Pass rate
80.1%
Around average — 3.9 pts behind the 84.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 14,442 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £30–£75
2016 Nissan Leaf MOT pass rate
- 2016
- typical 55,819 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
28.2% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 95.5% pass
- Avoid 2013 72.6% pass
Across the 13 years on record, a spread of 22.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 75.5%
- Typical mileage
- 56k mi
The 2016 Nissan Leaf MOT pass rate is 80.1% of its MOT tests — 3.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 28.2% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.4× the national share
Tyres make up 27.2% of everything recorded on the 2016 Nissan Leaf, against 19.8% nationally — 7.4 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 28.2%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. 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.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 84.0%; this one manages 80.1% — 3.9 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 23% 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 Nissan Leaf? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2016 Nissan Leaf compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 84.0%, so this figure is 3.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 75.5%. The median 2016 Nissan Leaf in this dataset had covered 55,819 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 80.1% of the time, April–September 80.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint excessively worn", noted on 7.19% of tests.
- 14,442 recorded tests behind this page.
- 80.1% overall pass rate, 75.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Nissan Leaf, the average is 85.6% — best year 2023 (95.5%), worst 2013 (72.6%).
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
- 14,442
- Typical mileage (median)
- 55,819 mi
- Make and model
- Nissan Leaf
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Leaf MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 63% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Nissan Leaf is most common
Across all Leaf model years on record (2011–2023): 70,458 Nissan Leaf cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 145,697 tests. Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) has the most, with 1,561 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 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 1,561 | 85.0% |
| 2 | Birmingham (B) | 1,552 | 87.8% |
| 3 | Bristol (BS) | 1,514 | 84.4% |
| 4 | Edinburgh (EH) | 1,500 | 83.3% |
| 5 | Glasgow (G) | 1,482 | 84.0% |
| 6 | Peterborough (PE) | 1,389 | 88.1% |
| 7 | Sheffield (S) | 1,330 | 84.9% |
| 8 | London (SE) | 1,283 | 89.3% |
| 9 | Nottingham (NG) | 1,274 | 86.8% |
| 10 | Oxford (OX) | 1,170 | 86.8% |
| 11 | Reading (RG) | 1,169 | 85.2% |
| 12 | London (NW) | 1,151 | 90.1% |
| 13 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 1,097 | 87.1% |
| 14 | Coventry (CV) | 1,038 | 87.7% |
| 15 | Guildford (GU) | 1,030 | 85.9% |
| 16 | Northampton (NN) | 998 | 82.8% |
| 17 | Leicester (LE) | 973 | 86.3% |
| 18 | Gloucester (GL) | 956 | 81.6% |
| 19 | Southampton (SO) | 949 | 85.0% |
| 20 | Ashford (TN) | 928 | 83.1% |
The twenty areas with the most Nissan Leaf 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 Leaf
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 3,350 | 82.0% |
| South West | 2,045 | 78.3% |
| East of England | 1,435 | 81.0% |
| Scotland | 1,257 | 74.8% |
| North West | 1,230 | 80.6% |
| West Midlands | 1,208 | 80.3% |
| Yorkshire | 1,027 | 77.9% |
| East Midlands | 907 | 80.7% |
| London | 829 | 85.6% |
| North East | 651 | 78.0% |
| Wales | 500 | 79.4% |
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 2016 Leaf
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 2016 Leaf
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 suspension joints 7.2% of tests
“ball joint excessively worn”
With the car parked on level ground, rock the top of each front wheel in and out while someone watches the suspension arm. Clunks, or rubber boots split and greasy, are what testers record here.
-
Check the wipers and washers 1.8% 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 tyre tread 1.7% 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.
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 2016 Leaf through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £30–£75 — and 23% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £30–£75
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 23%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 14,442 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 Leaf, side by side
13 model years on record, from 2011 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 72.6% to 95.5% — a spread of 22.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2011 75.3% ball joint excessively worn
- 2012 74.8% ball joint excessively worn
- 2013 72.6% ball joint excessively worn
- 2014 74.5% ball joint excessively worn
- 2015 77.1% ball joint excessively worn
- 2016 80.1%ball joint excessively worn
- 2017 85.1% ball joint excessively worn
- 2018 88.1% ball joint excessively worn
- 2019 90.4% wipers blade defective
- 2020 91.7% wipers blade defective
- 2021 93.0% wipers blade defective
- 2022 93.9% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 95.5% track rod end ball joint dust…
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 2016 Nissan Leaf 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 2016 cars with a similar record
- Vauxhall Corsa 80.0%
- SsangYong Tivoli 80.2%
- Kia Carens 79.9%
- Peugeot 2008 80.3%
- Peugeot 308 80.3%
- Renault Twingo 79.8%
Closest pass rates among 2016 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 2016 Nissan Leaf 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 20,498 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | 5,805 | 28.20% | 20.89% | +7.31 |
| Tyres | 5,594 | 27.20% | 19.76% | +7.44 |
| Suspension | 5,412 | 26.30% | 20.98% | +5.32 |
| Visibility | 1,141 | 5.50% | 4.97% | +0.53 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,005 | 4.90% | 12.21% | −7.31 |
| Non-component advisories | 861 | 4.20% | 4.18% | +0.02 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 231 | 1.10% | 1.76% | −0.66 |
| Road Wheels | 209 | 1.00% | 0.75% | +0.25 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 133 | 0.60% | 5.57% | −4.97 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 107 | 0.50% | 0.82% | −0.32 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 7.2% | £18–45 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.8% | £8–22 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.7% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.6% | £80–200 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.6% | £45–95 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.4% | £5–20 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.4% | £8–22 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.2% | £40–150 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 1.1% | £45–110 |
| Parking brake performance inoperative on one side Brakes | Major | 1.0% | £60–150 |
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 | 18.7% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 18.0% | £45–110 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 11.7% | £40–150 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 9.2% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 7.0% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 5.7% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1,542 | 91.2% | 22,557 mi |
| 30-60k | 6,645 | 81.9% | 45,753 mi |
| 60-90k | 4,542 | 75.8% | 72,612 mi |
| 90-120k | 1,339 | 74.8% | 100,996 mi |
| 120k+ | 372 | 71.5% | 138,986 mi |
Source: 14,442 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.
2016 Leaf MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2016 Nissan Leaf?
80.1% of the 14,442 2016 Nissan Leaf tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 84.0% for cars first used in 2016. First-attempt pass rate: 75.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2016 Nissan Leaf?
The three most recorded items are ball joint excessively worn (7.19%), wipers blade defective (1.84%), tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (1.70%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2016 Nissan Leaf MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.2% of the time, falling to 71.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2016 Nissan Leaf in this dataset had covered 55,819 mi.
Does the season affect the 2016 Nissan Leaf MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 80.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 80.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.