Pass rate
76.3%
Around average — 0.9 pts behind the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 8,678 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £42–£128
2012 Volkswagen Beetle MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 74,164 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
26.8% 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 →
5.8 pts down across model years — 10.1% in 2000, 4.3% in 2018.
Which year to buy
- Best 2018 85.3% pass
- Avoid 2007 66.6% pass
Across the 19 years on record, a spread of 18.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 69.4%
- Typical mileage
- 74k mi
The 2012 Volkswagen Beetle MOT pass rate is 76.3% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.8% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Volkswagen Beetle does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.3× the national share
Suspension accounts for 26.8% of everything recorded on the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle, against 21.0% nationally — 5.8 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.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 31% 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 Volkswagen Beetle? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 0.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 69.4%. The median 2012 Volkswagen Beetle in this dataset had covered 74,164 mi.
78% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 76.5% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 75.8% of the time, April–September 76.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Rear fog lamp not working", noted on 6.34% of tests.
- 8,678 recorded tests behind this page.
- 76.3% overall pass rate, 69.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volkswagen Beetle, the average is 72.2% — best year 2018 (85.3%), worst 2007 (66.6%).
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
- 8,678
- Typical mileage (median)
- 74,164 mi
- Make and model
- Volkswagen Beetle
- 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 Beetle MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 65% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (78% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Beetle
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 1,690 | 77.8% |
| West Midlands | 1,036 | 76.6% |
| North West | 1,008 | 76.1% |
| East of England | 986 | 76.6% |
| South West | 875 | 75.0% |
| East Midlands | 688 | 74.9% |
| Yorkshire | 619 | 77.4% |
| Scotland | 592 | 72.3% |
| Wales | 433 | 74.1% |
| London | 377 | 83.0% |
| North East | 374 | 74.9% |
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 2012 Beetle
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 Beetle
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 6.3% 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.
-
Check the suspension joints 5.1% of tests
“pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn”
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 coil springs 3.6% 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.
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 Beetle through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £42–£128 — and 31% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £42–£128
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp with a multiple light source up to…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 31%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 8,678 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 Beetle, side by side
19 model years on record, from 2000 to 2018. Across them the pass rate runs from 66.6% to 85.3% — a spread of 18.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 66.9% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2001 67.8% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2002 67.0% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2003 67.1% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2004 66.8% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2005 69.0% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2006 67.3% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2007 66.6% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2008 68.1% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2009 70.2% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2010 72.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 73.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 76.3%rear fog lamp not working
- 2013 76.2% rear fog lamp not working
- 2014 77.4% rear fog lamp not working
- 2015 78.4% rear fog lamp not working
- 2016 79.8% rear fog lamp not working
- 2017 81.9% rear fog lamp not working
- 2018 85.3% pins and bushes pin or bush…
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 Volkswagen Beetle 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
- Peugeot Rcz 76.2%
- Chevrolet Cruze 76.2%
- Mercedes-Benz Vito 76.5%
- Vauxhall Zafira 76.0%
- Peugeot 508 76.6%
- Hyundai I20 75.9%
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 Volkswagen Beetle 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 13,901 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 | 3,754 | 26.80% | 20.98% | +5.82 |
| Tyres | 2,997 | 21.40% | 19.76% | +1.64 |
| Brakes | 2,350 | 16.70% | 20.89% | −4.19 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,467 | 10.50% | 12.21% | −1.71 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1,200 | 8.60% | 5.57% | +3.03 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 762 | 5.40% | 5.52% | −0.12 |
| Visibility | 703 | 5.00% | 4.97% | +0.03 |
| Non-component advisories | 421 | 3.00% | 4.18% | −1.18 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 175 | 1.20% | 1.76% | −0.56 |
| Steering | 72 | 0.50% | 2.57% | −2.07 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 6.3% | £3–15 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 6.0% | £80–250 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 5.1% | £40–150 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 4.4% | £80–250 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 3.6% | £25–65 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.3% | £80–200 |
| Stop lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.8% | £3–12 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.8% | £18–45 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.6% | £5–20 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.2% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 15.8% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 11.8% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 11.6% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 10.9% | £40–150 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 7.4% | £25–65 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 5.7% | £200–700 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 298 | 91.3% | 21,856 mi |
| 30-60k | 2,156 | 78.3% | 48,120 mi |
| 60-90k | 3,768 | 75.1% | 74,519 mi |
| 90-120k | 1,871 | 75.0% | 102,241 mi |
| 120k+ | 562 | 73.8% | 136,390 mi |
Source: 8,678 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 Beetle MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Volkswagen Beetle?
76.3% of the 8,678 2012 Volkswagen Beetle tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 69.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Volkswagen Beetle?
The three most recorded items are rear fog lamp not working (6.34%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (6.02%), pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn (5.12%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.3% of the time, falling to 73.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Volkswagen Beetle in this dataset had covered 74,164 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 Volkswagen Beetle?
Petrol: 76.5% pass rate across 6,738 tests. Diesel: 75.7% pass rate across 1,940 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 75.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 76.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.