2018 Kia Soul: MOT pass rate and reliability

90% of 2018 Kia Souls pass the MOT first time, measured across 1,978 DVSA tests on that model year alone. The average one had covered 37,297 miles.

How the 2018 compares

  • Against all Kia Souls (74%, 22,567 tests): +16 points
  • Against all 2018 cars (85.9%): +4.1 points
  • National first-time pass rate, all cars and years: 77%

Every Kia Soul model year

Pass rates fall as cars age, so the only fair comparison for a 2018 car is other cars of the same age. The full run for the Kia Soul:

Year Pass rate Tests Avg mileage
2009 61.5% 2,109 99,522
2010 62.4% 2,901 93,950
2011 63.4% 3,311 89,154
2012 64.8% 1,591 78,724
2013 68.2% 1,294 72,093
2014 79% 2,604 67,889
2015 82% 2,600 61,465
2016 85.2% 2,146 53,445
2017 87.3% 1,683 45,094
2018 90% 1,978 37,297
2019 90.3% 340 29,861

What this means if you are buying a 2018 Soul

The 2018 is one of the stronger years for this model, passing 16 points more often than the Kia Soul average. That is a point in its favour, though condition and service history still matter more than the model year. Check the exact car with the free MOT history checker before you buy, and run its VIN and mileage through our free VIN decoder and clocking check.

What an 8-year-old car fails on

A 2018 car is 8 years old now, and age drives the failure mix more than the badge does. Across all cars tested, these are the categories that actually cause failures:

  • Lights and electrical: 10.36% of all cars tested
  • Suspension: 8.65% of all cars tested
  • Tyres: 6.23% of all cars tested
  • Brakes: 6.1% of all cars tested
  • Visibility: wipers, washers, glass: 4.65% of all cars tested
  • Body, chassis and structure: 3.18% of all cars tested

That is below average for a car this age, worth a mileage-consistency check since an unusually low reading is sometimes clocking rather than luck. On a 2018 Kia Soul the average at test was 37,297 miles, so treat anything far above that as a car that has worked harder than its peers, and anything far below as one worth checking for the faults that come from standing still.

The strongest year for this model is 2019 at 90.3%, and the weakest in our data is 2009 at 61.5%. That 28.8 point spread across the model's life is why comparing a 2018 car against a newer one tells you very little.

Nearby model years

All Kia Soul MOT data · Every model