Pass rate
97.0%
Above average — 2.2 pts ahead of the 94.8% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 268 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £32–£80
2023 Skoda Fabia MOT pass rate
- 2023
- typical 18,059 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
56.6% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 97.0% pass · this year
- Avoid 2003 70.1% pass
Across the 24 years on record, a spread of 26.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 96.9%
- Typical mileage
- 18k mi
The 2023 Skoda Fabia MOT pass rate is 97.0% of its MOT tests — 2.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 56.6% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Skoda Fabia does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.9× the national share
Tyres make up 56.6% of everything recorded on the 2023 Skoda Fabia, against 19.8% nationally — 36.8 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.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 28% 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.
- Based on a small sample. 268 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 Skoda Fabia? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2023 Skoda Fabia compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 94.8%, so this figure is 2.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 96.9%. The median 2023 Skoda Fabia in this dataset had covered 18,059 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 97.4% of the time, April–September 96.2%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords", noted on 0.75% of tests.
- 268 recorded tests behind this page.
- 97.0% overall pass rate, 96.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Skoda Fabia, the average is 80.4% — best year 2023 (97.0%), worst 2003 (70.1%).
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
- 268
- Typical mileage (median)
- 18,059 mi
- Make and model
- Skoda Fabia
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Tyres
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Fabia MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 84% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Fabia
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 67 | 98.5% |
| Scotland | 32 | 93.8% |
| North East | 29 | 93.1% |
| Yorkshire | 25 | 100.0% |
| North West | 25 | 100.0% |
| South West | 24 | 95.8% |
| West Midlands | 20 | 100.0% |
| East Midlands | 19 | 89.5% |
| East of England | 17 | 100.0% |
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 2023 Fabia
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 2023 Fabia
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 lights 0.8% of tests
“headlamp aim too low”
Switch everything on and walk round the car: both headlamps on dip and main, every indicator, both brake lights, reverse, fog and the two number-plate lamps. A bulb is a few pounds and a five-minute job.
-
Check the windscreen 0.8% 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 0.4% 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 2023 Fabia through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £32–£80 — and 28% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £32–£80
- Cheapest common item: front fog lamp switch inoperative
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 28%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 268 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 Fabia, side by side
24 model years on record, from 2000 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 70.1% to 97.0% — a spread of 26.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 71.7% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2001 71.5% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2002 71.8% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2003 70.1% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2004 70.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2005 70.8% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2006 71.1% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2007 72.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2008 71.5% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2009 73.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 77.1% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2011 78.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 79.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 81.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 82.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 83.7% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2016 83.5% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2017 84.7% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2018 86.4% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2019 89.8% wipers does not clear the…
- 2020 90.7% wipers does not clear the…
- 2021 90.8% wipers does not clear the…
- 2022 94.1% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 97.0%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 2023 Skoda Fabia 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 2023 cars with a similar record
- Levc Tx 97.0%
- Mercedes-Benz Eqe 96.5%
- Ford Puma 96.5%
- Toyota Corolla 95.7%
- Kia Niro 95.5%
- Polestar Polestar 94.6%
Closest pass rates among 2023 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 2023 Skoda Fabia 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 6 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 76 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 | 43 | 56.60% | 19.76% | +36.84 |
| Brakes | 11 | 14.50% | 20.89% | −6.39 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 11 | 14.50% | 12.21% | +2.29 |
| Visibility | 6 | 7.90% | 4.97% | +2.93 |
| Non-component advisories | 3 | 3.90% | 4.18% | −0.28 |
| Suspension | 2 | 2.60% | 20.98% | −18.38 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.75% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.75% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.75% | £30–80 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 0.75% | £80–200 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.37% | £18–45 |
| Driver's view to the front outside the swept area of the windscreen wipers restricted by an obstruction Visibility | Minor | 0.37% | £8–22 |
| Front fog lamp switch inoperative Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.37% | £3–15 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.37% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp insecure Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.37% | £5–25 |
| Horn not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.37% | £8–25 |
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 | 7.5% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 6.7% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 1.9% | £45–110 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 1.1% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 0.75% | £18–45 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 0.75% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 234 | 97.4% | 15,456 mi |
| 30-60k | 26 | 92.3% | 36,263 mi |
Source: 268 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.
2023 Fabia MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2023 Skoda Fabia?
97.0% of the 268 2023 Skoda Fabia tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 94.8% for cars first used in 2023. First-attempt pass rate: 96.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2023 Skoda Fabia?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (0.75%), headlamp aim too low (0.75%), headlamp aim too low (0.75%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2023 Skoda Fabia MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 97.4% of the time, falling to 92.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2023 Skoda Fabia in this dataset had covered 18,059 mi.
Does the season affect the 2023 Skoda Fabia MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 97.4% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 96.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.