Pass rate
82.6%
Around average — 5.3 pts behind the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 34,978 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £28–£81
2018 Nissan Micra MOT pass rate
- 2018
- 2 trims combined
- typical 34,944 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
32.0% 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
- 79.1%
- Typical mileage
- 35k mi
The 2018 Nissan Micra MOT pass rate is 82.6% of its MOT tests — 5.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 32.0% 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
Tyres: 1.6× the national share
Tyres make up 31.6% of everything recorded on the 2018 Nissan Micra, against 19.8% nationally — 11.8 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 32.0%, but at 21.0% 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 87.9%; this one manages 82.6% — 5.3 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 24% 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 Micra? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Nissan Micra first registered in 2018 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2018 Nissan Micra compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, so this figure is 5.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 79.1%. The median 2018 Nissan Micra in this dataset had covered 34,944 mi.
88% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 83.1% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 83.1% of the time, April–September 82.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 6.10% of tests.
- 34,978 recorded tests behind this page.
- 82.6% overall pass rate, 79.1% 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
- 34,978
- Typical mileage (median)
- 34,944 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
Coil Spring
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Micra MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 65% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (88% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Micra
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| North West | 5,513 | 83.3% |
| South East | 5,018 | 85.8% |
| Scotland | 4,230 | 77.7% |
| North East | 3,644 | 80.1% |
| West Midlands | 3,091 | 83.0% |
| Yorkshire | 3,066 | 81.1% |
| South West | 2,862 | 84.6% |
| East of England | 2,523 | 85.7% |
| East Midlands | 2,131 | 81.5% |
| Wales | 2,019 | 80.5% |
| London | 878 | 88.0% |
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 2018 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 2018 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 coil springs 6.1% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
-
Check the suspension joints 5.0% 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 wipers and washers 2.0% 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.
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 2018 Micra through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £28–£81 — and 24% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £28–£81
- Cheapest common item: wipers blade defective
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 24%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 34,978 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 2018 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 2018 cars with a similar record
- Isuzu D-Max 82.6%
- SsangYong Tivoli 82.5%
- Mercedes-Benz Vito 82.7%
- Citroen C4 Grand Picasso 82.4%
- Ford B-Max 82.4%
- SEAT Ibiza 82.8%
Closest pass rates among 2018 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 2018 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 39,505 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 | 12,745 | 32.00% | 20.98% | +11.02 |
| Tyres | 12,555 | 31.60% | 19.76% | +11.84 |
| Brakes | 6,157 | 15.50% | 20.89% | −5.39 |
| Visibility | 2,391 | 6.00% | 4.97% | +1.03 |
| Non-component advisories | 1,919 | 4.80% | 4.18% | +0.62 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,074 | 2.70% | 12.21% | −9.51 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 723 | 1.80% | 5.52% | −3.72 |
| Road Wheels | 723 | 1.80% | 0.75% | +1.05 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 694 | 1.70% | 1.76% | −0.06 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 524 | 1.30% | 5.57% | −4.27 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 6.1% | £25–65 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 5.0% | £40–150 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 2.0% | £8–22 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.9% | £8–22 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.98% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.91% | £18–45 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.91% | £45–95 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 0.88% | £8–22 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 0.78% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 0.66% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 17.8% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 16.8% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 11.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 6.1% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 4.8% | £45–110 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 3.7% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 13,368 | 88.2% | 20,683 mi |
| 30-60k | 17,571 | 80.0% | 42,275 mi |
| 60-90k | 3,429 | 75.2% | 70,312 mi |
| 90-120k | 477 | 73.8% | 100,983 mi |
| 120k+ | 124 | 75.8% | 141,794 mi |
Source: 34,978 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.
2018 Micra MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 Nissan Micra?
82.6% of the 34,978 2018 Nissan Micra tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 79.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 Nissan Micra?
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (6.10%), pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn (4.97%), wipers blade defective (2.04%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 Nissan Micra MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.2% of the time, falling to 75.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 Nissan Micra in this dataset had covered 34,944 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2018 Nissan Micra?
Petrol: 83.1% pass rate across 30,698 tests. Diesel: 78.6% pass rate across 4,280 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2018 Nissan Micra MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 83.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 82.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.