Pass rate
79.1%
Around average — 3.2 pts ahead of the 75.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 16,362 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £30–£89
2011 Suzuki Alto MOT pass rate
- 2011
- typical 65,464 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
26.9% 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 →
5.5 pts up across model years — 4.0% in 2003, 9.5% in 2015.
Which year to buy
- Best 2015 83.1% pass
- Avoid 2001 66.4% pass
Across the 13 years on record, a spread of 16.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 74.3%
- Typical mileage
- 65k mi
The 2011 Suzuki Alto MOT pass rate is 79.1% of its MOT tests — 3.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.9% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.3× the national share
Suspension accounts for 26.9% of everything recorded on the 2011 Suzuki Alto, against 21.0% nationally — 5.9 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
- 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 75.9% and this one manages 79.1% — 3.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 57% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
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 Suzuki Alto? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2011 Suzuki Alto compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 75.9%, so this figure is 3.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 74.3%. The median 2011 Suzuki Alto in this dataset had covered 65,464 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 79.0% of the time, April–September 79.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 7.63% of tests.
- 16,362 recorded tests behind this page.
- 79.1% overall pass rate, 74.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Suzuki Alto, the average is 79.4% — best year 2015 (83.1%), worst 2001 (66.4%).
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
- 16,362
- Typical mileage (median)
- 65,464 mi
- Make and model
- Suzuki Alto
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Alto MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 65% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Suzuki Alto is most common
Across all Alto model years on record (2001–2015): 65,468 Suzuki Alto cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 174,254 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 1,868 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) | 1,868 | 84.5% |
| 2 | Cardiff (CF) | 1,654 | 77.9% |
| 3 | Sheffield (S) | 1,513 | 83.1% |
| 4 | Swansea (SA) | 1,399 | 78.3% |
| 5 | Manchester (M) | 1,395 | 82.3% |
| 6 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 1,393 | 76.9% |
| 7 | Portsmouth (PO) | 1,267 | 78.2% |
| 8 | Peterborough (PE) | 1,177 | 83.1% |
| 9 | Nottingham (NG) | 1,167 | 78.6% |
| 10 | Glasgow (G) | 1,138 | 74.2% |
| 11 | Bristol (BS) | 1,065 | 74.3% |
| 12 | Bradford (BD) | 1,047 | 78.5% |
| 13 | Warrington (WA) | 990 | 80.0% |
| 14 | Newport (NP) | 969 | 80.2% |
| 15 | Brighton (BN) | 934 | 78.3% |
| 16 | Leeds (LS) | 929 | 76.0% |
| 17 | Norwich (NR) | 873 | 81.8% |
| 18 | Leicester (LE) | 853 | 80.9% |
| 19 | Doncaster (DN) | 844 | 82.3% |
| 20 | Southampton (SO) | 797 | 82.6% |
The twenty areas with the most Suzuki Alto 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 Alto
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 3,085 | 81.9% |
| North West | 1,897 | 78.7% |
| South West | 1,803 | 77.4% |
| Yorkshire | 1,790 | 78.0% |
| East of England | 1,626 | 83.6% |
| West Midlands | 1,571 | 82.7% |
| Wales | 1,262 | 76.3% |
| Scotland | 1,021 | 70.8% |
| East Midlands | 925 | 78.3% |
| North East | 879 | 72.8% |
| London | 503 | 84.9% |
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 2011 Alto
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 2011 Alto
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 7.6% 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 brake pipes 3.4% of tests
“rigid brake pipes excessively corroded”
Brake pipes run under the car, usually in front of the rear wheels. Flaking or crusty metal is what fails; a light dusting of surface rust does not. Worth asking a garage to look while it is on a ramp.
-
Check the suspension joints 3.1% of tests
“ball joint dust cover severely 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.
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 2011 Alto through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £30–£89 — and 57% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £30–£89
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 57%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 16,362 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 Alto, side by side
13 model years on record, from 2001 to 2015. Across them the pass rate runs from 66.4% to 83.1% — a spread of 16.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2001 66.4% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2002 68.1% service brake imbalance across an…
- 2003 67.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2004 67.4% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2005 67.7% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2006 68.1% service brake imbalance across an…
- 2009 76.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 77.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 79.1%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 79.4% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2013 81.1% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2014 82.6% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2015 83.1% joints constant velocity boot…
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 2011 Suzuki Alto 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 2011 cars with a similar record
- Volvo V60 78.9%
- Volkswagen Sharan 78.9%
- BMW 118 78.8%
- BMW 3 Series 79.4%
- Smart Mcc Fortwo 79.4%
- BMW 120 78.7%
Closest pass rates among 2011 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 2011 Suzuki Alto 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 39,495 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 | 10,773 | 26.90% | 20.98% | +5.92 |
| Brakes | 9,684 | 24.20% | 20.89% | +3.31 |
| Tyres | 6,208 | 15.50% | 19.76% | −4.26 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 5,579 | 14.00% | 12.21% | +1.79 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 2,453 | 6.10% | 5.57% | +0.53 |
| Visibility | 1,842 | 4.60% | 4.97% | −0.37 |
| Non-component advisories | 1,156 | 2.90% | 4.18% | −1.28 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 911 | 2.30% | 5.52% | −3.22 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 489 | 1.20% | 1.76% | −0.56 |
| Road Wheels | 400 | 1.00% | 0.75% | +0.25 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 7.6% | £5–20 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 6.6% | £80–250 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 3.4% | £80–180 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.4% | £5–25 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 3.1% | £18–45 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 2.4% | £8–22 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.4% | £5–25 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 2.3% | £8–22 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.9% | £40–150 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.9% | £3–12 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 24.6% | £80–180 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 18.4% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 17.6% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 12.4% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 11.3% | £25–65 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 8.1% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1,480 | 88.0% | 22,183 mi |
| 30-60k | 5,445 | 81.8% | 46,562 mi |
| 60-90k | 6,050 | 77.5% | 73,773 mi |
| 90-120k | 2,639 | 73.7% | 102,225 mi |
| 120k+ | 744 | 75.1% | 136,394 mi |
Source: 16,362 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.
2011 Alto MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2011 Suzuki Alto?
79.1% of the 16,362 2011 Suzuki Alto tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 75.9% for cars first used in 2011. First-attempt pass rate: 74.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2011 Suzuki Alto?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (7.63%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (6.58%), rigid brake pipes excessively corroded (3.42%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2011 Suzuki Alto MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.0% of the time, falling to 75.1% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2011 Suzuki Alto in this dataset had covered 65,464 mi.
Does the season affect the 2011 Suzuki Alto MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 79.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 79.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.