2006 MINI Cooper S: MOT pass rate and reliability

64% of 2006 MINI Cooper S pass the MOT first time, measured across 222 DVSA tests on that model year alone. The average one had covered 88,837 miles.

How the 2006 compares

  • Against all MINI Cooper S (88.5%, 86,432 tests): -24.5 points
  • Against all 2006 cars (64.1%): -0.1 points
  • National first-time pass rate, all cars and years: 77%

Every MINI Cooper S model year

Pass rates fall as cars age, so the only fair comparison for a 2006 car is other cars of the same age. The full run for the MINI Cooper S:

Year Pass rate Tests Avg mileage
2005 64.9% 225 89,781
2006 64% 222 88,837
2007 73.1% 346 87,815
2008 67.6% 281 86,379
2009 73.3% 281 75,016
2010 77.6% 299 76,205
2011 80.4% 392 74,757
2012 81% 1,176 67,957
2013 81.7% 2,430 66,900
2014 84.9% 5,493 62,969
2015 85.8% 7,748 60,537
2016 87.8% 9,270 52,185
2017 88.7% 9,627 44,906
2018 90% 9,785 37,286
2019 90.5% 16,488 31,643
2020 91.3% 10,695 26,281
2021 90.9% 10,684 22,065
2022 95.1% 597 17,945

What this means if you are buying a 2006 Cooper S

The 2006 is a weaker year for this model, passing 24.5 points less often than the MINI Cooper S average. Some of that is simply age, so compare it against the 2006 figure for all cars above rather than against newer examples. 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 a 20-year-old car fails on

A 2006 car is 20 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 above average, the point where suspension bushes, drop links and exhaust corrosion start showing up as advisories before they become failures. On a 2006 MINI Cooper S the average at test was 88,837 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 2022 at 95.1%, and the weakest in our data is 2006 at 64%. That 31.1 point spread across the model's life is why comparing a 2006 car against a newer one tells you very little.

Nearby model years

All MINI Cooper S MOT data · Every model