Pass rate
79.0%
Around average — 1.8 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 176 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £40–£115
2012 Vauxhall Adam MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 67,715 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
31.9% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £40–£65 for Shock absorber leaking. What fitting it takes →
5.0 pts down across model years — 8.3% in 2013, 3.3% in 2019.
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 87.4% pass
- Avoid 2013 76.6% pass
Across the 8 years on record, a spread of 10.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 73.8%
- Typical mileage
- 68k mi
The 2012 Vauxhall Adam MOT pass rate is 79.0% of its MOT tests — 1.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 31.9% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Vauxhall Adam does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.5× the national share
Suspension accounts for 31.9% of everything recorded on the 2012 Vauxhall Adam, against 21.0% nationally — 10.9 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.
- Based on a small sample. 176 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 Vauxhall Adam? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 Vauxhall Adam compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 1.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 73.8%. The median 2012 Vauxhall Adam in this dataset had covered 67,715 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 79.8% of the time, April–September 77.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 3.41% of tests.
- 176 recorded tests behind this page.
- 79.0% overall pass rate, 73.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Vauxhall Adam, the average is 79.4% — best year 2019 (87.4%), worst 2013 (76.6%).
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
- 176
- Typical mileage (median)
- 67,715 mi
- Make and model
- Vauxhall Adam
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Coil Spring
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Adam MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 58% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Adam
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 27 | 74.1% |
| East Midlands | 26 | 76.9% |
| North East | 22 | 63.6% |
| East of England | 20 | 90.0% |
| West Midlands | 19 | 84.2% |
| South East | 18 | 88.9% |
| Scotland | 15 | 73.3% |
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 Adam
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 Adam
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 coil springs 3.4% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
-
Check the shock absorbers 3.4% of tests
“shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak”
Press down hard on each corner of the car and let go. It should settle in one bounce; if it keeps rocking, or you can see oil weeping down a shock absorber, that is the fault a tester will find.
-
Check the lights 2.8% of tests
“rear fog lamp not working”
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.
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 Adam through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £40–£115 — and 39% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £40–£115
- Cheapest common item: rear fog lamp not working
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: sub-frame corroded
- £180–£450
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 39%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 176 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 Adam, side by side
8 model years on record, from 2012 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 76.6% to 87.4% — a spread of 10.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2012 79.0%coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 76.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 76.7% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2015 78.4% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2016 79.2% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2017 81.2% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2018 84.2% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2019 87.4% wipers does not clear the…
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 Vauxhall Adam 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
- Volkswagen Sharan 79.0%
- BMW 116 79.1%
- Citroen C1 79.2%
- Skoda Yeti 78.8%
- Mercedes-Benz A-Class 78.8%
- Volkswagen Golf 78.7%
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 Vauxhall Adam 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 279 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 | 89 | 31.90% | 20.98% | +10.92 |
| Tyres | 58 | 20.80% | 19.76% | +1.04 |
| Brakes | 44 | 15.80% | 20.89% | −5.09 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 32 | 11.50% | 5.52% | +5.98 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 17 | 6.10% | 12.21% | −6.11 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 13 | 4.70% | 5.57% | −0.87 |
| Non-component advisories | 12 | 4.30% | 4.18% | +0.12 |
| Visibility | 10 | 3.60% | 4.97% | −1.37 |
| Steering | 3 | 1.10% | 2.57% | −1.47 |
| Road Wheels | 1 | 0.40% | 0.75% | −0.35 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 3.4% | £25–65 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 3.4% | £30–75 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.8% | £3–15 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.8% | £5–20 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.3% | £60–250 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Major | 2.3% | £180–450 |
| Electronic stability control warning lamp indicates a fault Brakes | Major | 1.7% | £3–15 |
| Tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative Tyres | Major | 1.7% | £45–95 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.7% | £8–22 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.1% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 19.3% | £45–95 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 14.8% | £30–75 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 11.9% | £200–700 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 11.4% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 9.1% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 8.5% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 10 | 80.0% | 26,206 mi |
| 30-60k | 45 | 84.4% | 47,722 mi |
| 60-90k | 87 | 75.9% | 73,325 mi |
| 90-120k | 28 | 82.1% | 100,576 mi |
| 120k+ | 6 | 66.7% | 127,389 mi |
Source: 176 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 Adam MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Vauxhall Adam?
79.0% of the 176 2012 Vauxhall Adam tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 73.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Vauxhall Adam?
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (3.41%), shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak (3.41%), rear fog lamp not working (2.84%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Vauxhall Adam MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 80.0% of the time, falling to 66.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Vauxhall Adam in this dataset had covered 67,715 mi.
Does the season affect the 2012 Vauxhall Adam MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 79.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 77.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.