How often does the Honda Insight fail its MOT?

23.6% of 140 first-time tests in 2024 were failures, against 12.0% for all electric cars.

What does the Honda Insight most often fail on?

Lighting, 40.2% of failing defects. The single most common defect was: The aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down in the requirements.

Honda · Fully electric · 140 inspections in 2024 · Rank 80 of 81DVSA MOT analysis

The Honda Insight fails its MOT more often than almost any other electric car: 23.6% first time

140 inspections in a single year make the INSIGHT a modestly documented electric car in the data. Lighting cause 40.2% of its failures; lighting take 2.4× the share they take on petrol and diesel cars of the same age.

FIGURE 1 // WHERE IT WEARSHonda Insight

Top three failure systems, annotated from 33 failed first-time tests. Arrows point to where the defect is found on the car.

First-time test findings

First-time failure rate

OVERALL23.6%

Overall first-time failure rate.

ALL ELECTRIC CARS12.0%

All electric cars in the data.

The Honda Insight fails 23.6% of first-time inspections. Lighting cause 40.2% of its failures.

FIGURE 2 // HEADLAMP UNIT10 certificates in 2024

The lamp that fails the test

Lighting take 40.2% of the defects that fail this car, 2.4× the share seen on petrol and diesel cars of the same age. The most common item in that group is "The aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down in the requirements", recorded 10 times in 2024.

SECTION // LIGHTING CONCENTRATION

Where it concentrates

The INSIGHT stays under the petrol fleet at every age we can measure. What it does fail on is unusually concentrated.

DEFECT CONCENTRATION IN FAILED TESTS:

INSIGHT lighting share40.2%

Petrol and diesel average16.5%

The single most common item on a INSIGHT certificate is "The aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down in the requirements", recorded 10 times.

Source: DVSA MOT defect items, 2024 test year.

Buyer's protocolPre-purchase checklist

What to check

Check headlamp aim and every lamp before the test. It is the cheapest failure on the list and the easiest to avoid. Have the suspension joints, bushes and springs checked on a lift. On this car it is a leading cause of failure and it is not visible from the outside. Ask when the brakes were last stripped and cleaned. Regenerative braking barely wears the pads, so discs and calipers corrode and seize instead. Ask for the full MOT history by registration on the free DVSA service: advisories are next year's failures.

3 inspection points:

✓ Headlamp aim and every lamp

✓ Suspension joints and bushes on a lift

✓ Rear caliper drag and disc lip

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: 140
Passed: 90
Failed: 33
Passed after repair: 17
Failure rate: 23.6% (all EV 12.0%)
Average age: 7.3 years
Top cause: Lighting 40.2%

TABLE 1 // WHAT FAILS, BY SYSTEMshare of failing defects

System	Share	vs petrol/diesel
Tyres	6.8%	3.5× less
Suspension	17.1%	1.3× more
Brakes	16.2%	in line
Visibility	5.1%	2.3× less
Lighting	40.2%	2.4× more
Steering	6.8%	2.2× more
Body	5.1%	in line

TABLE 2 // TOP DEFECTS ON THE CERTIFICATE

The aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down in the requirements10
A suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn7
a brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm6
A suspension joint dust cover missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc6
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.6
Headlamp reflector or lens seriously defective or missing5

Wording as printed by the tester, from the DVSA inspection manual.

Where it holds up

Tyres fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (6.8% of defects vs 23.7%)
Visibility fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (5.1% of defects vs 11.9%)

Where it fails

Lighting take a bigger share of failures than on petrol and diesel cars of the same age (40.2% vs 16.5%)
Steering take a bigger share of failures than on petrol and diesel cars of the same age (6.8% vs 3.1%)

VERSIONS SEEN IN THE TESTSas recorded

INSIGHT140

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

Renault Twizy20.4% fail · 500 tests Nissan NV20020.1% fail · 2,903 tests Citroen C-Zero20.0% fail · 130 tests Tesla Model S18.0% fail · 10,892 tests

OTHER HONDA ELECTRIC CARS

Honda E7.6% fail first time

Three things the data shows

140 inspections in 2024 make this one of the adequately-documented electric cars in the data.
Lighting take 2.4× the share of failures they take on petrol and diesel cars of the same age.
It ranks 80 of 81 electric cars by first-time failure rate.

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.