Pass rate
89.6%
Above average — 1.6 pts behind the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 3,929 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £41–£98
2021 SEAT Arona Fr MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 25,214 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
45.5% 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 2023 90.7% pass
- Avoid 2021 89.6% pass · this year
Across the 4 years on record, a spread of 1.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 88.5%
- Typical mileage
- 25k mi
The 2021 SEAT Arona Fr MOT pass rate is 89.6% of its MOT tests — 1.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 45.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how SEAT Arona Fr does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Brakes: 2.2× the national share
Brakes make up 45.5% of everything recorded on the 2021 SEAT Arona Fr, against 20.9% nationally — 24.6 points above. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.
- 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 Fr? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 SEAT Arona Fr compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 1.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 88.5%. The median 2021 SEAT Arona Fr in this dataset had covered 25,214 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 89.4% of the time, April–September 90.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick", noted on 2.32% of tests.
- 3,929 recorded tests behind this page.
- 89.6% overall pass rate, 88.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the SEAT Arona Fr, the average is 89.9% — best year 2023 (90.7%), worst 2021 (89.6%).
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
- 3,929
- Typical mileage (median)
- 25,214 mi
- Make and model
- SEAT Arona Fr
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Brake Pads Set
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Arona Fr MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 72% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Arona Fr
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 621 | 88.2% |
| Scotland | 568 | 87.3% |
| North West | 546 | 90.5% |
| Yorkshire | 497 | 89.9% |
| East of England | 361 | 93.6% |
| West Midlands | 344 | 91.3% |
| East Midlands | 287 | 88.2% |
| South West | 250 | 90.4% |
| Wales | 205 | 88.3% |
| North East | 195 | 89.2% |
| London | 55 | 92.7% |
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 2021 Arona Fr
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 2021 Arona Fr
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 brakes 2.3% 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.
-
Check the windscreen 1.1% 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 suspension joints 0.9% 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.
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 2021 Arona Fr through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £41–£98 — and 0% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £41–£98
- Cheapest common item: brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- £18–£45
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 0%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 3,929 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 Fr, side by side
4 model years on record, from 2020 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 89.6% to 90.7% — a spread of 1.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2020 89.6% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 89.6%brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2022 90.4% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2023 90.7% 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 2021 SEAT Arona Fr 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 2021 cars with a similar record
- Mercedes-Benz Cla 89.6%
- Mercedes-Benz E 89.6%
- BMW X5 XDRIVE30D 89.6%
- Hyundai Kona Ultimate Gdi 89.7%
- Peugeot Rifter 89.7%
- Hyundai I10 89.4%
Closest pass rates among 2021 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 2021 SEAT Arona Fr 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 3,098 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 | 1,420 | 45.50% | 20.89% | +24.61 |
| Tyres | 989 | 31.70% | 19.76% | +11.94 |
| Non-component advisories | 234 | 7.50% | 4.18% | +3.32 |
| Visibility | 149 | 4.80% | 4.97% | −0.17 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 88 | 2.80% | 12.21% | −9.41 |
| Suspension | 66 | 2.10% | 20.98% | −18.88 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 51 | 1.60% | 0.82% | +0.78 |
| Steering | 49 | 1.60% | 2.57% | −0.97 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 39 | 1.30% | 1.76% | −0.46 |
| Road Wheels | 13 | 0.40% | 0.75% | −0.35 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 2.3% | £18–45 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.7% | £45–95 |
| Service brake performance excessively fluctuating Brakes | Major | 1.3% | £60–150 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Major | 1.3% | £45–110 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.1% | £80–200 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.94% | £45–95 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 0.94% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.79% | £30–80 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.66% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Major | 0.59% | £45–110 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 15.2% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 10.9% | £18–45 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 8.5% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 6.1% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 2.8% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.7% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2,500 | 91.3% | 19,020 mi |
| 30-60k | 1,275 | 87.4% | 39,527 mi |
| 60-90k | 149 | 80.5% | 67,663 mi |
| 90-120k | 3 | 100.0% | 104,218 mi |
Source: 3,929 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.
2021 Arona Fr MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 SEAT Arona Fr?
89.6% of the 3,929 2021 SEAT Arona Fr tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 88.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 SEAT Arona Fr?
The three most recorded items are brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick (2.32%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.73%), service brake performance excessively fluctuating (1.32%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 SEAT Arona Fr MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.3% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 SEAT Arona Fr in this dataset had covered 25,214 mi.
Does the season affect the 2021 SEAT Arona Fr MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 89.4% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 90.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.