Pass rate
79.3%
Around average — 6.7 pts behind the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 2,226 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £25–£62
2017 SEAT Arona MOT pass rate
- 2017
- typical 43,594 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
29.1% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Part only £25–£40 for Brake pads under 1.5 mm. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 92.3% pass
- Avoid 2017 79.3% pass · this year
Across the 7 years on record, a spread of 13 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 74.1%
- Typical mileage
- 44k mi
The 2017 SEAT Arona MOT pass rate is 79.3% of its MOT tests — 6.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 29.1% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how SEAT Arona does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Steering: 8.1× the national share
Steering accounts for 20.7% of everything recorded on the 2017 SEAT Arona, against 2.6% nationally — 18.1 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 29.1%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. Ask for the steering to be checked for play with the wheels on the ground, not on a jack.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 86.0%; this one manages 79.3% — 6.7 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 0% 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 SEAT Arona? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2017 SEAT Arona compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 6.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 74.1%. The median 2017 SEAT Arona in this dataset had covered 43,594 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 79.8% of the time, April–September 78.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt", noted on 11.10% of tests.
- 2,226 recorded tests behind this page.
- 79.3% overall pass rate, 74.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the SEAT Arona, the average is 88.3% — best year 2022 (92.3%), worst 2017 (79.3%).
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
- 2,226
- Typical mileage (median)
- 43,594 mi
- Make and model
- SEAT Arona
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
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 Arona MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 64% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Arona
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 418 | 80.4% |
| North West | 275 | 78.9% |
| East of England | 239 | 81.2% |
| Yorkshire | 235 | 84.7% |
| Scotland | 228 | 74.1% |
| West Midlands | 223 | 79.4% |
| South West | 204 | 77.5% |
| North East | 135 | 83.7% |
| Wales | 108 | 68.5% |
| East Midlands | 102 | 79.4% |
| London | 59 | 79.7% |
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 2017 Arona
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 Arona
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 11.1% of tests
“track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated,”
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 windscreen 1.4% of tests
“windscreen damaged”
Check the driver’s side of the screen within the swept area for chips and cracks; anything larger than 10mm in the driver’s central view is a fail. Most chips can be resin-repaired for far less than a new screen.
-
Check the tyre tread 1.1% 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 2017 Arona through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £25–£62 — and 0% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £25–£62
- Cheapest common item: track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged…
- £18–£45
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 0%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 2,226 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 Arona, side by side
7 model years on record, from 2017 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 79.3% to 92.3% — a spread of 13 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2017 79.3%track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2018 84.3% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2019 89.4% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2020 91.1% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2021 91.8% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2022 92.3% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2023 92.3% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
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 SEAT Arona 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
- Fiat 500L 79.4%
- Nissan Navara 79.1%
- Fiat TIPO 79.5%
- Peugeot 5008 79.1%
- Alfa Romeo Mito 79.1%
- Nissan Micra 79.6%
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 SEAT Arona 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 2,624 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 | 770 | 29.10% | 20.89% | +8.21 |
| Tyres | 709 | 26.80% | 19.76% | +7.04 |
| Steering | 547 | 20.70% | 2.57% | +18.13 |
| Suspension | 195 | 7.40% | 20.98% | −13.58 |
| Non-component advisories | 161 | 6.10% | 4.18% | +1.92 |
| Visibility | 93 | 3.50% | 4.97% | −1.47 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 55 | 2.10% | 12.21% | −10.11 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 37 | 1.40% | 1.76% | −0.36 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 30 | 1.10% | 5.52% | −4.42 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 27 | 1.00% | 5.57% | −4.57 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 11.1% | £18–45 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover excessively damaged or deteriorated so that it no longer prevents the ingress of… Steering | Major | 10.0% | £18–45 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover insecure so that it no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 1.7% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.4% | £80–200 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.1% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.0% | £40–150 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.99% | £45–95 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 0.99% | £45–110 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 0.85% | £25–65 |
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 | 14.3% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 13.7% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 11.3% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 10.7% | £18–45 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 4.4% | £20–80 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 2.6% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 435 | 83.7% | 22,742 mi |
| 30-60k | 1,349 | 79.2% | 43,899 mi |
| 60-90k | 392 | 75.8% | 70,285 mi |
| 90-120k | 50 | 72.0% | 101,297 mi |
Source: 2,226 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 Arona MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2017 SEAT Arona?
79.3% of the 2,226 2017 SEAT Arona tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 74.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2017 SEAT Arona?
The three most recorded items are track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt (11.10%), track rod end ball joint dust cover excessively damaged or deteriorated so that it no longer prevents the ingress of… (10.02%), track rod end ball joint dust cover insecure so that it no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (1.66%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2017 SEAT Arona MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 83.7% of the time, falling to 72.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 SEAT Arona in this dataset had covered 43,594 mi.
Does the season affect the 2017 SEAT Arona MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 79.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 78.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.