2017 MINI Cooper S: MOT pass rate and reliability

88.7% of 2017 MINI Cooper S pass the MOT first time, measured across 9,627 DVSA tests on that model year alone. The average one had covered 44,906 miles.

How the 2017 compares

  • Against all MINI Cooper S (88.5%, 86,432 tests): +0.2 points
  • Against all 2017 cars (83.5%): +5.2 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 2017 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 2017 Cooper S

The 2017 sits close to the MINI Cooper S average, so there is no strong model-year signal either way. Judge the individual car on its own history. 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 9-year-old car fails on

A 2017 car is 9 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 2017 MINI Cooper S the average at test was 44,906 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 2017 car against a newer one tells you very little.

Nearby model years

All MINI Cooper S MOT data · Every model