How often does the Volkswagen UP fail its MOT?

9.5% of 201 first-time tests in 2024 were failures, against 12.0% for all electric cars.

What does the Volkswagen UP most often fail on?

Brakes, 32.3% of failing defects. The single most common defect was: A tyre seriously damaged.

Volkswagen · Fully electric · 201 inspections in 2024 · Rank 38 of 81DVSA MOT analysis

What fails a Volkswagen UP: a tyre seriously damaged, 6 times in a year

201 inspections in a single year make the UP a modestly documented electric car in the data. Brakes cause 32.3% of its failures; brakes take 1.7× the share they take on petrol and diesel cars of the same age.

FIGURE 1 // WHERE IT WEARSVolkswagen UP

Top three failure systems, annotated from 19 failed first-time tests. Arrows point to where the defect is found on the car.

First-time test findings

The ten-year picture

AT TEN YEARS OLD11.4%

UP failure rate. Petrol cars of the same age fail 22.6%.

ALL ELECTRIC CARS12.0%

All electric cars in the data.

The Volkswagen UP fails 9.5% of first-time inspections. Brakes cause 32.3% of its failures.

FIGURE 2 // BRAKE ASSEMBLY CUTAWAY4 certificates in 2024

The brake that seizes from not being used

Brakes take 32.3% of the defects that fail this car, 1.7× the share seen on petrol and diesel cars of the same age. The most common item in that group is "Significant brake effort recorded with no brake applied indicating a binding brake", recorded 4 times in 2024.

SECTION // BRAKES CONCENTRATION

Where it concentrates

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

DEFECT CONCENTRATION IN FAILED TESTS:

UP brakes share32.3%

Petrol and diesel average18.7%

The single most common item on a UP certificate is "A tyre seriously damaged", recorded 6 times.

Source: DVSA MOT defect items, 2024 test year.

Buyer's protocolPre-purchase checklist

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 when the brakes were last stripped and cleaned. Regenerative braking barely wears the pads, so discs and calipers corrode and seize instead. 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. Trivial to fix, but a car advertised with worn wipers and a fresh failure certificate tells you how it was maintained. 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

✓ Rear caliper drag and disc lip

✓ Suspension joints and bushes on a lift

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: 201
Passed: 170
Failed: 19
Passed after repair: 12
Failure rate: 9.5% (all EV 12.0%)
Average age: 8.6 years
Best year: 10 yrs · 11.4%
Worst year: 10 yrs · 11.4%
Top cause: Brakes 32.3%

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

System	Share	vs petrol/diesel
Tyres	29.0%	in line
Suspension	12.9%	in line
Brakes	32.3%	1.7× more
Visibility	12.9%	in line
Lighting	9.7%	1.7× less
Steering	3.2%	in line
Body	0.0%	in line

TABLE 2 // TOP DEFECTS ON THE CERTIFICATE

A tyre seriously damaged6
Significant brake effort recorded with no brake applied indicating a binding brake4
A suspension joint dust cover missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc2
A suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn2
Windscreen or window damaged or seriously discoloured but not adversely affecting driver's view2
Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the windscreen2

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

Where it holds up

Lighting fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (9.7% of defects vs 16.5%)
Body fail less often than on petrol and diesel cars (0.0% of defects vs 4.1%)

Where it fails

Brakes take a bigger share of failures than on petrol and diesel cars of the same age (32.3% vs 18.7%)

VERSIONS SEEN IN THE TESTSas recorded

UP201

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

Ford Mondeo12.2% fail · 370 tests Smart Fortwo9.7% fail · 921 tests Peugeot Partner8.1% fail · 778 tests Mercedes-Benz B-Class15.6% fail · 397 tests

OTHER VOLKSWAGEN ELECTRIC CARS

Volkswagen ABT4.2% fail first time Volkswagen e-Golf11.9% fail first time Volkswagen e-Up6.4% fail first time Volkswagen Golf12.1% fail first time

Three things the data shows

201 inspections in 2024 make this one of the adequately-documented electric cars in the data.
Brakes take 1.7× the share of failures they take on petrol and diesel cars of the same age.
It ranks 38 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.