Pass rate
76.9%
Around average — 0.3 pts behind the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 4,377 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £41–£120
2012 Volkswagen Jetta MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 105,503 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
32.6% 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 →
3.6 pts down across model years — 10.4% in 2006, 6.8% in 2017.
Which year to buy
- Best 2017 82.4% pass
- Avoid 2005 68.4% pass
Across the 14 years on record, a spread of 14 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 70.6%
- Typical mileage
- 106k mi
The 2012 Volkswagen Jetta MOT pass rate is 76.9% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 32.6% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Volkswagen Jetta does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.6× the national share
Suspension accounts for 32.6% of everything recorded on the 2012 Volkswagen Jetta, against 21.0% nationally — 11.6 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 8% 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 Jetta? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2012 Volkswagen Jetta compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 0.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 70.6%. The median 2012 Volkswagen Jetta in this dataset had covered 105,503 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 92% of tests, with a 76.9% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 76.4% of the time, April–September 77.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 5.67% of tests.
- 4,377 recorded tests behind this page.
- 76.9% overall pass rate, 70.6% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volkswagen Jetta, the average is 76.4% — best year 2017 (82.4%), worst 2005 (68.4%).
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
- 4,377
- Typical mileage (median)
- 105,503 mi
- Make and model
- Volkswagen Jetta
- 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 Jetta MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 67% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (92% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Jetta
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| North West | 662 | 77.2% |
| South East | 629 | 78.4% |
| Yorkshire | 570 | 77.5% |
| Scotland | 509 | 72.7% |
| East of England | 463 | 79.3% |
| West Midlands | 455 | 77.6% |
| East Midlands | 323 | 77.7% |
| South West | 277 | 73.6% |
| Wales | 213 | 71.4% |
| North East | 194 | 79.4% |
| London | 82 | 85.4% |
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 Jetta
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 Jetta
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 5.7% 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 suspension joints 4.6% 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 windscreen 3.1% 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.
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 Jetta through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £41–£120 — and 8% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £41–£120
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- 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
- 8%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 4,377 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 Jetta, side by side
14 model years on record, from 2005 to 2018. Across them the pass rate runs from 68.4% to 82.4% — a spread of 14 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2005 68.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2006 73.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2007 73.5% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2008 74.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2009 76.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2010 76.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 76.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2012 76.9%coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 76.9% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 78.3% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2015 80.2% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2016 81.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2017 82.4% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2018 82.4% 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 Jetta 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
- Ford Kuga 76.9%
- SEAT Alhambra 76.9%
- Ford Focus 77.0%
- Ford Grand C-Max 76.7%
- Volvo C30 76.7%
- Mazda Cx-5 76.7%
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 Volkswagen Jetta 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 7,820 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 | 2,581 | 32.60% | 20.98% | +11.62 |
| Brakes | 1,582 | 20.00% | 20.89% | −0.89 |
| Tyres | 1,494 | 18.90% | 19.76% | −0.86 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 721 | 9.10% | 12.21% | −3.11 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 389 | 4.90% | 5.57% | −0.67 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 344 | 4.30% | 5.52% | −1.22 |
| Visibility | 309 | 3.90% | 4.97% | −1.07 |
| Non-component advisories | 213 | 2.70% | 4.18% | −1.48 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 136 | 1.70% | 1.76% | −0.06 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 51 | 0.60% | 0.82% | −0.22 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 5.7% | £25–65 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 4.6% | £40–150 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.1% | £80–200 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 2.9% | £80–250 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 2.3% | £18–45 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.2% | £5–20 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.9% | £18–45 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.5% | £80–250 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 1.5% | £45–110 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.4% | £18–45 |
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 | 19.0% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 12.5% | £45–110 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 11.7% | £40–150 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 8.0% | £25–65 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 6.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 6.5% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 47 | 83.0% | 23,904 mi |
| 30-60k | 364 | 79.7% | 48,988 mi |
| 60-90k | 1,073 | 78.4% | 76,850 mi |
| 90-120k | 1,256 | 76.7% | 104,159 mi |
| 120k+ | 1,633 | 75.3% | 158,254 mi |
Source: 4,377 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 Jetta MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Volkswagen Jetta?
76.9% of the 4,377 2012 Volkswagen Jetta tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 70.6%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Volkswagen Jetta?
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (5.67%), pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn (4.57%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (3.11%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Volkswagen Jetta MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 83.0% of the time, falling to 75.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Volkswagen Jetta in this dataset had covered 105,503 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 Volkswagen Jetta?
Diesel: 76.9% pass rate across 4,014 tests. Petrol: 77.1% pass rate across 363 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2012 Volkswagen Jetta MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 76.4% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 77.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.