Pass rate
83.0%
Around average — 4.9 pts behind the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 5,053 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £22–£54
2018 Suzuki Baleno MOT pass rate
- 2018
- typical 37,446 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
27.9% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 89.9% pass
- Avoid 2001 72.0% pass
Across the 6 years on record, a spread of 17.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 79.9%
- Typical mileage
- 37k mi
The 2018 Suzuki Baleno MOT pass rate is 83.0% of its MOT tests — 4.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.9% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Suzuki Baleno does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.3× the national share
Suspension accounts for 27.9% of everything recorded on the 2018 Suzuki Baleno, against 21.0% nationally — 6.9 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.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 87.9%; this one manages 83.0% — 4.9 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 25% 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 Suzuki Baleno? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2018 Suzuki Baleno compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, so this figure is 4.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 79.9%. The median 2018 Suzuki Baleno in this dataset had covered 37,446 mi.
96% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 83.1% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 82.6% of the time, April–September 83.2%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated", noted on 9.86% of tests.
- 5,053 recorded tests behind this page.
- 83.0% overall pass rate, 79.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Suzuki Baleno, the average is 82.6% — best year 2019 (89.9%), worst 2001 (72.0%).
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
- 5,053
- Typical mileage (median)
- 37,446 mi
- Make and model
- Suzuki Baleno
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Baleno 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 (96% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Baleno
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| North West | 800 | 82.6% |
| South East | 656 | 86.0% |
| Scotland | 605 | 79.3% |
| Yorkshire | 591 | 83.2% |
| South West | 511 | 82.6% |
| West Midlands | 458 | 85.8% |
| East of England | 424 | 83.0% |
| Wales | 365 | 81.4% |
| North East | 320 | 80.0% |
| East Midlands | 238 | 87.0% |
| London | 85 | 80.0% |
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 2018 Baleno
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 2018 Baleno
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 9.9% 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.
-
Check the tyre tread 1.7% 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.
-
Check the wipers and washers 1.5% of tests
“wipers blade defective”
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.
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 2018 Baleno through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £22–£54 — and 25% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £22–£54
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 25%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 5,053 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 Baleno, side by side
6 model years on record, from 2000 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 72.0% to 89.9% — a spread of 17.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 74.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2001 72.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2016 80.7% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2017 81.0% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2018 83.0%ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2019 89.9% ball joint dust cover severely…
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 2018 Suzuki Baleno 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 2018 cars with a similar record
- Ford Ranger 83.0%
- SEAT Ibiza 82.8%
- Volkswagen Polo 83.3%
- Mercedes-Benz Vito 82.7%
- Ford Grand C-Max 83.3%
- Nissan Micra 82.6%
Closest pass rates among 2018 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 2018 Suzuki Baleno 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 6,074 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 | 1,708 | 27.90% | 20.98% | +6.92 |
| Brakes | 1,540 | 25.20% | 20.89% | +4.31 |
| Tyres | 1,522 | 24.90% | 19.76% | +5.14 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 437 | 7.10% | 12.21% | −5.11 |
| Visibility | 380 | 6.20% | 4.97% | +1.23 |
| Non-component advisories | 298 | 4.90% | 4.18% | +0.72 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 50 | 0.80% | 5.57% | −4.77 |
| Steering | 49 | 0.80% | 2.57% | −1.77 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 45 | 0.70% | 5.52% | −4.82 |
| Road Wheels | 45 | 0.70% | 0.75% | −0.05 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 9.9% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 7.9% | £18–45 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.7% | £45–95 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.5% | £8–22 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.4% | £5–20 |
| Horn not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.4% | £8–25 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 1.4% | £8–22 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.3% | £8–22 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.2% | £80–200 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 1.1% | £80–180 |
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 | 15.4% | £45–95 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 9.6% | £80–180 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 8.8% | £25–65 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 7.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 5.5% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 5.1% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1,715 | 87.6% | 20,459 mi |
| 30-60k | 2,540 | 81.6% | 42,954 mi |
| 60-90k | 646 | 77.9% | 70,312 mi |
| 90-120k | 120 | 75.0% | 100,073 mi |
| 120k+ | 31 | 71.0% | 150,933 mi |
Source: 5,053 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.
2018 Baleno MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 Suzuki Baleno?
83.0% of the 5,053 2018 Suzuki Baleno tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 79.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 Suzuki Baleno?
The three most recorded items are ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (9.86%), ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (7.92%), tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (1.70%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 Suzuki Baleno MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 87.6% of the time, falling to 71.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 Suzuki Baleno in this dataset had covered 37,446 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2018 Suzuki Baleno?
Petrol: 83.1% pass rate across 4,875 tests. Hybrid: 78.7% pass rate across 178 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2018 Suzuki Baleno MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 82.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 83.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.