Pass rate
89.0%
Above average — 5.0 pts ahead of the 84.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 215,526 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £40–£96
2016 Volkswagen Golf MOT pass rate
- 2016
- 2 trims combined
- typical 64,533 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
30.8% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
3.8 pts down across model years — 6.2% in 2000, 2.4% in 2023.
Which year to buy
- Best 2024 98.1% pass
- Avoid 2004 69.3% pass
Across the 25 years on record, a spread of 28.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 87.7%
- Typical mileage
- 65k mi
The 2016 Volkswagen Golf MOT pass rate is 89.0% of its MOT tests — 5.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 30.8% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Volkswagen Golf does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.6× the national share
Tyres make up 30.8% of everything recorded on the 2016 Volkswagen Golf, against 19.8% nationally — 11.0 points above. Check all four tyres yourself, including the inner shoulders, and look at the date stamp — a tyre can pass on tread and still be six years old.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 84.0% and this one manages 89.0% — 5.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 18% 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 Golf? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Volkswagen Golf first registered in 2016 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2016 Volkswagen Golf compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 84.0%, so this figure is 5.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 87.7%. The median 2016 Volkswagen Golf in this dataset had covered 64,533 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 52% of tests, with a 88.1% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 89.0% of the time, April–September 88.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 2.22% of tests.
- 215,526 recorded tests behind this page.
- 89.0% overall pass rate, 87.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volkswagen Golf, the average is 82.1% — best year 2024 (98.1%), worst 2004 (69.3%).
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
- 215,526
- Typical mileage (median)
- 64,533 mi
- Make and model
- Volkswagen Golf
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Windscreen
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Golf MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 76% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (52% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Golf
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 42,661 | 89.6% |
| North West | 22,892 | 89.5% |
| South West | 22,292 | 88.2% |
| Scotland | 22,223 | 85.6% |
| East of England | 21,552 | 89.7% |
| Yorkshire | 19,718 | 89.2% |
| West Midlands | 19,477 | 90.4% |
| East Midlands | 14,800 | 88.6% |
| London | 10,601 | 90.7% |
| Wales | 9,693 | 88.9% |
| North East | 9,607 | 89.1% |
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 2016 Golf
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 2016 Golf
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 windscreen 2.2% of tests
“windscreen damaged”
Check the driver’s side of the screen within the swept area for chips and cracks; anything larger than 10mm in the driver’s central view is a fail. Most chips can be resin-repaired for far less than a new screen.
-
Check the shock absorbers 1.4% 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 tyre tread 1.0% 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.
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 2016 Golf through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £40–£96 — and 18% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £40–£96
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 18%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 215,526 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 Golf, side by side
25 model years on record, from 2000 to 2024. Across them the pass rate runs from 69.3% to 98.1% — a spread of 28.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 72.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2001 72.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2002 72.6% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2003 72.8% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2004 69.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2005 71.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2006 71.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2007 72.8% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2008 73.6% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2009 75.7% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2010 75.6% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2011 76.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2012 78.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 83.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 85.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 87.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 89.0%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 89.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 90.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 91.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 93.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2021 92.6% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 93.7% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 95.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2024 98.1% 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 2016 Volkswagen Golf 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 2016 cars with a similar record
- BMW 330 89.0%
- Toyota Aygo 89.1%
- Nissan Note 89.1%
- Honda Hr-V 89.1%
- Kia Venga 89.1%
- Mitsubishi Mirage 88.9%
Closest pass rates among 2016 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 2016 Volkswagen Golf 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 222,226 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 | 69,181 | 30.80% | 19.76% | +11.04 |
| Brakes | 58,255 | 26.00% | 20.89% | +5.11 |
| Suspension | 47,199 | 21.00% | 20.98% | +0.02 |
| Non-component advisories | 11,342 | 5.10% | 4.18% | +0.92 |
| Visibility | 10,775 | 4.80% | 4.97% | −0.17 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 10,254 | 4.60% | 12.21% | −7.61 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 6,547 | 2.90% | 5.52% | −2.62 |
| Road Wheels | 3,496 | 1.60% | 0.75% | +0.85 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 3,049 | 1.40% | 1.76% | −0.36 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 2,128 | 0.90% | 5.57% | −4.67 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.2% | £80–200 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 1.4% | £30–75 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.3% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.99% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.83% | £45–95 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.70% | £5–20 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.66% | £18–45 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 0.65% | £25–65 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.55% | £8–22 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.54% | £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 | 14.1% | £45–95 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 12.3% | £30–75 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 12.2% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 8.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.3% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 2.7% | £40–150 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 14,259 | 94.4% | 22,418 mi |
| 30-60k | 78,665 | 91.2% | 46,970 mi |
| 60-90k | 81,233 | 87.9% | 73,482 mi |
| 90-120k | 31,246 | 85.3% | 101,804 mi |
| 120k+ | 10,098 | 84.7% | 140,771 mi |
Source: 215,526 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.
2016 Golf MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2016 Volkswagen Golf?
89.0% of the 215,526 2016 Volkswagen Golf tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 84.0% for cars first used in 2016. First-attempt pass rate: 87.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2016 Volkswagen Golf?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.22%), shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak (1.43%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.26%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2016 Volkswagen Golf MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 94.4% of the time, falling to 84.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2016 Volkswagen Golf in this dataset had covered 64,533 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2016 Volkswagen Golf?
Diesel: 88.1% pass rate across 111,172 tests. Petrol: 90.3% pass rate across 98,513 tests. Hybrid: 85.5% pass rate across 5,748 tests. Electric: 86.0% pass rate across 93 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2016 Volkswagen Golf MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 89.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 88.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.