Pass rate
77.6%
Around average — 0.4 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 3,534 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £28–£70
2012 SEAT Exeo MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 122,515 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
23.6% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2013 78.3% pass
- Avoid 2011 75.8% pass
Across the 5 years on record, a spread of 2.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 71.8%
- Typical mileage
- 123k mi
The 2012 SEAT Exeo MOT pass rate is 77.6% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 23.6% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
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 SEAT Exeo? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 SEAT Exeo compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 0.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 71.8%. The median 2012 SEAT Exeo in this dataset had covered 122,515 mi.
98% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 77.6% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 77.6% of the time, April–September 77.5%.
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 6.06% of tests.
- 3,534 recorded tests behind this page.
- 77.6% overall pass rate, 71.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the SEAT Exeo, the average is 76.6% — best year 2013 (78.3%), worst 2011 (75.8%).
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
- 3,534
- Typical mileage (median)
- 122,515 mi
- Make and model
- SEAT Exeo
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
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 Exeo MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 68% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (98% of tests).
Where the SEAT Exeo is most common
Across all Exeo model years on record (2009–2013): 6,953 SEAT Exeo cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 18,198 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 218 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham (B) | 218 | 86.6% |
| 2 | Sheffield (S) | 217 | 78.2% |
| 3 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 175 | 80.8% |
| 4 | Peterborough (PE) | 154 | 77.6% |
| 5 | Exeter (EX) | 153 | 70.0% |
| 6 | Nottingham (NG) | 141 | 76.5% |
| 7 | Bradford (BD) | 141 | 80.6% |
| 8 | Glasgow (G) | 138 | 75.9% |
| 9 | Derby (DE) | 128 | 79.7% |
| 10 | Doncaster (DN) | 125 | 79.7% |
| 11 | Swansea (SA) | 122 | 72.5% |
| 12 | Leeds (LS) | 118 | 77.4% |
| 13 | Manchester (M) | 116 | 86.2% |
| 14 | Middlesbrough (TS) | 114 | 81.2% |
| 15 | Cardiff (CF) | 113 | 74.6% |
| 16 | Leicester (LE) | 109 | 74.2% |
| 17 | Coventry (CV) | 105 | 78.5% |
| 18 | Wakefield (WF) | 103 | 78.9% |
| 19 | Edinburgh (EH) | 102 | 72.5% |
| 20 | Gloucester (GL) | 99 | 72.1% |
The twenty areas with the most SEAT Exeo cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
Regional pass rates for the Exeo
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 479 | 71.6% |
| South East | 446 | 78.5% |
| North West | 440 | 78.2% |
| Yorkshire | 401 | 79.8% |
| Scotland | 385 | 74.5% |
| East of England | 351 | 76.9% |
| West Midlands | 302 | 81.5% |
| East Midlands | 255 | 79.6% |
| Wales | 239 | 77.0% |
| North East | 210 | 81.9% |
| London | 26 | 88.5% |
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 Exeo
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 Exeo
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 6.1% 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 coil springs 5.9% 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 windscreen 4.3% 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.
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 Exeo through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £28–£70 — and 24% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £28–£70
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 24%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 3,534 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 Exeo, side by side
5 model years on record, from 2009 to 2013. Across them the pass rate runs from 75.8% to 78.3% — a spread of 2.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2009 76.8% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2010 76.0% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2011 75.8% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2012 77.6%track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2013 78.3% track rod end ball joint dust…
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 SEAT Exeo 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
- Volkswagen Scirocco 77.6%
- Ford B-Max 77.6%
- Ford Ka 77.5%
- Vauxhall Astra 77.7%
- Skoda Octavia 77.7%
- Vauxhall Agila 77.7%
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 SEAT Exeo 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 7,029 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 | 1,687 | 23.60% | 20.89% | +2.71 |
| Suspension | 1,581 | 22.10% | 20.98% | +1.12 |
| Tyres | 1,327 | 18.50% | 19.76% | −1.26 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 706 | 9.90% | 12.21% | −2.31 |
| Steering | 503 | 7.00% | 2.57% | +4.43 |
| Non-component advisories | 400 | 5.60% | 4.18% | +1.42 |
| Visibility | 260 | 3.60% | 4.97% | −1.37 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 230 | 3.20% | 5.57% | −2.37 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 220 | 3.10% | 5.52% | −2.42 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 115 | 1.60% | 1.76% | −0.16 |
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 | 6.1% | £18–45 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 5.9% | £25–65 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.3% | £80–200 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.0% | £5–20 |
| Flexible brake hoses excessively deteriorated Brakes | Major | 2.6% | £25–70 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover excessively damaged or deteriorated so that it no longer prevents the ingress of… Steering | Major | 2.6% | £18–45 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.8% | £3–12 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.6% | £5–25 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.6% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.3% | £45–95 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 20.8% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 14.8% | £45–110 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 10.7% | £40–150 |
| Flexible brake hoses excessively deteriorated Brakes | Advisory | 7.8% | £25–70 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 7.3% | £180–450 |
| Non-component advisories Play in steering rack inner joint(s) Non-component advisories | Advisory | 5.2% | £120–300 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 17 | 94.1% | 24,640 mi |
| 30-60k | 97 | 84.5% | 49,170 mi |
| 60-90k | 563 | 78.2% | 77,759 mi |
| 90-120k | 1,000 | 78.1% | 105,873 mi |
| 120k+ | 1,855 | 76.7% | 155,560 mi |
Source: 3,534 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 Exeo MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 SEAT Exeo?
77.6% of the 3,534 2012 SEAT Exeo tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 71.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 SEAT Exeo?
The three most recorded items are track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt (6.06%), coil spring fractured or broken (5.89%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (4.27%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 SEAT Exeo MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 94.1% of the time, falling to 76.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 SEAT Exeo in this dataset had covered 122,515 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 SEAT Exeo?
Diesel: 77.6% pass rate across 3,479 tests. Petrol: 78.2% pass rate across 55 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2012 SEAT Exeo MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 77.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 77.5%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.