Pass rate
84.3%
Around average — 3.6 pts behind the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 40,633 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £26–£64
2018 SEAT Arona MOT pass rate
- 2018
- typical 39,664 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
31.7% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
1.0 pts down across model years — 6.2% in 2017, 5.2% in 2022.
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 92.3% pass
- Avoid 2017 79.3% pass
Across the 7 years on record, a spread of 13 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 81.5%
- Typical mileage
- 40k mi
The 2018 SEAT Arona MOT pass rate is 84.3% of its MOT tests — 3.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 31.7% 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
Tyres: 1.6× the national share
Tyres make up 31.7% of everything recorded on the 2018 SEAT Arona, against 19.8% nationally — 11.9 points above. 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 84.3% — 3.6 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 3% 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 2018 SEAT Arona compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, so this figure is 3.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 81.5%. The median 2018 SEAT Arona in this dataset had covered 39,664 mi.
78% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 84.6% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 84.5% of the time, April–September 84.1%.
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 7.67% of tests.
- 40,633 recorded tests behind this page.
- 84.3% overall pass rate, 81.5% 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
- 40,633
- Typical mileage (median)
- 39,664 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.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (78% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Arona
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 6,226 | 83.6% |
| Scotland | 5,247 | 80.9% |
| North West | 4,915 | 84.4% |
| Yorkshire | 4,760 | 84.9% |
| South West | 3,936 | 83.8% |
| East of England | 3,918 | 86.0% |
| West Midlands | 3,805 | 85.8% |
| East Midlands | 2,667 | 84.2% |
| North East | 2,238 | 85.5% |
| Wales | 2,094 | 85.2% |
| London | 824 | 87.1% |
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 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 2018 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 7.7% 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 1.3% 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 brakes 1.3% of tests
“brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick”
Look through the spokes of each wheel at the pad — less than 3mm of friction material, or a lip on the disc edge, is the usual failure. Check the handbrake holds on a slope with a few clicks, not at the top of its travel.
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 Arona through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £26–£64 — and 3% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £26–£64
- Cheapest common item: washers not working
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 3%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 40,633 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 2018 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 2018 cars with a similar record
- Vauxhall Mokka 84.2%
- Vauxhall Adam 84.2%
- Peugeot 5008 84.2%
- Renault Megane 84.4%
- Vauxhall Corsa 84.5%
- Citroen C4 84.6%
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 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 42,585 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 | 13,605 | 31.70% | 19.76% | +11.94 |
| Brakes | 13,572 | 31.60% | 20.89% | +10.71 |
| Steering | 6,235 | 14.50% | 2.57% | +11.93 |
| Non-component advisories | 3,210 | 7.50% | 4.18% | +3.32 |
| Suspension | 1,746 | 4.10% | 20.98% | −16.88 |
| Visibility | 1,604 | 3.70% | 4.97% | −1.27 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,304 | 3.00% | 12.21% | −9.21 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 586 | 1.40% | 1.76% | −0.36 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 441 | 1.00% | 5.52% | −4.52 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 282 | 0.70% | 0.82% | −0.12 |
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 | 7.7% | £18–45 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover excessively damaged or deteriorated so that it no longer prevents the ingress of… Steering | Major | 5.6% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.3% | £80–200 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.3% | £18–45 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.1% | £45–95 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover insecure so that it no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 1.1% | £18–45 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.99% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Major | 0.78% | £45–110 |
| Washers not working Visibility | Major | 0.66% | £5–15 |
| Service brake performance excessively fluctuating Brakes | Major | 0.63% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 15.7% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 13.2% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 10.7% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 10.4% | £18–45 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 4.3% | £20–80 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 2.5% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 11,016 | 88.9% | 21,844 mi |
| 30-60k | 23,446 | 83.1% | 43,103 mi |
| 60-90k | 5,411 | 80.7% | 70,134 mi |
| 90-120k | 655 | 79.5% | 100,252 mi |
| 120k+ | 99 | 72.7% | 136,980 mi |
Source: 40,633 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 Arona MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 SEAT Arona?
84.3% of the 40,633 2018 SEAT Arona tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 81.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 SEAT Arona?
The three most recorded items are track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt (7.67%), track rod end ball joint dust cover excessively damaged or deteriorated so that it no longer prevents the ingress of… (5.60%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.34%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 SEAT Arona MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.9% of the time, falling to 72.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 SEAT Arona in this dataset had covered 39,664 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2018 SEAT Arona?
Petrol: 84.6% pass rate across 31,777 tests. Diesel: 83.0% pass rate across 8,856 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2018 SEAT Arona MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 84.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 84.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.