FIGURE 1 // WHERE IT WEARSFord Mondeo
Top three failure systems, annotated from 45 failed first-time tests. Arrows point to where the defect is found on the car.
What fails a Ford Mondeo: tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements, 16 times in a year
370 inspections in a single year make the MONDEO a modestly documented electric car in the data. Lighting cause 30.5% of its failures; lighting take 1.8× the share they take on petrol and diesel cars of the same age.
First-time test findings
The eight-year vs nine-year picture
AT EIGHT YEARS OLD8.9%
MONDEO failure rate. Petrol cars of the same age fail 17.5%.
AT NINE YEARS OLD14.2%
MONDEO failure rate, against 19.9% for petrol.
The Ford Mondeo fails 12.2% of first-time inspections. By 9 years that reaches 14.2%. Lighting cause 30.5% of its failures.
FIGURE 2 // HEADLAMP UNIT8 certificates in 2024
The lamp that fails the test
Lighting take 30.5% of the defects that fail this car, 1.8× the share seen on petrol and diesel cars of the same age. The most common item in that group is "A rear registration plate lamp or light source missing or inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", recorded 8 times in 2024.
SECTION // LIGHTING CONCENTRATION
Where it concentrates
The MONDEO stays under the petrol fleet at every age we can measure. What it does fail on is unusually concentrated.
Source: DVSA MOT defect items, 2024 test year.
What to check
Check tyre age and tread across the full width, inner edge included. Electric cars wear tyres faster; a cheap mismatched set on a used car tells you how it was run. Ask for the full MOT history by registration on the free DVSA service: advisories are next year's failures.
3 inspection points:
✓ Tyre inner-edge wear and age
✓ Free DVSA MOT history check
FIGURE 3 // FAILURE RATE BY AGEvs petrol, diesel and all electric cars
Points hidden where fewer than 50 cars of that age were tested. Dashed lines are the same-age petrol and diesel fleets.
Data sheet
- Inspections
- 370
- Passed
- 314
- Failed
- 45
- Passed after repair
- 11
- Failure rate
- 12.2% (all EV 12.0%)
- Average age
- 8.6 years
- Best year
- 8 yrs · 8.9%
- Worst year
- 9 yrs · 14.2%
- Top cause
- Lighting 30.5%
TABLE 1 // WHAT FAILS, BY SYSTEMshare of failing defects
| System | This car (mark = petrol/diesel) | Share | vs petrol/diesel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 29.1% | in line | |
| Suspension | 9.2% | 1.5× less | |
| Brakes | 5.7% | 3.3× less | |
| Visibility | 7.1% | 1.7× less | |
| Lighting | 30.5% | 1.8× more | |
| Steering | 5.7% | 1.8× more | |
| Body | 2.1% | 2.0× less |
TABLE 2 // TOP DEFECTS ON THE CERTIFICATE
- Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements16
- A wheel with a loose or missing wheel nut, bolt or stud13
- A tyre cords visible or damaged12
- A tyre seriously damaged8
- A rear registration plate lamp or light source missing or inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources8
- A rear registration plate lamp or light source missing or inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps8
Wording as printed by the tester, from the DVSA inspection manual.
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Where it holds up
- Suspension fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (9.2% of defects vs 13.6%)
- Brakes fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (5.7% of defects vs 18.7%)
- Visibility fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (7.1% of defects vs 11.9%)
- Body fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (2.1% of defects vs 4.1%)
Where it fails
- Lighting take a bigger share of failures than on petrol and diesel cars of the same age (30.5% vs 16.5%)
- Steering take a bigger share of failures than on petrol and diesel cars of the same age (5.7% vs 3.1%)
VERSIONS SEEN IN THE TESTSas recorded
- MONDEO370
OWNER REPORTS // MATCHED TO RECORDED DEFECTS0 read · 0 matched
No owner discussion has been matched to this car's recorded defects yet. Reports are re-collected every quarter; the figures on this page do not depend on them.
Summaries written by us, never quotes; every entry links to its source. Owner reports have no denominator and never feed the failure rate.
SIMILAR CARS IN THE DATAclosest rate and age, other brands
Volkswagen UP9.5% fail · 201 testsVolkswagen Golf12.1% fail · 808 testsMercedes-Benz B-Class15.6% fail · 397 testsPeugeot iOn18.7% fail · 343 tests
OTHER FORD ELECTRIC CARS
Three things the data shows
- 370 inspections in 2024 make this one of the adequately-documented electric cars in the data.
- Lighting take 1.8× the share of failures they take on petrol and diesel cars of the same age.
- Failure rate rises from 8.9% at 8 years to 14.2% at 9: a gentle ageing curve.
LIMITS // WHAT THE INSPECTION DOES NOT TELL YOU
No battery health, no motor, no charging performance. The test covers brakes, suspension, steering, tyres, lights, visibility and structure. A car with a badly degraded battery passes as long as it stops and steers. Read this page as evidence about the chassis, not the powertrain. Cars are tested from their third year, so the newest model years are missing; every figure carries its sample size for that reason. Full methodology.
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