Pass rate
87.5%
Above average — 3.7 pts behind the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 104 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £23–£53
2021 Smart Eq Forfour Prime MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 11,782 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
31.4% 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 2020 91.2% pass
- Avoid 2021 87.5% pass · this year
Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 3.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 87.1%
- Typical mileage
- 12k mi
The 2021 Smart Eq Forfour Prime MOT pass rate is 87.5% of its MOT tests — 3.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 31.4% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Smart Eq Forfour Prime does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Visibility: 3.5× the national share
Visibility accounts for 17.6% of everything recorded on the 2021 Smart Eq Forfour Prime, against 5.0% nationally — 12.6 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 31.4%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. Wipers, washers and a chip in the driver’s eyeline are the three quickest ways to fail a test that the car otherwise deserves to pass.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 91.2%; this one manages 87.5% — 3.7 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- Based on a small sample. 104 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 Smart Eq Forfour Prime? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 Smart Eq Forfour Prime compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 3.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 87.1%. The median 2021 Smart Eq Forfour Prime in this dataset had covered 11,782 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively", noted on 4.81% of tests.
- 104 recorded tests behind this page.
- 87.5% overall pass rate, 87.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Smart Eq Forfour Prime, the average is 90.8% — best year 2020 (91.2%), worst 2021 (87.5%).
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
- 104
- Typical mileage (median)
- 11,782 mi
- Make and model
- Smart Eq Forfour Prime
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Wiper Blade
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Eq Forfour Prime MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 69% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Eq Forfour Prime
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 28 | 96.4% |
| London | 27 | 74.1% |
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 2021 Eq Forfour Prime
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 Eq Forfour Prime
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 wipers and washers 4.8% of tests
“wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively”
Run the wipers with the screen wet: they should clear it in one sweep without smearing or juddering. Top the washer bottle up and check both jets hit the screen.
-
Check the brakes 1.0% 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 shock absorbers 1.0% 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.
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 Eq Forfour Prime through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £23–£53 — and 53% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £23–£53
- Cheapest common item: washers provides insufficient washer liquid
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: service brake imbalance across an axle
- £45–£110
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 100%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 53%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 104 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 Eq Forfour Prime, side by side
2 model years on record, from 2020 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 87.5% to 91.2% — a spread of 3.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2020 91.2% wipers does not clear the…
- 2021 87.5%wipers does not clear 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 2021 Smart Eq Forfour Prime 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
- BMW 330E 87.7%
- Mercedes-Benz Eqc 87.3%
- Land Rover Discovery Spt Rdyn 87.9%
- Land Rover Discovery 88.0%
- Tesla Model 3 88.1%
- Ford Ranger 86.9%
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 Smart Eq Forfour Prime 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 7 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 51 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 | 16 | 31.40% | 20.89% | +10.51 |
| Tyres | 16 | 31.40% | 19.76% | +11.64 |
| Visibility | 9 | 17.60% | 4.97% | +12.63 |
| Non-component advisories | 7 | 13.70% | 4.18% | +9.52 |
| Suspension | 1 | 2.00% | 20.98% | −18.98 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 1 | 2.00% | 5.52% | −3.52 |
| Road Wheels | 1 | 2.00% | 0.75% | +1.25 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 4.8% | £8–22 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.9% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.9% | £45–95 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.9% | £8–22 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.96% | £18–45 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.96% | £45–95 |
| Service brake imbalance across an axle Brakes | Major | 0.96% | £45–110 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 0.96% | £30–75 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Rectified | 0.96% | £5–15 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 0.96% | £8–22 |
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 | 9.6% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 4.8% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 2.9% | £45–110 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.9% | £20–80 |
| Non-component advisories Items removed from drivers view prior to test Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.9% | £20–80 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.9% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 95 | 88.4% | 11,977 mi |
| 30-60k | 9 | 77.8% | 37,850 mi |
Source: 104 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 Eq Forfour Prime MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 Smart Eq Forfour Prime?
87.5% of the 104 2021 Smart Eq Forfour Prime tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 87.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 Smart Eq Forfour Prime?
The three most recorded items are wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (4.81%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.92%), has ply or cords exposed (1.92%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 Smart Eq Forfour Prime MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.4% of the time, falling to 77.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 Smart Eq Forfour Prime in this dataset had covered 11,782 mi.