Pass rate
74.7%
Below average — 2.5 pts behind the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 52,267 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £44–£124
2012 SEAT Ibiza MOT pass rate
- 2012
- 2 trims combined
- typical 86,568 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
23.6% 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 →
5.4 pts down across model years — 6.1% in 2002, 0.7% in 2018.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 91.9% pass
- Avoid 2008 69.2% pass
Across the 24 years on record, a spread of 22.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 67.1%
- Typical mileage
- 87k mi
The 2012 SEAT Ibiza MOT pass rate is 74.7% of its MOT tests — 2.5 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 23.6% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how SEAT Ibiza does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
When it fails, it costs
Only 7% 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 Ibiza? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every SEAT Ibiza first registered in 2012 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2012 SEAT Ibiza compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 2.5 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 67.1%. The median 2012 SEAT Ibiza in this dataset had covered 86,568 mi.
78% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 75.0% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 74.7% of the time, April–September 74.7%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn", noted on 3.64% of tests.
- 52,267 recorded tests behind this page.
- 74.7% overall pass rate, 67.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the SEAT Ibiza, the average is 77.6% — best year 2023 (91.9%), worst 2008 (69.2%).
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
- 52,267
- Typical mileage (median)
- 86,568 mi
- Make and model
- SEAT Ibiza
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Suspension Component
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Ibiza MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 63% 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 Ibiza
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 7,356 | 77.4% |
| West Midlands | 7,023 | 77.5% |
| Yorkshire | 6,723 | 73.6% |
| North West | 6,083 | 74.8% |
| South West | 5,451 | 73.3% |
| East of England | 4,741 | 76.7% |
| Scotland | 4,109 | 68.7% |
| East Midlands | 4,059 | 74.5% |
| Wales | 2,883 | 72.0% |
| North East | 2,869 | 72.0% |
| London | 970 | 81.9% |
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 Ibiza
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 Ibiza
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 3.6% 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 shock absorbers 3.2% of tests
“shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak”
Press down hard on each corner of the car and let go. It should settle in one bounce; if it keeps rocking, or you can see oil weeping down a shock absorber, that is the fault a tester will find.
-
Check the windscreen 2.6% 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 Ibiza through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £44–£124 — and 7% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £44–£124
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 7%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 52,267 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 Ibiza, side by side
24 model years on record, from 2000 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 69.2% to 91.9% — a spread of 22.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 73.8% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2001 75.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2002 71.2% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2003 70.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2004 70.2% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2005 69.8% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2006 70.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2007 69.5% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2008 69.2% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2009 71.2% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2010 72.8% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2011 73.5% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2012 74.7%pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2013 75.2% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2014 76.7% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2015 78.0% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2016 78.5% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2017 79.7% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2018 82.8% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2019 89.3% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2020 90.5% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2021 91.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 91.4% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 91.9% has a cut in excess of the…
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 Ibiza 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
- Ford Fiesta 74.7%
- Hyundai I40 74.7%
- Fiat 500 C 74.7%
- Chevrolet Orlando 74.8%
- Mitsubishi L200 74.6%
- Vauxhall Corsa 74.9%
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 Ibiza 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 118,840 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 | 28,387 | 23.60% | 20.98% | +2.62 |
| Brakes | 22,042 | 18.40% | 20.89% | −2.49 |
| Tyres | 21,178 | 17.60% | 19.76% | −2.16 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 11,519 | 9.60% | 12.21% | −2.61 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 9,425 | 7.80% | 5.57% | +2.23 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 7,401 | 6.20% | 5.52% | +0.68 |
| Non-component advisories | 7,062 | 5.90% | 4.18% | +1.72 |
| Visibility | 5,475 | 4.60% | 4.97% | −0.37 |
| Steering | 4,352 | 3.60% | 2.57% | +1.03 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1,999 | 1.70% | 1.76% | −0.06 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.6% | £40–150 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 3.2% | £30–75 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 2.9% | £80–250 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 2.7% | £45–110 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.6% | £80–200 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 2.3% | £18–45 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 2.1% | £60–150 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 2.0% | £25–65 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.9% | £5–20 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.8% | £45–120 |
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 | 18.9% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 12.9% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 11.6% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 11.2% | £45–95 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 10.4% | £30–75 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 8.8% | £200–700 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 774 | 88.5% | 22,838 mi |
| 30-60k | 7,642 | 81.5% | 49,044 mi |
| 60-90k | 20,237 | 75.5% | 75,923 mi |
| 90-120k | 16,703 | 71.6% | 103,182 mi |
| 120k+ | 6,891 | 71.0% | 138,001 mi |
Source: 52,267 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 Ibiza MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 SEAT Ibiza?
74.7% of the 52,267 2012 SEAT Ibiza tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 67.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 SEAT Ibiza?
The three most recorded items are pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn (3.64%), shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak (3.20%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (2.85%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 SEAT Ibiza MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.5% of the time, falling to 71.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 SEAT Ibiza in this dataset had covered 86,568 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 SEAT Ibiza?
Petrol: 75.0% pass rate across 40,759 tests. Diesel: 73.5% pass rate across 11,508 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2012 SEAT Ibiza MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 74.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 74.7%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.