Pass rate
78.0%
Around average — 0.8 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 42,644 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £33–£101
2012 Nissan Micra MOT pass rate
- 2012
- 2 trims combined
- typical 57,958 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
35.7% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £35–£75 for Suspension pin or bush excessively worn. What fitting it takes →
4.1 pts up across model years — 0.6% in 2000, 4.7% in 2022.
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 93.8% pass
- Avoid 2000 69.4% pass
Across the 24 years on record, a spread of 24.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 72.3%
- Typical mileage
- 58k mi
The 2012 Nissan Micra MOT pass rate is 78.0% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 35.7% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Nissan Micra does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.7× the national share
Suspension accounts for 35.7% of everything recorded on the 2012 Nissan Micra, against 21.0% nationally — 14.7 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
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 Micra? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Nissan Micra 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 Nissan Micra compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 0.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 72.3%. The median 2012 Nissan Micra in this dataset had covered 57,958 mi.
100% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 78.0% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 78.1% of the time, April–September 78.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn", noted on 3.93% of tests.
- 42,644 recorded tests behind this page.
- 78.0% overall pass rate, 72.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Nissan Micra, the average is 77.9% — best year 2022 (93.8%), worst 2000 (69.4%).
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
- 42,644
- Typical mileage (median)
- 57,958 mi
- Make and model
- Nissan Micra
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Suspension Component
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Micra MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 63% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (100% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Micra
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 8,755 | 80.5% |
| North West | 5,286 | 78.5% |
| East of England | 4,635 | 79.2% |
| South West | 4,374 | 77.0% |
| West Midlands | 3,853 | 79.8% |
| Scotland | 3,450 | 70.8% |
| Yorkshire | 3,404 | 76.6% |
| London | 2,529 | 83.3% |
| North East | 2,385 | 76.5% |
| East Midlands | 2,306 | 76.1% |
| Wales | 1,666 | 73.9% |
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 Micra
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 Micra
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 3.9% of tests
“pins and bushes pin or bush 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 lights 2.9% 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 wipers and washers 2.1% of tests
“wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively”
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 Micra through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £33–£101 — and 41% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £33–£101
- Cheapest common item: wipers does not clear the windscreen…
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot split or…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 41%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 42,644 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 Micra, side by side
24 model years on record, from 2000 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 69.4% to 93.8% — a spread of 24.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 69.4% component mounting prescribed…
- 2001 70.4% component mounting prescribed…
- 2002 71.1% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2003 71.6% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2004 72.2% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2005 72.1% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2006 74.2% headlamp aim projected beam image…
- 2007 74.6% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2008 76.0% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2009 76.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2010 76.8% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2011 77.9% service brake performance…
- 2012 78.0%pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2013 79.2% service brake performance…
- 2014 81.5% service brake performance…
- 2015 83.7% service brake performance…
- 2016 84.7% service brake performance…
- 2017 79.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2018 82.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2019 88.2% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2020 90.8% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2021 93.4% wipers blade defective
- 2022 93.8% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2023 88.7% 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 Nissan Micra 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
- Audi A3 78.0%
- Volkswagen Tiguan 78.0%
- Hyundai I10 78.1%
- Vauxhall Meriva 77.9%
- Suzuki Splash 77.9%
- BMW 120 77.9%
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 Nissan Micra 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 86,037 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 30,823 | 35.70% | 20.98% | +14.72 |
| Brakes | 15,352 | 17.80% | 20.89% | −3.09 |
| Tyres | 14,780 | 17.10% | 19.76% | −2.66 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 9,830 | 11.40% | 12.21% | −0.81 |
| Visibility | 4,503 | 5.20% | 4.97% | +0.23 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 3,927 | 4.50% | 5.57% | −1.07 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 3,274 | 3.80% | 5.52% | −1.72 |
| Non-component advisories | 2,041 | 2.40% | 4.18% | −1.78 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 963 | 1.10% | 1.76% | −0.66 |
| Steering | 544 | 0.60% | 2.57% | −1.97 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.9% | £40–150 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.7% | £18–45 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 3.6% | £60–150 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.9% | £5–25 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 2.5% | £80–250 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 2.1% | £5–25 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 2.1% | £8–22 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 2.0% | £80–250 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 2.0% | £8–22 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.9% | £5–25 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 19.8% | £40–150 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 17.6% | £25–65 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 14.5% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 13.2% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 6.9% | £45–110 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Advisory | 5.3% | £60–150 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 5,333 | 86.2% | 21,922 mi |
| 30-60k | 17,212 | 80.3% | 45,611 mi |
| 60-90k | 13,297 | 75.1% | 73,296 mi |
| 90-120k | 5,191 | 72.0% | 102,063 mi |
| 120k+ | 1,606 | 71.3% | 138,274 mi |
Source: 42,644 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 Micra MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Nissan Micra?
78.0% of the 42,644 2012 Nissan Micra tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 72.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Nissan Micra?
The three most recorded items are pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn (3.93%), ball joint excessively worn (3.70%), service brake performance excessively binding (3.57%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Nissan Micra MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 86.2% of the time, falling to 71.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Nissan Micra in this dataset had covered 57,958 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 Nissan Micra?
Petrol: 78.0% pass rate across 42,615 tests. Diesel: 65.5% pass rate across 29 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2012 Nissan Micra MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 78.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 78.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.