Volkswagen Up: MOT pass rate and reliability data

The Volkswagen Up passes its MOT first time more often than the average UK car, by 7.7 percentage points. These figures come from the DVSA's full year of anonymised MOT results, covering 121,548 individual Volkswagen Up tests. Nothing here is an estimate or a survey.

The numbers

What this means if you are buying one

A 84.4% first-time pass rate means roughly 16 in every 100 Volkswagen Ups presented for MOT fail on the first attempt. That is better than average, so a well-kept example is a reasonably safe used buy. The average Volkswagen Up tested had covered 47,740 miles and was built around 2015.

What this means at salvage auction

Pass rate is a proxy for what a car costs to keep on the road. On a Volkswagen Up bought as a repairable salvage, the mechanical side is less likely to spring surprises, so your repair estimate should hold up reasonably well.

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 Volkswagen Up 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 Volkswagen Ups actually sold for at UK salvage auction.

Most common MOT failures on a Volkswagen Up

1. Fuel system leaking, or missing or ineffective filler cap, 0.7% of tests (7.62x the national rate for this defect)
2. Emissions levels exceed default limits, 1% of tests (3.33x the national rate for this defect)
3. Significant brake effort recorded with no brake applied indicating a binding brake, 2% of tests (2.58x the national rate for this defect)
4. Lambda coefficient outside the default limits or the range specified by the manufacturer, 0.8% of tests (1.9x the national rate for this defect)
5. Brakes imbalance across an axle such that the braking effort from any wheel is less than 70% of the maximum effort recorded from the other wheel on the same axle., 0.7% of tests (1.71x the national rate for this defect)
6. A tyre seriously damaged, 1.8% of tests
7. Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements, 1.5% of tests
8. A suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn, 1.4% of tests
9. Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the windscreen, 1.3% of tests
10. The aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down in the requirements, 0.7% of tests

From 169,254 DVSA-tracked Volkswagen Up tests, 2024. DVSA testers marked 4.52% of these flagged Volkswagen Up defects as "dangerous", meaning the tester judged the car unsafe to drive away, against 4.97% nationally.

Volkswagen Up 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 Volkswagen Up year:

• 2012 Volkswagen Up - 80% first-time pass, 13,917 tests
• 2013 Volkswagen Up - 82.6% first-time pass, 20,054 tests
• 2014 Volkswagen Up - 83.3% first-time pass, 20,917 tests
• 2015 Volkswagen Up - 83.5% first-time pass, 16,211 tests
• 2016 Volkswagen Up - 83.5% first-time pass, 12,795 tests
• 2017 Volkswagen Up - 86.5% first-time pass, 13,208 tests
• 2018 Volkswagen Up - 88.7% first-time pass, 12,892 tests
• 2019 Volkswagen Up - 92.5% first-time pass, 8,294 tests
• 2020 Volkswagen Up - 94.6% first-time pass, 1,883 tests
• 2021 Volkswagen Up - 95.6% first-time pass, 945 tests

Volkswagen Up by fuel type

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

• Petrol Volkswagen Up - 84.6% first-time pass, 120,962 tests
• Electric Volkswagen Up - 90.5% first-time pass, 201 tests

Other Volkswagen models

• Volkswagen Golf - 77.1%
• Volkswagen Polo - 71.4%
• Volkswagen Transporter - 70.8%
• Volkswagen Tiguan - 82.4%
• Volkswagen Passat - 74.7%
• Volkswagen Caddy - 73.5%
• Volkswagen Touran - 72.7%
• Volkswagen T-Roc - 92.3%

Models with a similar pass rate

• Land Rover Discovery Sport Se D Auto - 84.5%
• Mercedes-Benz G-Class - 84.5%
• Mercedes-Benz 500 - 84.5%
• BMW X6 - 84.4%
• BMW 135 - 84.4%
• Hyundai Tucson N Lne 48v Mhev Crdi 2wd - 84.4%

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