Pass rate
90.0%
Above average — 12.8 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 180 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £37–£96
2012 Subaru Brz MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 63,385 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
30.5% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2020 94.4% pass
- Avoid 2015 87.1% pass
Across the 9 years on record, a spread of 7.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 89.2%
- Typical mileage
- 63k mi
The 2012 Subaru Brz MOT pass rate is 90.0% of its MOT tests — 12.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 30.5% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.5× the national share
Tyres make up 30.5% of everything recorded on the 2012 Subaru Brz, against 19.8% nationally — 10.7 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.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 77.2% and this one manages 90.0% — 12.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 29% 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 Subaru Brz? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 Subaru Brz compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 12.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 89.2%. The median 2012 Subaru Brz in this dataset had covered 63,385 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 85.3% of the time, April–September 93.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 2.78% of tests.
- 180 recorded tests behind this page.
- 90.0% overall pass rate, 89.2% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Subaru Brz, the average is 89.8% — best year 2020 (94.4%), worst 2015 (87.1%).
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
- 180
- Typical mileage (median)
- 63,385 mi
- Make and model
- Subaru Brz
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Windscreen
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Brz MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 73% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Subaru Brz is most common
Across all Brz model years on record (2012–2020): 1,383 Subaru Brz cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 2,747 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 40 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) | 40 | 91.3% |
| 2 | Coventry (CV) | 36 | 89.3% |
| 3 | Leeds (LS) | 35 | 85.7% |
| 4 | Northampton (NN) | 34 | 89.2% |
| 5 | Reading (RG) | 33 | 96.8% |
| 6 | Oxford (OX) | 31 | 95.0% |
| 7 | Guildford (GU) | 30 | 87.9% |
| 8 | High Wycombe (HP) | 30 | 92.7% |
| 9 | Derby (DE) | 26 | 83.6% |
| 10 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 26 | 94.0% |
| 11 | Newport (NP) | 24 | 88.7% |
| 12 | Southampton (SO) | 24 | 88.6% |
| 13 | Nottingham (NG) | 23 | 87.5% |
| 14 | Bristol (BS) | 23 | 89.2% |
| 15 | Chelmsford (CM) | 22 | 89.6% |
| 16 | Swindon (SN) | 22 | 87.5% |
| 17 | Gloucester (GL) | 21 | 80.7% |
| 18 | Peterborough (PE) | 21 | 89.2% |
| 19 | Sheffield (S) | 21 | 97.1% |
| 20 | Crawley (RH) | 20 | 97.5% |
The twenty areas with the most Subaru Brz 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 Brz
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 37 | 86.5% |
| West Midlands | 21 | 90.5% |
| North West | 20 | 85.0% |
| Yorkshire | 18 | 100.0% |
| Scotland | 17 | 88.2% |
| East Midlands | 15 | 86.7% |
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 2012 Brz
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 Brz
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 windscreen 2.8% 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 lights 2.2% of tests
“registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”
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 tyre tread 2.2% of tests
“tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm”
Check all four tyres cold, including the inner shoulder where wear hides — 1.6mm across the central three-quarters is the legal limit, and most testers fail at 1.6mm without argument.
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 Brz through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £37–£96 — and 29% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £37–£96
- Cheapest common item: all direction indicators flashing more than…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 29%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 180 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 Brz, side by side
9 model years on record, from 2012 to 2020. Across them the pass rate runs from 87.1% to 94.4% — a spread of 7.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2012 90.0%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2013 87.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 89.3% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2015 87.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 89.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 91.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 92.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 92.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 94.4% brake discs significantly and…
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 Subaru Brz 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
- Audi A8 90.2%
- Honda Fit 89.3%
- Porsche Boxster 91.6%
- Toyota Estima 88.3%
- Lexus Rx 88.3%
- Lexus RX450H 88.0%
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 Subaru Brz 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 151 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 | 46 | 30.50% | 19.76% | +10.74 |
| Brakes | 41 | 27.20% | 20.89% | +6.31 |
| Suspension | 24 | 15.90% | 20.98% | −5.08 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 16 | 10.60% | 12.21% | −1.61 |
| Visibility | 10 | 6.60% | 4.97% | +1.63 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 5 | 3.30% | 5.57% | −2.27 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 3 | 2.00% | 5.52% | −3.52 |
| Non-component advisories | 2 | 1.30% | 4.18% | −2.88 |
| Steering | 2 | 1.30% | 2.57% | −1.27 |
| Road Wheels | 2 | 1.30% | 0.75% | +0.55 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.8% | £80–200 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.2% | £5–20 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 2.2% | £45–95 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.7% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.1% | £5–25 |
| Service brake performance lagging in operation Brakes | Major | 1.1% | £60–150 |
| All direction indicators flashing more than 120 times a minute Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.56% | £3–12 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 0.56% | £18–45 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.56% | £18–45 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.56% | £60–250 |
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 | 13.3% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 9.4% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 6.1% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 6.1% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 3.9% | £25–65 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.2% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 20 | 100.0% | 17,104 mi |
| 30-60k | 63 | 90.5% | 48,311 mi |
| 60-90k | 67 | 85.1% | 73,768 mi |
| 90-120k | 18 | 100.0% | 106,085 mi |
| 120k+ | 11 | 81.8% | 147,109 mi |
Source: 180 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 Brz MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Subaru Brz?
90.0% of the 180 2012 Subaru Brz tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 89.2%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Subaru Brz?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.78%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (2.22%), tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (2.22%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Subaru Brz MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 81.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Subaru Brz in this dataset had covered 63,385 mi.
Does the season affect the 2012 Subaru Brz MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 85.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 93.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.