Pass rate
86.7%
Above average — 4.0 pts behind the 90.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 90 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £11–£42
2020 Toyota Vitz MOT pass rate
- 2020
- typical 50,875 mi
Only 90 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
Tyres
31.5% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2016 94.6% pass
- Avoid 2008 79.8% pass
Across the 14 years on record, a spread of 14.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 84.6%
- Typical mileage
- 51k mi
The 2020 Toyota Vitz MOT pass rate is 86.7% of its MOT tests — 4.0 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 31.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Toyota Vitz does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 2.4× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 29.3% of everything recorded on the 2020 Toyota Vitz, against 12.2% nationally — 17.1 points above. Tyres are still the single largest share at 31.5%, but at 19.8% nationally that one is ordinary. 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 86.7% — 4.0 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 83% 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 Vitz? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2020 Toyota Vitz compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 90.7%, so this figure is 4.0 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 84.6%. The median 2020 Toyota Vitz in this dataset had covered 50,875 mi.
82% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 85.1% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 85.7% of the time, April–September 87.5%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Mirrors slightly damaged", noted on 3.33% of tests.
- 90 recorded tests behind this page.
- 86.7% overall pass rate, 84.6% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Toyota Vitz, the average is 87.8% — best year 2016 (94.6%), worst 2008 (79.8%).
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
- 90
- Typical mileage (median)
- 50,875 mi
- Make and model
- Toyota Vitz
- 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 Vitz 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 (82% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Vitz
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 33 | 84.8% |
| North West | 22 | 95.5% |
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 Vitz
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 Vitz
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 3.3% of tests
“mirrors slightly damaged”
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 wipers and washers 3.3% 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.
-
Check the suspension joints 2.2% 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 2020 Vitz through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £11–£42 — and 83% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £11–£42
- Cheapest common item: mirrors slightly damaged
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 83%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 90 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 Vitz, side by side
14 model years on record, from 2008 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 79.8% to 94.6% — a spread of 14.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2008 79.8% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2009 84.5% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2010 83.9% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2011 85.4% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2012 87.0% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2013 89.0% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2014 93.1% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2015 88.7% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2016 94.6% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2017 91.7% wipers blade defective
- 2018 93.4% rear fog lamp not working
- 2019 86.6% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2020 86.7%mirrors slightly damaged
- 2021 85.1% linkage ball joint dust cover…
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 Vitz 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 3 86.8%
- Renault Megane 86.8%
- Kia Sportage GT-Ln Crdi 87.0%
- Peugeot 5008 87.1%
- Ford S-Max 87.1%
- Mercedes-Benz V 87.1%
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 Vitz 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 9 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 92 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 | 29 | 31.50% | 19.76% | +11.74 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 27 | 29.30% | 12.21% | +17.09 |
| Visibility | 15 | 16.30% | 4.97% | +11.33 |
| Brakes | 6 | 6.50% | 20.89% | −14.39 |
| Suspension | 5 | 5.40% | 20.98% | −15.58 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 3 | 3.30% | 5.52% | −2.22 |
| Non-component advisories | 3 | 3.30% | 4.18% | −0.88 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 3 | 3.30% | 1.76% | +1.54 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1 | 1.10% | 5.57% | −4.47 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mirrors slightly damaged Visibility | Minor | 3.3% | £3–15 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.3% | £5–20 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 3.3% | £8–22 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 2.2% | £18–45 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.2% | £60–250 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.2% | £5–25 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.2% | £3–15 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.2% | £5–20 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 2.2% | £8–22 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 2.2% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 15.6% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 11.1% | £45–95 |
| Service brake performance excessively fluctuating Brakes | Advisory | 3.3% | £60–150 |
| Headlamp has a product on the lens so that the light output is severely reduced Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Advisory | 2.2% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp has a product on the light source so that the light output is severely reduced Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Advisory | 2.2% | £5–25 |
| Non-component advisories Play in steering rack inner joint(s) Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.2% | £120–300 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 8 | 87.5% | 23,998 mi |
| 30-60k | 54 | 90.7% | 47,445 mi |
| 60-90k | 15 | 80.0% | 66,715 mi |
| 90-120k | 6 | 83.3% | 99,938 mi |
| 120k+ | 7 | 71.4% | 127,603 mi |
Source: 90 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 Vitz MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2020 Toyota Vitz?
86.7% of the 90 2020 Toyota Vitz tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 90.7% for cars first used in 2020. First-attempt pass rate: 84.6%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2020 Toyota Vitz?
The three most recorded items are mirrors slightly damaged (3.33%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps (3.33%), wipers blade defective (3.33%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2020 Toyota Vitz MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 87.5% of the time, falling to 71.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2020 Toyota Vitz in this dataset had covered 50,875 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2020 Toyota Vitz?
Petrol: 85.1% pass rate across 74 tests. Hybrid: 93.8% pass rate across 16 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2020 Toyota Vitz MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 85.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 87.5%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.