Pass rate
84.8%
Around average — 5.9 pts behind the 90.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 79 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £22–£63
2020 Toyota Sienta MOT pass rate
- 2020
- typical 43,937 mi
Only 79 tests of this exact model and year are in the DVSA data, below the 100 we ask for before a page goes in the index. The figures are still shown, because they are the only ones there are.
Most common fault
Lamps & electrics
30.5% of faults · 12.2% nationally
Which year to buy
- Best 2018 95.2% pass
- Avoid 2020 84.8% pass · this year
Across the 6 years on record, a spread of 10.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 83.8%
- Typical mileage
- 44k mi
The 2020 Toyota Sienta MOT pass rate is 84.8% of its MOT tests — 5.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Lamps & electrics is the biggest single reason it fails, at 30.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Toyota Sienta does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 2.5× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 30.5% of everything recorded on the 2020 Toyota Sienta, against 12.2% nationally — 18.3 points above. Walk round the car with the lights on before the test: bulbs, indicators and number-plate lamps are the cheapest failures to prevent and among the most common.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 90.7%; this one manages 84.8% — 5.9 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 62% 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 Toyota Sienta? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2020 Toyota Sienta compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 90.7%, so this figure is 5.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 83.8%. The median 2020 Toyota Sienta in this dataset had covered 43,937 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Hybrid — 63% of tests, with a 90.0% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 80.4% of the time, April–September 90.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Rear fog lamp does not emit a steady red light", noted on 3.80% of tests.
- 79 recorded tests behind this page.
- 84.8% overall pass rate, 83.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Toyota Sienta, the average is 89.6% — best year 2018 (95.2%), worst 2020 (84.8%).
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
- 79
- Typical mileage (median)
- 43,937 mi
- Make and model
- Toyota Sienta
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Sienta MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 58% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Hybrid is the most common here (63% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Sienta
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| West Midlands | 32 | 93.8% |
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 2020 Sienta
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 2020 Sienta
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 3.8% of tests
“rear fog lamp does not emit a steady red light”
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 brakes 1.3% 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 2020 Sienta through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £22–£63 — and 62% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £22–£63
- Cheapest common item: rear fog lamp does not emit a steady red light
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 62%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 79 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 Sienta, side by side
6 model years on record, from 2015 to 2020. Across them the pass rate runs from 84.8% to 95.2% — a spread of 10.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2015 88.1% position lamp incorrect colour
- 2016 87.7% rear fog lamp not working
- 2017 89.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2018 95.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2019 92.7% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2020 84.8%rear fog lamp does not emit a…
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 2020 Toyota Sienta 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 2020 cars with a similar record
- Tesla Model X 84.6%
- Vauxhall Corsa E 85.4%
- Isuzu D-Max 85.4%
- Ford Ranger 85.6%
- Peugeot 508 86.0%
- Mercedes-Benz Vito 83.3%
Closest pass rates among 2020 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 2020 Toyota Sienta 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 59 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 18 | 30.50% | 12.21% | +18.29 |
| Suspension | 16 | 27.10% | 20.98% | +6.12 |
| Tyres | 10 | 16.90% | 19.76% | −2.86 |
| Brakes | 8 | 13.60% | 20.89% | −7.29 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 3 | 5.10% | 5.57% | −0.47 |
| Visibility | 2 | 3.40% | 4.97% | −1.57 |
| Road Wheels | 2 | 3.40% | 0.75% | +2.65 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rear fog lamp does not emit a steady red light Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.8% | £3–15 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 2.5% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.5% | £5–25 |
| Rear fog lamp light intensity significantly reduced Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.5% | £3–15 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.5% | £3–15 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.3% | £18–45 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.3% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp insecure Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.3% | £5–25 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 1.3% | £80–250 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.3% | £80–250 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 13.9% | £40–150 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 6.3% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp has a product on the lens so that the light output is severely reduced Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Advisory | 5.1% | £5–25 |
| Linkage pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 3.8% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 3.8% | £45–95 |
| Badly distorted Road Wheels | Advisory | 2.5% | £20–55 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 17 | 94.1% | 18,330 mi |
| 30-60k | 38 | 92.1% | 42,518 mi |
| 60-90k | 15 | 66.7% | 81,629 mi |
| 90-120k | 6 | 66.7% | 99,677 mi |
| 120k+ | 3 | 66.7% | 121,905 mi |
Source: 79 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.
2020 Sienta MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2020 Toyota Sienta?
84.8% of the 79 2020 Toyota Sienta tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 90.7% for cars first used in 2020. First-attempt pass rate: 83.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2020 Toyota Sienta?
The three most recorded items are rear fog lamp does not emit a steady red light (3.80%), has ply or cords exposed (2.53%), headlamp lens slightly defective (2.53%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2020 Toyota Sienta MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 94.1% of the time, falling to 66.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2020 Toyota Sienta in this dataset had covered 43,937 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2020 Toyota Sienta?
Hybrid: 90.0% pass rate across 50 tests. Petrol: 75.9% pass rate across 29 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2020 Toyota Sienta MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 80.4% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 90.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.