lights 3.2% of tests
“position lamp not working”
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.
-
Check the shock absorbers 2.7% of tests
“shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak”
Press down hard on each corner of the car and let go. It should settle in one bounce; if it keeps rocking, or you can see oil weeping down a shock absorber, that is the fault a tester will find.
-
Check the wipers and washers 1.6% of tests
“washers provides insufficient washer liquid”
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.
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 Roadster through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £15–£44 — and 66% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £15–£44
- Cheapest common item: washers provides insufficient washer liquid
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: service brake performance excessively…
- £60–£150
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 66%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 186 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 Roadster, side by side
5 model years on record, from 2012 to 2016. Across them the pass rate runs from 85.5% to 92.4% — a spread of 6.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2012 85.5%position lamp not working
- 2013 86.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 86.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 87.3% stop lamp with a multiple light…
- 2016 92.4% headlamp aim too low
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 Roadster 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 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 Roadster 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 229 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 | 51 | 22.20% | 19.76% | +2.44 |
| Brakes | 47 | 20.40% | 20.89% | −0.49 |
| Suspension | 43 | 18.70% | 20.98% | −2.28 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 34 | 14.80% | 12.21% | +2.59 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 11 | 4.80% | 5.57% | −0.77 |
| Visibility | 10 | 4.30% | 4.97% | −0.67 |
| Road Wheels | 10 | 4.30% | 0.75% | +3.55 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 9 | 3.90% | 5.52% | −1.62 |
| Non-component advisories | 8 | 3.50% | 4.18% | −0.68 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 6 | 2.60% | 1.76% | +0.84 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.2% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.2% | £5–20 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 2.7% | £30–75 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 1.6% | £5–15 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.1% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.1% | £30–80 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.1% | £5–25 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.1% | £3–15 |
| Service brake performance excessively fluctuating Brakes | Major | 1.1% | £60–150 |
| Washers jets misaligned and not providing sufficient fluid to the windscreen Visibility | Major | 1.1% | £5–15 |
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 | 12.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 10.8% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 8.1% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 7.0% | £25–65 |
| Badly distorted Road Wheels | Advisory | 5.4% | £20–55 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 5.4% | £40–150 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 15 | 100.0% | 18,459 mi |
| 30-60k | 64 | 92.2% | 48,166 mi |
| 60-90k | 82 | 79.3% | 70,267 mi |
| 90-120k | 18 | 72.2% | 105,152 mi |
| 120k+ | 7 | 100.0% | 123,426 mi |
Source: 186 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 Roadster MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 MINI Roadster?
85.5% of the 186 2012 MINI Roadster tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 84.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 MINI Roadster?
The three most recorded items are position lamp not working (3.23%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (3.23%), shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak (2.69%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 MINI Roadster MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 MINI Roadster in this dataset had covered 63,654 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 MINI Roadster?
Petrol: 88.0% pass rate across 150 tests. Diesel: 75.0% pass rate across 36 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2012 MINI Roadster MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 86.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 85.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.