Kia Soul: MOT pass rate and reliability data

The Kia Soul fails its first MOT more often than the average UK car, by 3 percentage points. These figures come from the DVSA's full year of anonymised MOT results, covering 22,681 individual Kia Soul tests. Nothing here is an estimate or a survey.

The numbers

What this means if you are buying one

A 73.7% first-time pass rate means roughly 26 in every 100 Kia Souls presented for MOT fail on the first attempt. That is worse than average, so budget for remedial work and treat a fresh 12-month MOT as a genuine selling point rather than a given. The average Kia Soul tested had covered 70,160 miles and was built around 2013.

What this means at salvage auction

Pass rate is a proxy for what a car costs to keep on the road. On a Kia Soul bought as a repairable salvage, assume the mechanical side needs more than the visible accident damage, and pad your repair estimate accordingly.

Before you bid: run the lot through the analyzer, check the car's own record, check the mileage, decode the VIN, and if it carries a marker use the write-off value calculator. Or compare it against another model.

Looking at a specific Kia Soul rather than the model in general? The free check covers its MOT and mileage history, and the full HPI report confirms the insurance write-off category, outstanding finance and whether it is recorded stolen, from licensed data for 5 credits. Already own one that has been damaged? Work out whether fixing it beats selling it with the repair or scrap calculator, and see what damaged Kia Souls actually sold for at UK salvage auction, from 5 real settled sales.

Most common MOT failures on a Kia Soul

1. A steering ball joint with excessive wear or free play, 6% of tests (6.36x the national rate for this defect)
2. Parking brake inoperative on one side, 1.1% of tests (2.42x the national rate for this defect)
3. Brake pipe damaged or excessively corroded, 1.8% of tests (2.23x the national rate for this defect)
4. Parking brake efficiency below minimum requirement, 2% of tests (2.1x the national rate for this defect)
5. Brake disc or drum significantly and obviously worn, 1.1% of tests (1.92x the national rate for this defect)
6. a brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm, 2.4% of tests (1.59x the national rate for this defect)
7. A suspension joint dust cover missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc, 2.1% of tests (1.53x the national rate for this defect)
8. Windscreen washers not working or not providing sufficient fluid to clear the windscreen, 1.8% of tests (1.46x the national rate for this defect)
9. A lamp missing, inoperative or in the case of a multiple light source more than 1/2 not functioning, 2.3% of tests (1.38x the national rate for this defect)
10. Significant brake effort recorded with no brake applied indicating a binding brake, 1% of tests (1.32x the national rate for this defect)

From 32,167 DVSA-tracked Kia Soul tests, 2024. DVSA testers marked 5.78% of these flagged Kia Soul defects as "dangerous", meaning the tester judged the car unsafe to drive away, against 4.97% nationally.

Kia Soul pass rate by model year

Pass rates fall steadily as cars age, so the model year matters as much as the model. First-time pass rate for each Kia Soul year:

• 2009 Kia Soul - 61.5% first-time pass, 2,109 tests
• 2010 Kia Soul - 62.4% first-time pass, 2,901 tests
• 2011 Kia Soul - 63.4% first-time pass, 3,311 tests
• 2012 Kia Soul - 64.8% first-time pass, 1,591 tests
• 2013 Kia Soul - 68.2% first-time pass, 1,294 tests
• 2014 Kia Soul - 79% first-time pass, 2,604 tests
• 2015 Kia Soul - 82% first-time pass, 2,600 tests
• 2016 Kia Soul - 85.2% first-time pass, 2,146 tests
• 2017 Kia Soul - 87.3% first-time pass, 1,683 tests
• 2018 Kia Soul - 90% first-time pass, 1,978 tests
• 2019 Kia Soul - 90.3% first-time pass, 340 tests

Kia Soul by fuel type

Diesel and petrol versions of the same car fail on different things, so the fuel type moves the number:

• Diesel Kia Soul - 72.4% first-time pass, 14,417 tests
• Petrol Kia Soul - 75.8% first-time pass, 7,253 tests
• Electric Kia Soul - 86.5% first-time pass, 896 tests

Other Kia models

• Kia Sportage - 79.4%
• Kia Picanto - 75.7%
• Kia Ceed - 71.6%
• Kia Rio - 74.3%
• Kia Niro - 90.3%
• Kia Venga - 78.4%
• Kia Sorento - 72.6%
• Kia Stonic - 89.9%

Models with a similar pass rate

• Lexus Rx350 - 73.9%
• Ford Grand C-Max - 73.8%
• Toyota Avensis - 73.7%
• Volvo Xc70 - 73.7%
• Rover MINI - 73.7%
• Mercedes-Benz Vito 110 Progressive Cdi - 73.7%

If this car is a salvage or write-off

• What does Cat N mean? Category N explained
• What does Cat S mean? Category S explained
• Cat S vs Cat N: the real differences

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All 2,005 models ranked by MOT pass rate