Audi A4 — MOT statistics 2024
The Audi A4 failed 25.09% of 406,182 first MOT attempts in 2024 ("first-time", excluding retests). Adjusted for the age of the fleet, its initial-failure ratio is 84.6 (100 = expected for its age profile). This car fails its MOT about 15% less often than expected for its age.
Age-adjusted peer: Honda e (index 84.6) — the two published results are 0.0 index points apart.
Audi A4 common problems: what actually fails the MOT
Body, chassis, structure stand out at 13.9 per 100 tests, against 8.4 per 100 tests nationally.
higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests
family vs national — top component groups, per 100 tests. Legend: This family · National avg.
Component-group comparison table
| Group | This family | National | Family / national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 23.7 | 19.9 | 1.19× |
| Lamps & electrical | 20.3 | 23.5 | 0.86× |
| Body & structure | 13.9 | 8.4 | 1.66× |
| Tyres | 13.3 | 10.3 | 1.30× |
| Brakes | 12.1 | 14.3 | 0.84× |
| Visibility | 12.0 | 12.0 | 1.00× |
| What failed | per 100 tests (this family) | per 100 tests (UK average) | ratio family / UK | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot…A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot severely deteriorated | 7.31 | 2.70 | 2.71× | Ask the seller about: A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot severely d |
| Transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot…A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc | 4.37 | 1.84 | 2.37× | Ask the seller about: A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot missing or |
| Spring or spring component fractured or seriously…A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened | 5.20 | 2.72 | 1.91× | Ask the seller about: A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened |
| Windscreen or window damaged or seriously…Windscreen or window damaged or seriously discoloured but not adversely affecting driver's view | 6.22 | 4.27 | 1.46× | Check wipers, washers and windscreen chips in the driver's view |
| Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the…Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements | 5.59 | 3.82 | 1.46× | Check tyre tread depth across the full width |
| Suspension pin, bush or joint excessively wornA suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn | 7.72 | 6.03 | 1.28× | Listen for knocks over bumps — worn suspension joints are common |
| Suspension joint dust cover severely deterioratedA suspension joint dust cover severely deteriorated | 4.86 | 3.45 | 1.41× | Listen for knocks over bumps — worn suspension joints are common |
| Aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down…The aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down in the requirements | 3.90 | 2.99 | 1.30× | Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure |
| Tyre seriously damagedA tyre seriously damaged | 3.98 | 3.29 | 1.21× | Check tyre tread depth across the full width |
| Rear registration plate lamp or light source…A rear registration plate lamp or light source missing or inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources | 4.86 | 4.43 | 1.10× | Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure |
Named defects ranked by how much more often they appear than the national average — not by raw rate.
Audi A4 MOT advisories: what gets flagged
Suspension is highest at 88.6 per 100 tests; Body & structure are lowest at 7 per 100 tests — the gap is 81.6 per 100 tests.
higher bar = flagged more oftenadvisory items per 100 initial tests
Advisory rates table
| Group | Advisories per 100 |
|---|---|
| Suspension | 88.6 |
| Tyres | 80.1 |
| Brakes | 59.6 |
| Non-component advisories | 11.2 |
| Emissions & leaks | 9.8 |
| Body & structure | 7 |
Advisories are wear the tester noted but didn't fail — what will need money soon.
How does the Audi A4 perform as it gets older?
At age 15 stands out at 30.9%, against 39.9% for all cars of the same age.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Chart axes: car age, years · failure-rate scale 0–46%.
Takeaway: a 10-year-old A4 has roughly a 23% chance of failing its MOT; from about age 20 it stays above the national age curve.
Data table
| Age | Audi A4 | All cars | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 4.5% | 10.9% | -6.3 pp |
| 4 | 9.8% | 11.6% | -1.7 pp |
| 5 | 11.4% | 13.5% | -2.0 pp |
| 6 | 13.5% | 15.6% | -2.1 pp |
| 7 | 16.1% | 18.2% | -2.1 pp |
| 8 | 19.4% | 21.3% | -1.8 pp |
| 9 | 21.4% | 24.4% | -3.0 pp |
| 10 | 22.8% | 27.7% | -5.0 pp |
| 11 | 24.1% | 30.6% | -6.5 pp |
| 12 | 26.1% | 33.4% | -7.3 pp |
| 13 | 27.7% | 36.0% | -8.3 pp |
| 14 | 29.7% | 38.6% | -8.9 pp |
| 15 | 30.9% | 39.9% | -9.0 pp |
| 16 | 34.1% | 41.5% | -7.4 pp |
| 17 | 34.7% | 41.5% | -6.9 pp |
| 18 | 36.3% | 42.4% | -6.1 pp |
| 19 | 37.4% | 42.2% | -4.8 pp |
| 20 | 39.2% | 37.5% | +1.8 pp |
Is an Audi A4 ULEZ compliant?
The share of classifiable 2024 Audi A4 MOT tests likely ULEZ compliant by first-registration date is 46.4%.
Based on 406,152 classifiable initial MOT tests. This describes the tested fleet, not a specific car. MOT data do not record Euro class, so likely compliance is inferred from fuel and first-registration date. For the only authoritative answer, check the registration with TfL's official ULEZ checker.
higher = larger share likely compliantinferred from fuel and first-registration date; not a recorded Euro class
| Vehicle age at test | Likely ULEZ-compliant share | Tests |
|---|---|---|
| Under 3 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 45 |
| 3–5 years | 100.0% Check a registration with TfL | n = 35,707 |
| 6–7 years | 100.0% Check a registration with TfL | n = 60,372 |
| 8 years | 100.0% Check a registration with TfL | n = 34,957 |
| 9 years | 42.5% Check a registration with TfL | n = 26,820 |
| 10–14 years | 16.3% Check a registration with TfL | n = 119,047 |
| 15–17 years | 25.0% Check a registration with TfL | n = 70,280 |
| 18 years | 43.0% Check a registration with TfL | n = 20,973 |
| 19 years | 0.0% Check a registration with TfL | n = 12,044 |
| 20+ years | 0.0% Check a registration with TfL | n = 25,907 |
Audi A4 petrol vs diesel: which ages best
Diesel is highest at 27.4%; Petrol is lowest at 20.6% — the gap is 6.7 percentage points.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Fuel split table
| Fuel | Tests | % failing | Gap vs best |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diesel | 269,240 | 27.4% | +6.7 pp |
| Petrol | 136,896 | 20.6% | +0.0 pp |
Chart sample sizes: n=269k · n=137k.
How dangerous are Audi A4 MOT failures?
Minor defects stand out at 32.7 per 100 tests, against 24.4 per 100 tests nationally.
higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests
Severity table
| Severity | This family /100 | National /100 | Family / national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minor | 32.68 | 24.38 | 1.34× |
| Major | 59.92 | 63.26 | 0.95× |
| Dangerous | 14.78 | 12.89 | 1.15× |
Chart values: Minor 32.7 · Major 59.9 · Dangerous 14.8.
Per 100 tests on this family. National average: Minor 24.4 · Major 63.3 · Dangerous 12.9 per 100.
Does the month of an Audi A4 MOT matter?
Oct is highest at 25.8%; Mar is lowest at 23.9% — the gap is 2.0 percentage points.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Chart scale: 22%–29%.
bars: Audi A4 · dashed: all class-4 cars
Month-by-month table
| Month | Audi A4 | All cars | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 25.55% | 27.37% | -1.8 pp |
| Feb | 25.03% | 26.14% | -1.1 pp |
| Mar | 23.87% | 24.75% | -0.9 pp |
| Apr | 24.81% | 26.01% | -1.2 pp |
| May | 24.89% | 25.01% | -0.1 pp |
| Jun | 25.38% | 25.01% | +0.4 pp |
| Jul | 25.38% | 26.04% | -0.7 pp |
| Aug | 24.54% | 25.79% | -1.3 pp |
| Sep | 24.67% | 25.19% | -0.5 pp |
| Oct | 25.83% | 27.13% | -1.3 pp |
| Nov | 25.59% | 27.2% | -1.6 pp |
| Dec | 25.55% | 26.29% | -0.7 pp |
Takeaway: the spread between best and worst month is 2.0 percentage points — booking month barely matters for this family. Seasonality partly reflects registration-date clustering, not weather.
Before reading the shape: most of it is not about cars. Britain changes its registration plates twice a year, and 19.5% of these cars were first registered in March with another17% in September — 37% in two months against the 17% an even spread would give. An MOT falls due three years after first registration, so the buying calendar becomes the testing calendar. Peaks here mark when cars are tested, not when they are worse.
Audi A4 average mileage by age
At age 8, the middle half of A4s runs from 60,195 miles to 98,813 miles, against 77,437 miles as the median.
further right = more milesmedian is the typical car; band is p25–p75
Chart axes: car age, years · odometer scale 0–194k mi.
Does high mileage mean more Audi A4 MOT failures?
Same age band (6–14 years), split by odometer — this separates wear from age: 11% of the lowest-mileage cars failed versus 29.2% of the highest.
| Odometer | % failing | Tests | Gap vs lowest-mileage band |
|---|---|---|---|
| <40k miles | 11% | 14,181 | +0.0 pp |
| 40-70k miles | 15.3% | 59,549 | +4.3 pp |
| 70-100k miles | 20.9% | 67,365 | +9.9 pp |
| 100-140k miles | 26.5% | 61,746 | +15.5 pp |
| 140k+ miles | 29.2% | 38,058 | +18.2 pp |
line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75)
Mileage by age (p25 / median / p75)
| Age | p25 | Median | p75 | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 15,835 | 22,787 | 31,258 | 507 |
| 4 | 26,801 | 36,250 | 47,528 | 12,117 |
| 5 | 33,436 | 43,984 | 57,924 | 23,083 |
| 6 | 40,722 | 53,174 | 67,885 | 24,079 |
| 7 | 51,027 | 65,789 | 84,319 | 36,293 |
| 8 | 60,195 | 77,437 | 98,813 | 34,957 |
| 9 | 67,814 | 87,582 | 110,442 | 26,820 |
| 10 | 75,668 | 97,473 | 123,738 | 27,957 |
| 11 | 83,248 | 105,846 | 131,938 | 26,691 |
| 12 | 92,976 | 117,528 | 144,098 | 21,852 |
| 13 | 100,371 | 126,306 | 155,317 | 21,795 |
| 14 | 107,117 | 133,621 | 161,629 | 20,753 |
| 15 | 108,589 | 135,756 | 164,235 | 20,939 |
| 16 | 108,335 | 136,445 | 165,025 | 24,796 |
| 17 | 105,487 | 134,259 | 163,500 | 24,550 |
| 18 | 106,541 | 133,807 | 163,826 | 20,976 |
| 19 | 107,106 | 137,086 | 169,228 | 12,045 |
| 20+ | 109,715 | 144,594 | 184,305 | 25,927 |
A typical 8-year-old A4 has ~77,437 miles on the clock. Much more — ask why; much less — check for gaps in the MOT history.
Where in Britain the Audi A4 fails its MOT most
Exeter area is highest at 37.0%; London E area is lowest at 16.9% — the gap is 20.1 percentage points.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
| Toughest areas | % failing | vs model overall |
|---|---|---|
| Exeter (EX) | 36.98% | +11.9 pp |
| Bath (BA) | 34.28% | +9.2 pp |
| Brighton (BN) | 34.02% | +8.9 pp |
| Salisbury (SP) | 33.59% | +8.5 pp |
| Truro (TR) | 33.47% | +8.4 pp |
| Easiest areas | % failing | vs model overall |
|---|---|---|
| London E (E) | 16.91% | -8.2 pp |
| Uxbridge (UB) | 18.13% | -7.0 pp |
| London N (N) | 18.79% | -6.3 pp |
| Dartford (DA) | 18.91% | -6.2 pp |
| London NW (NW) | 19.43% | -5.7 pp |
Why do areas differ?
For each external factor we correlate the area fail rate with the factor across postcode areas that have ≥800 tests of this family, then compare the bottom vs top fifth (quintile) of the factor. Correlation, not causation — factors travel together (the north is colder and often poorer; urban areas are denser and less salted). Road surface condition is joined now, for the 91 English areas the DfT publishes, and it explains nothing: the correlation with suspension failures is −0.01 and with body and structure failures 0.07. Potholes wreck wheels and tyres between tests, but by the time a car reaches the bay the road it drives on leaves no measurable trace.
In areas with the highest urban share this model fails 6.8 pp less often than in the lowest fifth (r=-0.52, n=112 areas with ≥800 tests).
In areas with the highest mot centre density this model fails 6.4 pp more often than in the lowest fifth (r=0.45, n=112 areas with ≥800 tests).
In the most coastal fifth of areas this model fails 4.5 pp more often than in the most inland fifth (r=-0.34, n=112 areas with ≥800 tests).
| Factor | Low Q | High Q | Gap | Correlation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Urban share | 27.9% | 21.1% | -6.8 pp | r=-0.52 |
| MOT centre density | 21.0% | 27.4% | +6.4 pp | r=0.45 |
| Distance to coast | 28.4% | 23.9% | -4.5 pp | r=-0.34 |
Factors that only mean something combined
Some conditions are useless on their own and informative multiplied together. Frost days alone say little — Britain barely freezes. Salt tonnage alone says little — it tracks frost. Distance to the sea alone says little. Multiply the first two and divide by the third and you get an index of how hard an area attacks a car's underside, and it lines up with the corrosion defects we actually record. We built five such combinations and tested each against our own data. Three survived; two did not, and the failures are listed here on purpose — a proxy that was never checked is decoration. One survivor only survived on the second attempt: built from a crude stand-in for street parking it failed outright, and rebuilt from the census — terraced streets carrying more cars than they have driveways — it works, and carries information the salt index does not.
| Composite | Built from | Tested against | r | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Underbody corrosion | frost days × salt load ÷ (distance to coast + 1) | share of tests with a corrosion defect | +0.42 | holds (116 areas) |
| Tyre wear | rain days × annual miles ÷ age at first tyre advisory | share of tests failing on tyres | +0.45 | holds (116 areas) |
| Overnight corrosion | terraced housing × cars per household × frost days | share with a corrosion defect | +0.41 | holds (102 areas) — and adds signal beyond the first index |
| Deferred maintenance | deprivation × advisory-to-failure conversion ÷ labour rate | cars repeating the same advisory | −0.26 | fails (118 areas) |
| Powertrain stress | engine capacity ÷ kerb weight | suspension, brake and emissions failures | −0.16 | fails (22 models) |
The deprivation result is the one worth dwelling on. The intuition that poorer areas defer repairs is strong enough that most people treat it as established. We tested it twice — once on raw failure rates (r = 0.04) and again, more fairly, on whether an advisory turns into a failure — and it did not hold any of the three times we tried it — on raw failure rates, on advisory-to-failure conversion, and again with deprivation measured properly inside each nation rather than England alone. We are closing it. What does predict local failure rates is the density of test centres, which is a statement about testing, not about cars.
All external-factor correlations (machine-readable)
| Factor | r | n areas | Low-Q fail % | High-Q fail % | Gap pp | Low-Q factor | High-Q factor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Urban share (0–1) | -0.516 | 112 | 27.9 | 21.1 | -6.8 | 0.4 | 1 |
| MOT centre density (per 10k vehicles) | 0.448 | 112 | 21.0 | 27.4 | +6.4 | 5 | 8.5 |
| Distance to coast (km) | -0.337 | 112 | 28.4 | 23.9 | -4.5 | 6.2 | 79.5 |
| Income deprivation (score) | -0.290 | 96 | 25.9 | 22.4 | -3.6 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| Terrain gradient (% grade) | 0.188 | 67 | 25.3 | 27.3 | +2.0 | 0.5 | 3.7 |
| Road-salt proxy (g/m²-yr) | -0.039 | 112 | 24.6 | 25.0 | +0.3 | 221.2 | 670.1 |
| Frost days (days/year) | -0.033 | 112 | 26.1 | 24.9 | -1.2 | 11.6 | 38 |
Deprivation uses England IMD 2019 income score only (Scotland SIMD is a different scale). Salt proxy is a simplified NWSRG-style dry-salt sum from air Tmin; coastalness is distance from the area centroid to the nearest coastline.
Every dot is a postcode area — size = how many were tested there, colour = share failing. These figures are not age-adjusted: coastal and rural areas often run older fleets and salted roads, so higher raw fail rates do not automatically mean a worse local stock of this model.
Map labels: Scotland · N. England · Wales · London · S. West. Colour scale: 19%–34% failing.
Audi A4 survival: which cars are still on the road
By age 19 stands out at 61%, against 100% at the ages 4–6 reference level.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Chart axes: car age, years · survival vs ages 4–6 · scale 0–105%.
Survival vs fail rate by age
| Age | Tests | Survival vs ages 4–6 | Fail % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 507 | 2.6% | 4.54% |
| 4 | 12,117 | 61.3% | 9.84% |
| 5 | 23,083 | 100% | 11.43% |
| 6 | 24,079 | 100% | 13.5% |
| 7 | 36,293 | 100% | 16.05% |
| 8 | 34,957 | 100% | 19.44% |
| 9 | 26,820 | 100% | 21.42% |
| 10 | 27,957 | 100% | 22.78% |
| 11 | 26,691 | 100% | 24.08% |
| 12 | 21,852 | 100% | 26.09% |
| 13 | 21,795 | 100% | 27.71% |
| 14 | 20,753 | 100% | 29.72% |
| 15 | 20,939 | 100% | 30.9% |
| 16 | 24,796 | 100% | 34.07% |
| 17 | 24,550 | 100% | 34.66% |
| 18 | 20,976 | 100% | 36.33% |
| 19 | 12,045 | 61% | 37.35% |
DfT licensed stock: peak 328,106 (2016 Q4) → latest 221,517 (67.5% of peak).
By age 19, only about 61% as many cars of this family present for MOT as at ages 4–6 (reference n≈19,759); survivors still fail at 37.4% vs 9.8% at age 4. Older cars that still appear are a selected subset — weaker ones have already left. DfT licensed stock is 68% of its 2016 Q4 peak (328,106 → 221,517).
How many miles does an Audi A4 last?
100,000+ miles is highest at 50.4%; 200,000+ miles is lowest at 4.1% — the gap is 46.3 percentage points.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
| Odometer | Tests ≥ threshold | Share of sample |
|---|---|---|
| 100,000+ miles | 204,480 | 50.42% |
| 150,000+ miles | 78,156 | 19.27% |
| 200,000+ miles | 16,695 | 4.12% |
Of 405,572 tests of this family with a usable odometer in 2024, 50.4% had already reached 100k miles, 19.3% reached 150k, and 4.1% reached 200k — a cross-section of cars still presenting for MOT, not a full birth cohort.
How many years is an Audi A4 likely to last?
Bought at age 5 is highest at 14.1 years; Bought at age 15 is lowest at 4.1 years — the gap is 10 years.
bigger number = longer remaining lifeyears on the observed survival curve
| Age now | Typical mileage (p50) | Expected years left |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 43,984 | 14.1 |
| 8 | 77,437 | 11.1 |
| 10 | 97,473 | 9.1 |
| 12 | 117,528 | 7.1 |
| 15 | 135,756 | 4.1 |
estimateEstimate only — not a warranty: a typical 10-year-old example of this family (~97,473 miles median) has about 9.1 expected years of further MOT-present life on the 2024 survival curve. Derived from how many cars of each age still appear for test, not from a longitudinal panel.
Audi A4 faults that come together
Emissions & leaks + Seatbelts & SRS stand out at 10.69×, against 1× if the faults were independent.
above 1.0× = more than expectedbelow 1.0× = less
| Group A | Group B | Together | Lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 462 | 10.69× |
| Brakes | Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 713 | 8.78× |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 1,115 | 8.15× |
| Brakes | Noise, emissions and leaks | 1,919 | 7.66× |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Noise, emissions and leaks | 2,874 | 6.81× |
| Identification of the vehicle | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 329 | 6.49× |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Steering | 687 | 6.46× |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Steering | 2,140 | 6.36× |
Defects in «Noise, emissions and leaks» and «Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems» appear together 10.69× more often than chance (462 co-occurrences in the same test; lift≥1.3, n≥300).
Lift = how many times more often both groups appear on the same test than if independent. Thresholds: lift ≥ 1.3, co-occurrences ≥ 300.
Is low mileage better for an Audi A4?
Cars driven under 5,000 miles a year stands out at 11.6%, against 20.7% for cars driven 8,000–12,000 miles a year.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
| Band | Fail % | Tests |
|---|---|---|
| <5k miles/year | 11.59% | 16,532 |
| 8–12k miles/year | 20.69% | 114,186 |
| Gap (low − normal) | -9.1 pp | — |
By fuel and age
Diesel
| Age | Low-use fail % | n | Normal fail % | n | Gap pp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 8.53 | 375 | 11.52 | 2,848 | -2.98 pp |
| 7 | 9.86 | 578 | 17.47 | 7,878 | -7.6 pp |
| 8 | 13.7 | 781 | 20.22 | 10,595 | -6.52 pp |
| 9 | 8.2 | 854 | 23.24 | 10,361 | -15.04 pp |
| 10 | 12.35 | 842 | 25.85 | 10,600 | -13.5 pp |
| 11 | 15.64 | 633 | 26.66 | 10,574 | -11.02 pp |
| 12 | 12.9 | 504 | 28.38 | 9,267 | -15.48 pp |
| 13 | 16.8 | 482 | 29.92 | 9,249 | -13.11 pp |
| 14 | 18.3 | 459 | 31.46 | 8,973 | -13.16 pp |
Petrol
| Age | Low-use fail % | n | Normal fail % | n | Gap pp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 8.99 | 1,846 | 11.8 | 5,744 | -2.81 pp |
| 6 | 9.92 | 1,825 | 13.9 | 7,196 | -3.98 pp |
| 7 | 12.12 | 1,708 | 14.71 | 7,097 | -2.59 pp |
| 8 | 9.27 | 1,122 | 18.48 | 4,135 | -9.21 pp |
| 9 | 6.7 | 716 | 18.2 | 1,187 | -11.49 pp |
| 10 | 11.96 | 878 | 17.57 | 1,275 | -5.61 pp |
| 11 | 10.49 | 972 | 19.13 | 1,375 | -8.63 pp |
| 12 | 12.52 | 559 | 23.84 | 1,015 | -11.32 pp |
| 13 | 19.81 | 616 | 29.01 | 979 | -9.2 pp |
| 14 | 17.28 | 567 | 26.82 | 1,361 | -9.53 pp |
At matched ages 5–14, cars averaging under 5k miles/year fail at 11.6% vs 20.7% for 8–12k miles/year — 9.1 pp lower (n_low=16,532, n_normal=114,186). In this family low annual use is associated with fewer MOT fails, not more — the ‘garage queen’ penalty is not visible in overall fail rates. Diesel alone: 12.7% low-use vs 23.9% normal (-11.2 pp).
Audi A4 real MPG against official fuel economy
petrol/electric (2023) real-world fuel use stands out at +352.78%, against 0% for an exact match to the official figure.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
| Year | Fuel | Real | Official | Gap | Vehicles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | diesel | 6.88 l | 5.89 l | +16.8% | 51,599 |
| 2021 | petrol | 7.69 l | 6.68 l | +15.06% | 38,036 |
| 2021 | petrol/electric | 6.56 l | 1.65 l | +298.39% | 14,888 |
| 2022 | diesel | 6.9 l | 5.89 l | +17.11% | 58,647 |
| 2022 | petrol | 8.15 l | 7.06 l | +15.38% | 32,152 |
| 2022 | petrol/electric | 6.65 l | 1.49 l | +345.34% | 10,731 |
| 2023 | diesel | 7.12 l | 6.11 l | +16.56% | 18,311 |
| 2023 | petrol | 8.14 l | 7.03 l | +15.86% | 12,467 |
Since 2021 every new car in Europe records its own fuel use, and the regulator publishes what those meters say next to the laboratory figure the car was sold on. For this manufacturer the worst gap is 17.11% — diesel cars of 2022 burning 6.9 litres per 100 km against an official 5.89, with CO₂ higher by the same proportion.
This is the manufacturer, not the model. The regulator aggregates by legal manufacturer (AUDI AG), so these figures are context for the badge rather than a measurement of this particular car — a point we would rather state plainly than let a reader assume otherwise. The gap itself is not a scandal, it is the known distance between a standardised laboratory cycle and real roads, but it is the distance you actually pay for at the pump. The plug-in hybrid rows are not a data error and deserve a sentence of their own: an official figure of 1.65 litres assumes the car spends most of its life on the battery, and the meters say these ones burned 6.56. Owners are not plugging them in, and a plug-in hybrid that is never charged is simply a heavy petrol car. Source: European Environment Agency (EEA), Real-world CO2 emissions from new cars and vans, reporting year 2024, v3, 2023_Cars_Aggregated.csv, CC BY 4.0 — copyright holder: European Environment Agency (EEA).
Which Audi A4 engine is best?
diesel 1.8–2.0 is highest at 106.6; petrol over 2.0 is lowest at 65.2 — the gap is 41.4 points.
below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age
| Fuel | Capacity | vs own age norm | Raw fail % | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| petrol | over 2.0 litre | 65.2 | 16.68% | 31,664 |
| diesel | over 2.0 litre | 88 | 25.44% | 19,229 |
| petrol | 1.8–2.0 litre | 93.2 | 19.61% | 56,751 |
| petrol | 1.5–1.8 litre | 98.6 | 32.02% | 24,324 |
| petrol | 1.2–1.5 litre | 104.1 | 16.71% | 24,114 |
| diesel | 1.8–2.0 litre | 106.6 | 27.49% | 249,740 |
Splitting this model by fuel alone hides the thing that actually differs. Within the same badge, the diesel 1.8–2.0 runs at 106.6 against this model's own age norm while the petrol over 2.0 runs at 65.2 — a spread of 41.4 points between two cars that share a name.
Read this one with more care than the rest of the page. Age is held constant, but who buys which engine is not: the largest capacity in a range is often a performance or executive variant that is garaged, cherished and lightly driven, while the smallest is frequently a fleet or entry car worked hard from new. The gap below is real in the test records; how much of it is the engine and how much is the owner, this data cannot separate. Bands under 5,000 tests are not shown.
Best year for an Audi A4, and the years to avoid
Build year 1999 is highest at 107.0; Build year 2017 is lowest at 91.2 — the gap is 15.8 points.
below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age
build year vs the same model at the same age · 100 = as expected
Every build year with its confidence interval
| Build year | vs own age norm | 95% CI | Raw fail % | Tests | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 91.9 | 87.8–96 | 10.59% | 18,291 | better |
| 2019 | 96.9 | 94.4–99.3 | 12.04% | 49,943 | better |
| 2018 | 94.4 | 92.4–96.4 | 12.97% | 67,112 | better |
| 2017 | 91.2 | 89.9–92.6 | 13.45% | 131,744 | better |
| 2016 | 99.7 | 98.5–101 | 16.06% | 151,935 | no different |
| 2015 | 105.5 | 104.1–106.9 | 19.23% | 113,060 | worse |
| 2014 | 102.6 | 101.3–103.9 | 21% | 116,128 | worse |
| 2013 | 98.9 | 97.7–100.1 | 22.63% | 110,841 | no different |
| 2012 | 97.3 | 96.1–98.6 | 24.57% | 93,992 | better |
| 2011 | 97.2 | 96–98.4 | 26.74% | 96,200 | better |
| 2010 | 97.1 | 95.9–98.2 | 28.9% | 93,237 | better |
| 2009 | 97.8 | 96.7–98.9 | 31.21% | 97,250 | better |
| 2008 | 102.5 | 101.5–103.4 | 34.73% | 124,389 | worse |
| 2007 | 100.3 | 99.4–101.2 | 35.78% | 131,256 | no different |
| 2006 | 100.3 | 99.3–101.2 | 37.24% | 119,328 | no different |
| 2005 | 102.4 | 101.3–103.5 | 39.38% | 84,035 | worse |
| 2004 | 105.5 | 104.4–106.7 | 41.76% | 74,097 | worse |
| 2003 | 105.2 | 103.8–106.7 | 42.59% | 50,397 | worse |
| 2002 | 106.9 | 105–108.7 | 43.98% | 28,768 | worse |
| 2001 | 106.4 | 103.5–109.4 | 44.73% | 11,044 | worse |
| 2000 | 105 | 101.6–108.4 | 44.68% | 8,098 | worse |
| 1999 | 107 | 102.6–111.3 | 46.25% | 4,943 | worse |
The best build year here is 2017 and the weakest is 1999. Comparing build years sounds simple and is not: within a single year of testing, a car's build year and its age are the same number, so a naive comparison of years is a comparison of ages wearing a disguise. Each year below is measured against the same model at the same age in other cohorts, across six years of testing — 18 of 22 years come out distinguishable from their own model's age norm.
Two limits worth knowing before you act on this. Age, test year and build year are locked together by arithmetic, so the test-year effect is taken from the observed national failure level of each year rather than estimated — it is an adjustment, not a solution. And for cars built before about 2005, a good score says more about which examples survived to be tested than about how that year was built: survivors are self-selected for care.
Audi A4 MOT repair costs
The MOT-failure repair budget per test runs from £101.20 to £192.28, against £54.85 for the test itself.
bigger number = costs morepounds per test, MOT-failing faults only
| Component | Fails per 100 tests | Typical repair | Its price | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 23.7 (nat. 19.9) | Suspension coil spring (single corner) | £180 | £42.66 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 20.3 (nat. 23.52) | Battery replacement (standard 12V lead-acid) | £140 | £28.42 |
| Brakes | 12.1 (nat. 14.34) | Front brake pads (parts + labour, typical hatchback) | £150 | £18.15 |
| Tyres | 13.3 (nat. 10.27) | Tyre (single mid-range 16" fitted) | £90 | £11.97 |
Multiply how often each component fails on this model by what that repair usually costs, and you get the amount an owner should expect to budget per test for MOT-failing faults only — roughly £101 to £192, on top of the test fee itself. It is a budgeting figure, not a quote: the spread between a set of pads and a set of discs is most of the range.
Prices are modal quotes from a hand-kept catalogue of published UK garage guides — we do not scrape the booking sites, their terms forbid it, so this list is short and updated by hand with a source and date against each line. Each line prices one typical repair in that group, not a full remedy, and only groups our catalogue actually covers are counted. The contrast worth noticing is the second card: the legal maximum for the test has been £54.85 since 2010, while the repairs it uncovers have followed inflation the whole time.
For scale from a different direction: Warrantywise, which sees used-car warranty claims rather than test failures, puts the average claim at £2,052 across the ten highest-claim models it ranks and £539 for Honda, the lowest-claim make in its index (Warrantywise index 2026, 1.6 million claims, cars aged 3–15). Those sit an order of magnitude above the figures in this table, and the gap is the point: a warranty claim is a gearbox or an engine, which almost never fails an MOT, while the faults that do fail one are corrosion, lamps and tyres, which no warranty pays for. The two numbers answer different questions and neither replaces the other.
Audi A4 running costs for a fleet
Vehicles failing at age 10 stand out at 23%, against 11% at age 5 in the same 100-vehicle fleet.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Failure rate and typical odometer by age
| Age | Fails | Median odometer | Tests | Gap vs age 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 9.84% | 36,250 | 12,117 | -1.6 pp |
| 5 | 11.43% | 43,984 | 23,083 | +0.0 pp |
| 6 | 13.5% | 53,174 | 24,079 | +2.1 pp |
| 7 | 16.05% | 65,789 | 36,293 | +4.6 pp |
| 8 | 19.44% | 77,437 | 34,957 | +8.0 pp |
| 9 | 21.42% | 87,582 | 26,820 | +10.0 pp |
| 10 | 22.78% | 97,473 | 27,957 | +11.4 pp |
| 11 | 24.08% | 105,846 | 26,691 | +12.6 pp |
| 12 | 26.09% | 117,528 | 21,852 | +14.7 pp |
| 13 | 27.71% | 126,306 | 21,795 | +16.3 pp |
| 14 | 29.72% | 133,621 | 20,753 | +18.3 pp |
| 15 | 30.9% | 135,756 | 20,939 | +19.5 pp |
| 16 | 34.07% | 136,445 | 24,796 | +22.6 pp |
| 17 | 34.66% | 134,259 | 24,550 | +23.2 pp |
| 18 | 36.33% | 133,807 | 20,976 | +24.9 pp |
| 19 | 37.35% | 137,086 | 12,045 | +25.9 pp |
The number a fleet manager needs is not the failure rate, it is the year the car starts costing more. Between age 7 and 8 the failure rate of this model jumps by 3.39 percentage points — the steepest single step in its life, and the natural planning point for replacement.
Repair spend uses the same modal prices as the section above, so it inherits the same limits: one typical repair per component group, not a full remedy. Downtime is the gap between the failed test and the passed re-test, which is the window a vehicle is legally off the road.
Audi A4 rust problems: where they corrode
Age-standardised corrosion susceptibility stands out at 0.29×, against 1× for the national age-standardised rate.
above 1.0× = rusts more than averagebelow 1.0× = rusts less
This Audi A4 fails on corrosion much less often than average once age is held constant, and its owners live in areas that are saltier than most for the models we publish. Both point the same way and reinforce each other: it resists corrosion even though its owners live in saltier areas than most.
Corrosion is the one failure mode that is as much about geography as about the car. We keep the two apart on purpose: a model can look rusty simply because it is popular in Scotland, and a model can look clean simply because it is bought in Surrey. Blending them into a single score would hide which of the two is doing the work.
Exposure is this model's tests weighted by an area corrosion index built from frost days, salt load and distance to the coast — the composite validated at r = 0.42 against corrosion defects we actually record. It is published as a rank, not a raw score, because every mainstream model skews towards low-corrosion areas for the simple reason that most of Britain's cars are in the south. Susceptibility is standardised to the national age profile, so an old fleet does not get labelled a rusty model.
Does an Audi A4 advisory become a failure?
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment are highest at 26.1%; Identification of the vehicle is lowest at 3.1% — the gap is 22.9 percentage points.
higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability
chance the same component fails at the next MOT, given an advisory now
| Component | Fails next time | Typical lead time | Miles of warning | Advisories tracked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 26.1% | 12.1 months | 5,030 | 16,557 |
| Suspension | 17.3% | 12.1 months | 6,318 | 231,157 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 15.1% | 12.1 months | 5,752 | 25,183 |
| Steering | 13.9% | 12.1 months | 5,953 | 10,978 |
| Visibility | 11.4% | 12 months | 7,002 | 1,003 |
| Brakes | 10.8% | 12.1 months | 5,997 | 241,893 |
| Tyres | 10.2% | 12.1 months | 6,926 | 315,154 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 7.8% | 12.1 months | 5,321 | 52,511 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 3.9% | 12.1 months | 6,863 | 4,549 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 3.1% | 12.1 months | 6,822 | 30,822 |
This is the question an advisory note actually raises, and it needs six years of test history to answer. We followed the same vehicles from one MOT to the next across 2019–2024 and measured how often a component that was merely advised came back as a genuine failure at the next test.
Read it as a budgeting horizon, not a prophecy: the most likely component above turns into a failure for about 26 in 100 cars, and the median gap is 12.1 months and roughly 5,030 miles. The rest were repaired, sold, scrapped, or simply held. Rows with fewer than 500 tracked advisories are not shown.
What will fail next on an Audi A4?
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment after a failure at age 15-19 are highest at 28.7%; Brakes after a passed at age <3 are lowest at 1.4% — the gap is 27.3 percentage points.
higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability
| Age | Last test | Most likely next failures | Cars tracked |
|---|---|---|---|
| <3 | passed | Tyres 5.7% · Visibility 3.4% · Brakes 1.4% | 41,471 |
| <3 | advisory | Tyres 6.3% · Visibility 4.2% | 15,877 |
| 3-5 | passed | Tyres 5.6% · Suspension 3.4% · Visibility 3.1% | 148,294 |
| 3-5 | advisory | Tyres 7.5% · Suspension 4.7% · Visibility 4.3% | 75,876 |
| 3-5 | failure | Tyres 8.1% · Suspension 5.0% · Visibility 4.9% | 36,916 |
| 6-8 | passed | Tyres 5.8% · Suspension 5.0% · Visibility 3.9% | 117,987 |
| 6-8 | advisory | Tyres 8.1% · Suspension 7.1% · Visibility 6.0% | 77,599 |
| 6-8 | failure | Tyres 9.4% · Suspension 8.0% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 7.0% | 53,515 |
| 9-11 | passed | Suspension 8.1% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 6.6% · Tyres 6.0% | 91,906 |
| 9-11 | advisory | Suspension 10.8% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 9.2% · Tyres 8.4% | 73,243 |
| 9-11 | failure | Suspension 13.0% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 12.0% · Tyres 10.0% | 65,529 |
| 12-14 | passed | Suspension 13.2% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 11.7% · Body, chassis, structure 8.0% | 84,313 |
| 12-14 | advisory | Suspension 17.0% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 15.5% · Body, chassis, structure 10.9% | 82,546 |
| 12-14 | failure | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 20.3% · Suspension 19.3% · Body, chassis, structure 12.6% | 91,182 |
| 15-19 | passed | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 15.6% · Suspension 13.4% · Brakes 8.3% | 55,164 |
| 15-19 | advisory | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 22.0% · Suspension 18.9% · Brakes 12.3% | 69,333 |
| 15-19 | failure | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 28.7% · Suspension 22.0% · Brakes 16.1% | 82,989 |
| 20+ | passed | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 10.8% · Suspension 10.5% · Body, chassis, structure 10.0% | 5,860 |
| 20+ | advisory | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 18.5% · Suspension 17.8% · Body, chassis, structure 16.0% | 8,203 |
| 20+ | failure | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 24.6% · Suspension 23.2% · Body, chassis, structure 17.9% | 9,966 |
The same chains, cut differently: given a car's age and how its last test went, which component most often causes trouble at the following one.
The pattern that repeats across every family: a failure at one test roughly doubles the chance of a failure on the same component at the next one, and an advisory sits about half-way between a clean pass and a failure. Age bands in years; probabilities are per car, not per defect item.
Audi A4 ownership: what six years of MOTs show
The ten-day re-test pass rate is highest at 58.9%; The later re-test pass rate is lowest at 3.7% — the gap is 55.2 percentage points.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Failing is usually a same-week event, not a disaster. Of 332,222 failures followed through to their re-test, 37.44% were repaired and passed the same day and 58.89% within ten days; the median gap is 1 day. 811,512 defect items were cleared in the process.
Per mile driven, not per year. Dividing failures by the miles that actually went onto the odometers between consecutive tests gives 0.367 failures per 10,000 miles, on a median of 6,473 miles a year across 320,436 chains. This is the number to compare between models — an annual rate quietly rewards cars that barely leave the drive.
Two populations hide inside one model. 33.38% of these cars strung together three or more tests with nothing recorded at all, while 31.94% carried the same advisory three times or more — the same fault, noted, ignored, noted again. When you buy used you are buying one of those two histories, and the MOT record shows which.
Odometer anomalies: 1.158% of 320,707 chains show a reading lower than the previous test, with a median drop of 40,021 miles. We call this an anomaly and not fraud on purpose — instrument swaps, imports, unit mix-ups and keying errors all land in the same bucket. Obvious typos (drops under 100 miles or over 90% of the reading) are already excluded.
Do Audi A4 recalls reduce MOT failures?
R/2020/302 (Body, chassis, structure) beyond the comparison fleet stands out at +0.9 pp, against 0 pp for no movement beyond the fleet.
negative = improved beyond the comparison fleetpositive = worsened
| Campaign | Launched | Component | Before | After | Fleet moved | Beyond fleet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
R/2020/138 | 2020-06-30 | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 11.25% | 10.21% | -0.74 pp | -0.3 pp |
R/2021/236 | 2021-06-25 | Suspension | 10.4% | 10.2% | -0.15 pp | -0.04 pp |
R/2020/302 | 2020-10-26 | Body, chassis, structure | 5.23% | 5.61% | -0.53 pp | +0.92 pp |
A fair test needs a control. Failure rates climb as any fleet ages, so a simple before-and-after around a recall date makes every campaign look useless. Below, each campaign's component is age-standardised and compared against how every other model published here moved on that same component over the same months. The last column is what is left after subtracting the fleet-wide drift.
Negative in the last column means the recalled component improved faster than the rest of the fleet. Across all campaigns we could measure, roughly half clear that bar and half do not — recalls help, but the effect is small at fleet level and inconsistent between campaigns. not causal: no VIN-level link between a car and a campaign, and no evidence the remedy was carried out. Cells with fewer than 500 tests either side are not published. One limit decides how far this goes: the MOT inspects brakes, lights, suspension and structure, so a recall for an airbag inflator or a wiring fire risk leaves no trace here at all. Read this as evidence about recalls whose component the test actually examines — never as a verdict on whether recalls work.
Audi A4 safety recalls and how to check yours
DVSA recall campaigns stand out at 36, against 1.63 campaigns per 10,000 licensed cars after fleet size is accounted for.
bigger number = more recorded casescompare like-for-like scope, not sample size alone
recall campaigns launched per year
| Reference | Launched | Vehicles | Concern |
|---|---|---|---|
R/2021/236 | 25/06/2021 | 10,089 | One or more nuts which do not meet the specifications may have been fitted on the rear axle suspension links.… |
R/2020/302 | 26/10/2020 | 8 | The seat frame may not have been bolted correctly to the seat rail on the driver and/or front passenger side… |
R/2020/138 | 30/06/2020 | 34,982 | It is possible that moisture may enter the belt-driven starter-alternator.… |
R/2018/086 | 30/04/2018 | 5,092 | The aluminium trim may become detached from the loud speaker trim in the front or rear doors. Cuts and other injuries from the sharp edges may occur.… |
R/2016/294 | 26/01/2017 | 201 | The back-rests of the front seats may not have been assembled correctly. This may increase risk of injury to occupants during a collision.… |
All 8 campaigns
| Reference | Launched | Build dates | Vehicles | Concern |
|---|---|---|---|---|
R/2021/236 | 25/06/2021 | 07/11/2019 – 18/02/2021 | 10,089 | One or more nuts which do not meet the specifications may have been fitted on the rear axle suspension links.… |
R/2020/302 | 26/10/2020 | 09/07/2020 – 10/07/2020 | 8 | The seat frame may not have been bolted correctly to the seat rail on the driver and/or front passenger side… |
R/2020/138 | 30/06/2020 | 01/06/2017 – 31/03/2020 | 34,982 | It is possible that moisture may enter the belt-driven starter-alternator.… |
R/2018/086 | 30/04/2018 | 01/10/2014 – 31/10/2017 | 5,092 | The aluminium trim may become detached from the loud speaker trim in the front or rear doors. Cuts and other injuries from the sharp edges may occur.… |
R/2016/294 | 26/01/2017 | 01/08/2016 – 31/10/2016 | 201 | The back-rests of the front seats may not have been assembled correctly. This may increase risk of injury to occupants during a collision.… |
R/2002/143 | 26/10/2002 | 541 | On 79 vehicles within the VIN ranges affected (with 3-spoke sports steering wheel) it is possible that in the event of a collision impact above the triggering threshold of the airbags the driver's airbag may not be deplo… | |
R/1997/075 | 26/11/1997 | 01/01/1995 – 31/12/1996 | 50,523 | In weather conditions which favour the build up of static electricity the air bag may deploy spontaneously if the driver enters or leaves the vehicle while carrying a high static charge. This can only happen when the car… |
R/1997/049 | 28/06/1997 | 01/02/1997 – 31/03/1997 | 1,097 | The front seat belt height adjuster may not have been manufactured to the correct specification and could endanger the belt wearer in an accident situation.… |
DVSA lists 36 safety recall campaigns for the Audi A4 — 1.63 campaigns per 10,000 of these cars licensed in Great Britain, covering roughly 102,533 vehicles in total. A recall is the manufacturer fixing a fault for free, so an open recall on your car costs nothing to clear.
Counter-intuitive, and measured on our own data: across the 25 families published here, more recalls go with a lower MOT Risk Index (r = −0.52). Heavily recalled models are not worse cars in the test bay — an active manufacturer removes the fault before it becomes an MOT failure.
Check whether a specific car has an outstanding recall — free, by registration — at DVSA's recall service. Source: DVSA vehicle safety recalls (check-vehicle-recalls.service.gov.uk), OGL.
Audi A4 technical service bulletins: what dealers are told
NHTSA manufacturer communications are 2,366.
bigger number = more recorded dealer communicationsnot affected vehicles or confirmed faults
These are the issues the manufacturer fixes quietly: service communications sent to dealers without a public recall campaign. They show what the service network has been told even when the issue never became news.
United States · NHTSA manufacturer communications
| Communication year | Bulletins | Leading subjects across all years |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 56 |
|
| 2014 | 199 | |
| 2015 | 145 | |
| 2016 | 208 | |
| 2017 | 143 | |
| 2018 | 82 | |
| 2019 | 209 | |
| 2020 | 214 | |
| 2021 | 200 | |
| 2022 | 162 | |
| 2023 | 216 | |
| 2024 | 287 | |
| 2025 | 177 | |
| 2026 | 68 |
Caveat worth stating plainly: this is NHTSA data about US-specification cars. British cars sold under the same name often use different gearboxes, engines and equipment, so a bulletin may describe a component that was never fitted here. The file counts dealer communications, not affected vehicles or confirmed failures, and it cannot tell you whether an individual UK car has the issue. A communication can carry more than one subject tag, so topic counts do not have to add up to the total. Source: NHTSA Manufacturer Communications API (US-market vehicles; queried model years 2015-2022). Licence: U.S. Government work / public domain · retrieved 2026-08-03.
Audi A4 owner complaints: what goes wrong
Lamps & electrical are highest at 138; Brakes are lowest at 10 — the gap is 128.
bigger number = more recorded casescompare like-for-like scope, not sample size alone
| Component | Complaints | Share | MOT fail items per 100 | MOT rank | Agreement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamps & electrical | 138 | 41.6% | 20.3 | #2 | complained about and fails often |
| Engine (not MOT-tested) | 60 | 18.1% | not in top 6 | — | complained about, rarely an MOT failure |
| Restraints | 43 | 13.0% | not in top 6 | — | complained about, rarely an MOT failure |
| Transmission (not MOT-tested) | 18 | 5.4% | not in top 6 | — | complained about, rarely an MOT failure |
| Steering | 12 | 3.6% | not in top 6 | — | complained about, rarely an MOT failure |
| Brakes | 10 | 3.0% | 12.1 | #5 | complained about, fails occasionally |
Two different populations answering two different questions: the MOT records what an inspector can measure once a year, the complaint file records what annoyed or frightened an owner on the road. A component high in one column and absent from the other is the interesting case — driver-assistance and electronics dominate complaints while almost never appearing as an MOT failure item.
What the reports actually say
Vehicle was inspected at 50,000 miles by the dealer and report says that passenger side motor mount was leaking. They also said that the motor mount will deteriorate rapidly and will affect the safety of the vehicle.
Audi Presense kicked in so violently on the 280E freeway towards NYC from Northern NJ, that my 15 y/o son now has a significant cervical spine injury, necessitating medical evaluation and treatment. The brakes were so abruptly applied by Presense that we thought we had been hit by a car, but had not been in an accident. This is very dangerous, and now my son is injured, despite no accident occurring.
US owners have filed 332 complaints about the equivalent Audi A4 to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, including 13 that mention a crash, 2 a fire and 10 an injury. These are owner reports, not verified findings — but they are the only large public record of what drivers themselves notice, and they cover the years between MOT tests.
Caveat worth stating plainly: US-specification cars, self-selected reporters, no denominator — complaint counts scale with how many cars were sold there and how motivated owners are to file. The mechanical gap matters as much as the statistical one: American cars of the same name often carry different gearboxes, engines and equipment — automatics where Britain buys manuals — so a drivetrain complaint filed in Ohio may describe a part that was never fitted here. Read the ranking inside a model, not between models, and treat drivetrain entries with particular caution. Source: NHTSA ODI consumer complaints (US market, public domain) — US-spec vehicles, indicative only.
Audi A4 inspection results in other countries
Netherlands APK stands out at 36.5%, against 50.9% nationally.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
| Country | Test | This model fails | National average | Position | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | MOT (class 4) | 25.09% | 26.01% | -0.9 pp | 406,182 |
| Finland | Katsastus | 22.5% | 26.3% | -3.8 pp | 30,550 |
| Netherlands | APK | 36.5% | 50.9% | -14.4 pp | 17,613 |
| Norway | PKK | 36.6% | 33.5% | +3.1 pp | 6,022 |
The countries disagree about this car, and that is worth saying out loud rather than averaging away. A model can sit above its national average in one country and below it in another because the fleets are not the same cars: different model years, different engines, different roads and salt, and inspection rules that weight components differently. Treat each row as evidence from one regime, not as a verdict.
| Fault area | Share |
|---|---|
| Axles, wheels and suspension | 40.6% |
| Brake systems | 26.2% |
| Environmental hazards | 13.9% |
| Lighting devices and electrical equipment | 5% |
| Chassis and body | 4% |
Useful as a cross-check on the UK defect table above: the categories are named differently, but a component that dominates in both regimes is a genuine weak point of the model rather than an artefact of one country's testing style.
| Code | Fault | Recorded | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
210 | Tyre pressure not at the correct value | 3,137 | failure |
205 | Tyre with insufficient tread | 2,209 | failure |
AC1 | Tyre down to 1.6–2.5 mm of tread | 1,448 | advisory |
516 | Dipped headlight incorrectly aimed | 1,342 | failure |
AC5 | Mechanical brake parts showing wear | 596 | advisory |
391 | Wipers leave insufficient visibility | 453 | failure |
203 | Tyre damaged | 442 | failure |
RA2 | Excessive leak of other fluids | 296 | advisory |
Worth dwelling on how mundane the top of that list is: tyre pressure, tread depth, headlight aim. The Dutch APK records 0.754 defects per inspection against a much higher national failure rate than Britain's, and the reason is not that Dutch cars are worse — it is that the two regimes draw the line between "note it" and "fail it" in different places. Codes are the RDW's own; the English wording here is our translation of the Dutch original.
Britain is not the only country that inspects every car every year, and the Audi A4 is on the road in all of them. Each national regime writes its own rules, so the pass rates below are not comparable to each other — what does travel across a border is whether a model sits above or below its own country's average.
Rows with fewer than 500 inspections are not published. Sources: Traficom — Periodic inspections of cars by model / by model and fault object 2024, CC BY 4.0; RDW open data — Meldingen Keuringsinstantie + Geconstateerde Gebreken + Gekentekende voertuigen (2024), CC0. Not an RDW endorsement.; Statens vegvesen — Periodisk kjøretøykontroll (PKK) 2024, CC BY 4.0.
Audi A4 MOT: quick answers
Audi A4 MOT Risk Index stands out at 84.6, against 100 for a car with the same age profile.
below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age
- What is the Audi A4 first-time MOT pass rate?
- 74.91% of first attempts passed in 2024 (406,182 tests). This is the first-time figure: retests after repair are excluded. Basis: first-time, excluding retests.
- Why does this number differ from other sites?
- Other sites often report a pass rate that includes retests or counts all attempts. Our 25.09% figure is the first-time initial failure rate, using 406,182 primary tests as the denominator (first-time, excluding retests). The age-adjusted MOT initial-failure ratio 84.6 is shown separately because raw rates compare fleet age as well as cars.
Compare the Audi A4 with other cars
Honda Jazz is highest at 85.0; Land Rover Defender is lowest at 84.4 — the gap is 0.6 points.
below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age
Head-to-head
Mercedes C Class head-to-headBMW 3 Series head-to-head
Same brand
All Audi MOT statisticsAudi A3 MOT statsAudi A1 MOT stats
Similar risk
Honda e (index 84.6)Land Rover Defender (index 84.4)Honda Jazz (index 85.0)
Same size class
how Honda Civic compareshow Volkswagen Tiguan compareshow Kia Sportage compares
Data details & how to cite
Scope: class-4 vehicles (cars), initial tests only, outcomes pass / fail / fixed-on-the-spot at the station (PRS counts towards the failure rate — the defect was present at arrival). Index = observed initial failures ÷ failures expected for this fleet's exact age profile, ×100; margin of error is a 95% confidence interval. Covers ALL generations together — a 3-year-old and a 15-year-old are very different cars; a generation split is on the roadmap. Dataset release dataset_release_id=dvsa-2024-v1, frozen baseline; headline claim_id=family-stats:audi-a4:dvsa-2024-v1. Full method: methodology.
Cite: MOT Risk Index (2026). Audi A4 MOT statistics 2024 (dvsa-2024-v1). https://motriskindex.co.uk/cars/audi-a4/ · Published 2026-07-30.