MOT Risk Index.co.uk

Audi A7 — MOT statistics 2024

The Audi A7 failed 15.72% of 17,065 first MOT attempts in 2024 ("first-time", excluding retests). Adjusted for the age of the fleet, its initial-failure ratio is 61.5 (100 = expected for its age profile). This car fails its MOT about 38% less often than expected for its age.

MOT risk index 61.5, 95% CI 59.4–63.7 (100 = national average) 100 61.5 0 200
Index
61.5
100 = age-normal
Raw fail rate
15.72%
n = 17,065
Dangerous /100
10
national ≈11
Diesel − petrol
+4.6 pp
fail-rate gap
Rank
144 of 761
lower index = better

Age-adjusted peer: Lexus CT (index 60.8) — the two published results are 0.7 index points apart.

Audi A7 common problems: what actually fails the MOT

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment are well below the reference at 2.6 per 100 tests, against 9.2 per 100 tests across UK vehicles of the same ages.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

Audi A7 common problems: what actually fails the MOT — 2024 UK MOT data

family vs national — matched to UK vehicles of the same ages — top component groups, per 100 tests. Legend: This family · National avg. Combined labels: family / national average. A gap here reflects how these vehicles are driven, used and maintained as well as how they were built — an MOT defect is a test outcome, not a breakdown.

Component-group comparison table

Each ratio carries a 95% interval. With 6 groups compared here, roughly one apparent difference in twenty is chance alone.

GroupThis familyCases behind itUK, same agesFamily / national
Tyres11.911,0418.11.46×1.44–1.49
Visibility5.04,5886.20.81×0.78–0.82
Suspension3.22,9528.30.39×0.37–0.40
Brakes2.62,3947.00.37×0.35–0.38
Lamps & electrical2.62,3819.20.28×0.27–0.29
Identification0.98420.33.00×2.83–3.24
Named defects — items per 100 initial tests, this family vs UK national average; this model measured on 92,675 tests, 2019-2024, national column 2024
What failedper 100 tests (this family)per 100 tests (UK average)ratio family / UKWhat to check
Tyre seriously damagedA tyre seriously damaged4.762.541.87×Check tyre tread depth across the full width
Windscreen or window damaged or seriously…Windscreen or window damaged or seriously discoloured but not adversely affecting driver's view3.042.361.29×Check wipers, washers and windscreen chips in the driver's view
Tyre cords visible or damagedA tyre cords visible or damaged2.281.631.40×Check tyre tread depth across the full width
Number plate does not conform to the specified…Number plate does not conform to the specified requirements0.760.203.78×Ask the seller about: Number plate does not conform to the specified requirements
Brake lining or pad worn down to wear indicatorBrake lining or pad worn down to wear indicator0.620.173.54×Feel for brake judder and pulling on the test drive
Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the…Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements3.993.591.11×Check tyre tread depth across the full width
Engine MIL illuminated indicating a malfunctionEngine MIL illuminated indicating a malfunction0.641.190.54×Ask the seller about: Engine MIL illuminated indicating a malfunction
Brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mma brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm0.922.150.43×Feel for brake judder and pulling on the test drive
Spring or spring component fractured or seriously…A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened0.722.860.25×Ask the seller about: A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened
Suspension pin, bush or joint excessively wornA suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn1.594.870.33×Listen for knocks over bumps — worn joints show up on the test

Named defects ranked by how much more often they appear than the national average — not by raw rate.

Audi A7 MOT advisories: what gets flagged

Tyres are highest at 36.0 per 100 tests; Identification is lowest at 1.1 per 100 tests — the gap is 34.9 per 100 tests.

higher bar = flagged more oftenadvisory items per 100 initial tests

Audi A7 MOT advisories: what gets flagged — 2024 UK MOT data
Advisory rates table
GroupAdvisories per 100
Tyres36
Brakes16.5
Suspension12.1
Non-component advisories5.9
Emissions & leaks1.6
Identification1.1

Advisories are wear the tester noted but didn't fail — what will need money soon.

Tyres, brakes and suspension: Audi A7 against cars of the same age

AgePartAudi A7Same age, petrol and dieselDifference
3 yearsTyres7.814.173.64
3 yearsBrakes1.31.77-0.47
3 yearsSuspension0.240.63-0.39
4 yearsTyres7.844.543.30
4 yearsBrakes1.732.43-0.70
4 yearsSuspension0.361.21-0.85
5 yearsTyres7.345.062.28
5 yearsBrakes1.623.09-1.47
5 yearsSuspension0.612.19-1.58
6 yearsTyres8.375.542.83
6 yearsBrakes1.643.81-2.17
6 yearsSuspension0.813.72-2.91
7 yearsTyres8.315.952.36
7 yearsBrakes2.044.55-2.51
7 yearsSuspension1.765.68-3.92
8 yearsTyres8.036.311.72
8 yearsBrakes1.955.38-3.43
8 yearsSuspension2.637.78-5.15

Failing items per 100 initial tests, 2019-2024. The comparison group is every petrol or diesel car tested at the same age, so weight and drivetrain show up rather than fleet age.

If a car like this fails, does it fail again?

A failure rate does not say whether a failure is a one-off or the start of something. This follows the same vehicles into their next ordinary MOT a year later — retests after a repair are excluded, because they follow a failure by definition. 2019-2024.

After this year's testFails next yearVehicles followed
It failed19.7%2,244
It passed14.3%58,745

A failed test raises next year's chance of failing again by 5.4 percentage points. The failure most likely to come back is body, chassis, structure — 24.6% of those vehicles fail again next year. Some of this is the vehicle and some is the owner: a car that was let go once tends to be let go again. One caveat: a car that fails may be sold or scrapped rather than tested again, so these figures describe the vehicles that came back.

Adjusted for how much these are actually driven

The headline index adjusts for the fleet's age. Wear, though, follows mileage: a three-year-old taxi and a three-year-old garage queen sit in the same age band. These two rows compare every car with vehicles of the same age, and then with vehicles of the same age and the same annual mileage, 2019-2024, on 92,136 tests. Both stand on the six-year corpus so they are measured on identical data — compare them with each other, not with the headline index above, which is measured on 2024 alone.

Standardised forIndexReading
Age only64.9fails less often than expected
Age and annual mileage59.1fails less often than vehicles driven as much
Share doing under 3,000 miles a year1.0%a normal spread of use

Mileage matters here: matching on how much these are driven moves the figure by 5.8 points — this fleet works harder than the vehicles it is measured against, so the age-only view penalises it — but it does not change which side of normal the car sits on. One limit to keep in mind: mileage is partly a result of how often a car breaks down — one that spends weeks in the workshop covers fewer miles — so the mileage-matched figure can understate a real weakness. Tests with no usable odometer reading are left out of it.

How the Audi A7 compares with cars of its own age and size

Not against the whole fleet — against cars of the same size class tested at the same age, 2019-2024.

AgeAudi A7Same class, same ageDifferenceTests
3 years12.45%10.76%+1.69 pp9,290
4 years12.78%12.34%+0.44 pp10,048
5 years12.73%14.18%-1.44 pp11,223
6 years14.47%16.1%-1.62 pp11,717
7 years15.74%18.27%-2.53 pp11,710
8 years16.21%20.58%-4.37 pp11,786
9 years16.74%23.15%-6.41 pp9,350
10 years18.45%25.65%-7.2 pp7,269
11 years18.6%28.28%-9.68 pp5,123
12 years19.07%30.6%-11.53 pp3,078
13 years19.6%32.65%-13.05 pp1,689

Raw first-time failure rates within each age, so fleet age cannot flatter either side. A positive difference means this model fails more often than its own class at that age.

How does the Audi A7 perform as it gets older?

The A7 at age 14 is well below the reference at 21.0%, against 40.4% for all vehicles of the same age.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

How does the Audi A7 perform as it gets older? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · failure-rate scale 0–45%.

Takeaway: a 10-year-old A7 has roughly a 17% chance of failing its MOT.

Data table
AgeAudi A7All vehiclesGap
311.9%12.4%-0.5 pp
411.8%13.1%-1.3 pp
510.3%15.1%-4.8 pp
612.7%17.5%-4.8 pp
715.6%20.2%-4.5 pp
816.5%23.3%-6.8 pp
915.2%26.5%-11.3 pp
1017.0%30.1%-13.2 pp
1118.4%33.2%-14.8 pp
1218.1%35.7%-17.6 pp
1319.7%38.2%-18.4 pp
1421.0%40.4%-19.5 pp

Is an Audi A7 ULEZ compliant?

The share of classifiable 2024 Audi A7 MOT tests likely ULEZ compliant by first-registration date is 57.7%.

Based on 17,063 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

Age-band estimate from classifiable initial MOT tests
Vehicle age at testLikely ULEZ-compliant shareTests
Under 3 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 25
3–5 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 2,865
6–7 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 3,088
8 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 2,362
9 years53.9%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 2,004
10–14 years6.3%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 6,719
15–17 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
18 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
19 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
20+ yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0

How dangerous are Audi A7 MOT failures?

Major defects are well below the reference at 13.5 per 100 tests, against 52.8 per 100 tests nationally.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

How dangerous are Audi A7 MOT failures? — 2024 UK MOT data
Severity table
SeverityThis family /100National /100Family / national
Minor5.2514.220.37×
Major13.4952.750.26×
Dangerous10.2011.150.91×

Chart values: Minor 5.3 · Major 13.5 · Dangerous 10.2.

Per 100 tests on this family. National average: Minor 14.2 · Major 52.8 · Dangerous 11.2 per 100.

Does the month of an Audi A7 MOT matter?

Nov is highest at 16.2%; Jun is lowest at 14.3% — the gap is 1.8 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Does the month of an Audi A7 MOT matter? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart scale: 13%–33%.

bars: Audi A7 · dashed: all class-4 cars

Month-by-month table
MonthAudi A7All vehiclesGap
Jan15.69%31.12%-15.4 pp
Feb15.67%29.99%-14.3 pp
Mar15.15%28.26%-13.1 pp
Apr15.27%29.78%-14.5 pp
May15.15%28.79%-13.6 pp
Jun14.31%28.15%-13.8 pp
Jul15.22%29.33%-14.1 pp
Aug15.48%29.2%-13.7 pp
Sep14.73%28.19%-13.5 pp
Oct15.33%30.34%-15.0 pp
Nov16.16%30.58%-14.4 pp
Dec14.81%29.33%-14.5 pp

Takeaway: the spread between best and worst month is 1.8 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 18.9% of these cars were first registered in March with another17.1% in September — 36% 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. That shapes how many cars are tested each month — not how often they fail: the busiest months here are not the worst ones, so read the failure line on its own and the volume behind it separately.

Audi A7 average mileage by age

At age 8, the middle half of A7s runs from 58,044 miles to 91,418 miles, against 72,938 miles as the median.

further right = more milesmedian is the typical car; band is p25–p75

Bars: Audi A7 · dashed: all class-4 cars — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · odometer scale 0–151k mi.

Does high mileage mean more Audi A7 MOT failures at the same age?

Within the same age group, split by odometer (2024 MOTs), so this separates wear from age: at ages 6–9, 11.2% of those with under 40,000 miles failed first time versus 18.4% of those with over 140,000 miles.No clear mileage gap inside this age group, among cars still being tested.

Does high mileage mean more Audi A7 MOT failures at the same age? — 2024 UK MOT data
Audi A7: first-time failure by mileage within each age group (2024)
AgeOdometer% failing95% intervalTests
3–5<40k miles10.3%8.8–11.9%1,519
3–540-70k miles12%10.2–14%1,086
3–570-100k miles10.6%7.2–15.4%217 (rough estimate)
6–9<40k miles11.2%9.1–13.7%733
6–940-70k miles14%12.8–15.3%3,091
6–970-100k miles16.8%15.4–18.3%2,498
6–9100-140k miles17.5%15.2–20%967
6–9140k+ miles18.4%13.2–25.1%163 (rough estimate)
10–14<40k miles5%2.2–11.2%100 (rough estimate)
10–1440-70k miles16.2%13.8–18.9%786
10–1470-100k miles17.8%16.2–19.5%2,139
10–14100-140k miles18.9%17.4–20.4%2,615
10–14140k+ miles20.4%18.1–22.9%1,077

line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75)

Mileage by age (p25 / median / p75)
Agep25Medianp75Tests
322,02229,69339,044739
425,04934,13944,779652
534,83846,35260,5401,474
641,65854,36569,9841,412
750,41063,34977,9791,676
858,04472,93891,4182,362
964,06381,611101,7142,004
1072,71489,996110,7401,911
1181,185101,876123,7871,880
1292,368113,628136,9691,258
1395,025117,450140,1641,546
14100,484123,022143,748124

A typical 8-year-old A7 has ~72,938 miles on the clock. Much more — ask why; much less — check for gaps in the MOT history.

Where in Britain the Audi A7 fails its MOT most

Blackpool area is highest at 22.6%; Blackburn area is lowest at 8.9% — the gap is 13.6 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Audi A7 line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75) — 2024 UK MOT data
Toughest areas% failingvs model overall
Blackpool (FY)22.55%+7.3 pp
Aberdeen (AB)21.81%+6.5 pp
Brighton (BN)21.49%+6.2 pp
Portsmouth (PO)21.41%+6.2 pp
Plymouth (PL)21.21%+6.0 pp
Easiest areas% failingvs model overall
Blackburn (BB)8.92%-6.3 pp
Bradford (BD)8.93%-6.3 pp
London N (N)9.65%-5.6 pp
London E (E)9.83%-5.4 pp
Uxbridge (UB)9.85%-5.4 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 income deprivation this model fails 3.1 pp less often than in the lowest fifth (r=-0.47, n=49 areas with ≥800 tests).

In areas with the highest urban share this model fails 2.7 pp less often than in the lowest fifth (r=-0.34, n=52 areas with ≥800 tests).

In the most coastal fifth of areas this model fails 2.1 pp more often than in the most inland fifth (r=-0.24, n=52 areas with ≥800 tests).

Audi A7 Why do areas differ? — 2024 UK MOT data
Values shown in the quintile chart
FactorLow QHigh QGapCorrelation
Income deprivation16.5%13.4%-3.1 ppr=-0.47
Urban share16.2%13.5%-2.7 ppr=-0.34
Distance to coast17.3%15.2%-2.1 ppr=-0.24

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 area indicators, each tested against a defect rate we measure
CompositeBuilt fromTested againstrVerdict
Underbody corrosionfrost days × salt load ÷ (distance to coast + 1)share of tests with a corrosion defect+0.42holds (116 areas)
Tyre wearrain days × annual miles ÷ age at first tyre advisoryshare of tests failing on tyres+0.45holds (116 areas)
Overnight corrosionterraced housing × cars per household × frost daysshare with a corrosion defect+0.41holds (102 areas) — and adds signal beyond the first index
Deferred maintenancedeprivation × advisory-to-failure conversion ÷ labour ratecars repeating the same advisory−0.26fails (118 areas)
Powertrain stressengine capacity ÷ kerb weightsuspension, brake and emissions failures−0.16fails (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)
Factorrn areasLow-Q fail %High-Q fail %Gap ppLow-Q factorHigh-Q factor
Income deprivation (score)-0.4704916.513.4-3.10.10.2
Urban share (0–1)-0.3405216.213.5-2.70.61
Distance to coast (km)-0.2365217.315.2-2.18.188.2
Terrain gradient (% grade)-0.1503315.314.8-0.40.43.3
Frost days (days/year)-0.1145215.714.4-1.312.530
Road-salt proxy (g/m²-yr)-0.0745214.314.4+0.1240.4533.8
MOT centre density (per 10k vehicles)0.0405213.814.1+0.357.6

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: 10%–21% failing.

Audi A7 survival: which cars are still on the road

By age 14 is well below the reference at 1.2%, against 100.0% at the ages 4–6 reference level.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Audi A7 survival: which cars are still on the road — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · survival vs ages 4–6 · scale 0–105%.

Survival vs fail rate by age
AgeTestsSurvival vs ages 4–6Fail %
39,29084.5%12.45%
410,04891.4%12.78%
511,223100%12.73%
611,717100%14.47%
711,710100%15.74%
811,786100%16.21%
99,35085%16.74%
107,26966.1%18.45%
115,12346.6%18.6%
123,07828%19.07%
131,68915.4%19.6%
141281.2%20.31%

By age 13, only about 15% as many cars of this family present for MOT as at ages 4–6 (reference n≈10,996); survivors still fail at 19.6% vs 12.8% at age 4. Older cars that still appear are a selected subset — weaker ones have already left.

How many miles does an Audi A7 last?

100,000+ miles is highest at 19.6%; 150,000+ miles is lowest at 2.9% — the gap is 16.6 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

OdometerTests ≥ thresholdShare of sample
100,000+ miles18,01119.55%
150,000+ miles2,6842.91%

Of 92,143 tests of this family with a usable odometer in 2024, 19.6% had reached 100k miles, 2.9% had reached 150k miles. This is a cross-section of cars still presenting for MOT, not a full birth cohort.

How many years is an Audi A7 likely to last?

Bought at age 5 is highest at 5.9 years; Bought at age 12 is lowest at 1.0 years — the gap is 4.9 years.

bigger number = longer remaining lifeyears on the observed survival curve

Age nowTypical mileage (p50)Expected years left
5—5.9
8—2.9
10—at least 1.9
12—at least 1

estimateEstimate only — not a warranty: a typical 10-year-old example of this family has at least 1.9 expected years of further MOT-present life. The curve is observed only until age 13, so the true figure is likely higher.

Audi A7 faults that come together

Identification + Road Wheels stand out at 10.98×, against 1.00× if the faults were independent.

above 1.0× = more than expectedbelow 1.0× = less

Group AGroup BTogetherLift
Identification of the vehicleRoad Wheels2210.98× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems3310.48× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems547.83× (rough estimate)
SteeringSuspension206.96× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleNoise, emissions and leaks296.89× (rough estimate)
BrakesSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems506.86× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentRoad Wheels446.84× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureSuspension1066.52× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment705.41× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSuspension1965.27× (rough estimate)
BrakesNoise, emissions and leaks755.25× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureBrakes715.19× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentNoise, emissions and leaks685.03× (rough estimate)
BrakesLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment1524.86× (rough estimate)
BrakesSuspension1724.38× (rough estimate)
BrakesRoad Wheels294.27× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureNoise, emissions and leaks244.06× (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsSuspension354.04× (rough estimate)
Road WheelsTyres1093.86× (rough estimate)
BrakesTyres5283.85×
Road WheelsSuspension313.83× (rough estimate)
BrakesIdentification of the vehicle363.69× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment343.69× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentVisibility2583.49× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksTyres1943.27× (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsVisibility563.25× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleSuspension363.11× (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsTyres943.1× (rough estimate)
Road WheelsVisibility493.05× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentTyres3842.96× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksSuspension502.95× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksVisibility962.85× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleVisibility642.78× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleTyres1102.72× (rough estimate)
BrakesVisibility1912.45× (rough estimate)
SuspensionTyres3972.43× (rough estimate)
SteeringTyres242.39× (rough estimate)
SuspensionVisibility2162.33× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureVisibility702.17× (rough estimate)
TyresVisibility6672.06×
Body, chassis, structureTyres1081.9× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems19too few (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksRoad Wheels18too few (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSteering17too few (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureIdentification of the vehicle15too few (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureRoad Wheels14too few (rough estimate)
BrakesSteering13too few (rough estimate)
Road WheelsSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems12too few (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems12too few (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureSteering11too few (rough estimate)
SteeringVisibility10too few (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksSteering6too few (rough estimate)
Road WheelsSteering5too few (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsSteering5too few (rough estimate)

Defects in «Brakes» and «Tyres» appear together 3.85× more often than chance (528 co-occurrences in the same test; lift≥1.3, n≥500).

Lift = how many times more often both groups appear on the same test than if independent. A pair is listed from 5 tests with both faults; the lift is shown from 20, and called above chance only when its 95% interval excludes 1 (see rough estimates).

Is low mileage better for an Audi A7?

Cars driven under 5,000 miles a year is well below the reference at 11.0%, against 14.8% for cars driven 8,000–12,000 miles a year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

BandFail %Tests
<5k miles/year11.03%2,765
8–12k miles/year14.75%19,322
Gap (low − normal)-3.72 pp—
By fuel and age

Diesel

AgeLow-use fail %nNormal fail %nGap pp
51057013.913,911-3.91 pp
612.3850113.894,377-1.52 pp
714.7248916.194,589-1.47 pp
89.3345016.694,894-7.36 pp
99.1733817.784,054-8.61 pp
1012.2727719.873,331-7.6 pp
1115.1418519.692,483-4.56 pp
1218.5210819.711,563-1.19 pp
1318.846919.43875-0.59 pp

Petrol

AgeLow-use fail %nNormal fail %nGap pp
58.52007.41459+1.09 pp
66.4720112.33446-5.86 pp
710.3818313.29346-2.91 pp
813.4517112300+1.45 pp
99.713412.75204-3.04 pp
1013.199118.85122-5.67 pp
1114.294219.7476-5.45 pp

At matched ages 5–14, cars averaging under 5k miles/year fail at 11.0% vs 14.8% for 8–12k miles/year — 3.7 pp lower (n_low=2,765, n_normal=19,322). 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: 11.1% low-use vs 13.9% normal (-2.8 pp).

Which Audi A7 engine is best?

diesel 1.8–2.0 is highest at 107.3; petrol 1.8–2.0 is lowest at 70.9 — the gap is 36.4 points.

below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age

Engine bands against this model's own failure rate at the same ages
FuelCapacityvs own age normRaw fail %Tests
petrol1.8–2.0 litre70.98.94%470 (rough estimate)
petrolover 2.0 litre83.912.38%8,126
dieselover 2.0 litre101.515.67%81,116
diesel1.8–2.0 litre107.313.57%2,609 (rough estimate)

Splitting this model by fuel alone hides the thing that actually differs. Within the same badge, the diesel over 2.0 runs at 101.5 against this model's own age norm while the petrol over 2.0 runs at 83.9 — a spread of 17.6 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 100 tests are not shown; bands under 5,000 tests are rough estimates.

Best year for an Audi A7, and the years to avoid

Build year 2013 is highest at 107.9; Build year 2018 is lowest at 89.6 — the gap is 18.3 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

Audi A7 build year vs the same model at the same age · 100 = as expected — 2024 UK MOT data
Audi A7 by build year, tests 2019–2024. Below 100 is better than the model's own age norm.
Every build year with its confidence interval
Build yearvs own age norm95% CIRaw fail %TestsVerdict
202099.584.1–114.812.16%1,324no different
201993.185.1–101.111.41%4,531no different
201889.682.7–96.511.46%5,680better
201792.286.8–97.712.29%8,974better
2016105.1100.7–109.514.71%14,755worse
201597.793.2–102.214.37%12,651no different
2014101.797.1–106.315.92%11,976no different
2013107.9103.3–112.517.95%11,942worse
2012101.396.1–106.417.61%8,449no different
2011101.296.6–105.718.26%10,523no different
201094.878.4–111.217.62%732no different

The best build year here is 2018 and the weakest is 2013. 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 — 4 of 11 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.

Audi A7 MOT repair costs

The MOT-failure repair budget per test runs from £24.01 to £45.62, against £54.85 for the test itself.

bigger number = costs morepounds per test, MOT-failing faults only

MOT repairs, budget
£24–46
per test, repairs only
The test itself
£54.85
statutory cap, unchanged since 2010
How the figure is built: chance of failing × typical price of that repair
ComponentFails per 100 testsTypical repairIts priceContribution
Tyres11.9 (nat. 8.7)Tyre (single mid-range 16" fitted)£90£10.71
Suspension3.2 (nat. 15.36)Suspension coil spring (single corner)£180£5.76
Brakes2.6 (nat. 11.25)Front brake pads (parts + labour, typical hatchback)£150£3.90
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment2.6 (nat. 18.09)Battery replacement (standard 12V lead-acid)£140£3.64

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 £24 to £46, 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 A7 running costs for a fleet

Vehicles failing at age 10 stand out at 17.0%, against 10.0% at age 5, tested in the same year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fails per 100 at age 5
10
vehicles needing work (rough estimate: 1,474 tests)
At age 10
17
other cars of this model tested at age 10 in 2024 (rough estimate: 1,911 tests)
Repairs per 100
£2,401
plus £5,485 in test fees
Off the road
1d
median; 33.3% cleared same day
Failure rate and typical odometer by age
AgeFailsMedian odometerTestsGap vs age 5
311.91%29,693739+1.6 pp
411.81%34,139652+1.5 pp
510.31%46,3521,474+0.0 pp
612.68%54,3651,412+2.4 pp
715.63%63,3491,676+5.3 pp
816.51%72,9382,362+6.2 pp
915.22%81,6112,004+4.9 pp
1016.95%89,9961,911+6.6 pp
1118.35%101,8761,880+8.0 pp
1218.12%113,6281,258+7.8 pp
1319.73%117,4501,546+9.4 pp
1420.97%123,022124+10.7 pp

No single year stands out as the point where this model starts costing more: the year-to-year steps in its failure rate are too small or rest on too few tests to name one (D1 rule: a step is named only with at least 2,000 tests on both sides and a jump above 3 percentage points).

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 A7 rust problems: where they corrode

Age-standardised corrosion susceptibility is well below the reference at <0.1×, against 1.00× for the national age-standardised rate.

above 1.0× = rusts more than averagebelow 1.0× = rusts less

How it rusts
<0.1×
0.03% of tests record a corrosion defect vs 0.77% typical — age-standardised
Salt Belt exposure
50th
percentile among the models published here, from its tests across 52 postcode areas

This Audi A7 virtually never fails on corrosion once age is held constant, and its owners live in areas that are about typical for the models we publish.

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 A7 advisory become a failure?

Tyres are highest at 9.6%; Non-component advisories are lowest at 0.0% — the gap is 9.6 percentage points.

higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability

chance the same component fails at the next MOT, given an advisory now

Audi A7 chance the same component fails at the next MOT, given an advisory now — 2024 UK MOT data
Audi A7, advisory → failure conversion by component group, chained tests 2019–2024. Chart labels and rates: Tyres 9.6% · Suspension 6.1% · Brakes 3.7% · Noise, emissions, leaks 1.6% · Identification of the veh… 1.5% · Non-component 0%.
Advisory today → failure at the next test, with how long you have
ComponentFails next timeTypical lead timeMiles of warningAdvisories tracked
Tyres9.6%12 months7,83815,221
Suspension6.1%12 months7,7604,741
Brakes3.7%12 months7,8167,341
Noise, emissions and leaks1.6%12.1 months6,070920
Identification of the vehicle1.5%11.9 months13,841678
Non-component advisories0.0%——3,948

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 10 in 100 cars, and the median gap is 12 months and roughly 7,838 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 A7?

Visibility after a failure at age 12-14 is highest at 12.8%; Brakes after a passed at age <3 are lowest at 1.2% — the gap is 11.5 percentage points.

higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability

Probability of each component failing at the next test, by age and last result
AgeLast testMost likely next failuresCars tracked
<3passedTyres 6.3% · Visibility 3.5% · Brakes 1.2%4,111
<3advisoryTyres 8.9% · Visibility 3.9% · Brakes 1.5%1,119
<3failureTyres 10.4% · Visibility 4.5% · Brakes 2.0%692
3-5passedTyres 6.7% · Visibility 3.4% · Brakes 1.4%17,252
3-5advisoryTyres 8.3% · Visibility 4.5% · Brakes 1.9%6,175
3-5failureTyres 10.9% · Visibility 4.8% · Brakes 2.5%3,594
6-8passedTyres 6.5% · Visibility 3.6% · Suspension 2.5%15,559
6-8advisoryTyres 9.1% · Visibility 6.0% · Suspension 3.5%7,507
6-8failureTyres 11.1% · Visibility 6.0% · Suspension 4.0%4,374
9-11passedTyres 6.1% · Visibility 5.0% · Suspension 4.8%6,478
9-11advisoryTyres 8.1% · Visibility 7.0% · Suspension 6.7%3,868
9-11failureTyres 10.1% · Suspension 8.8% · Visibility 7.4%2,416
12-14passedSuspension 7.1% · Visibility 6.9% · Tyres 4.7%365 (rough estimate)
12-14advisorySuspension 7.8% · Tyres 5.6% · Visibility 5.6%268 (rough estimate)
12-14failureVisibility 12.8% · Suspension 10.1% · Tyres 9.6%188 (rough estimate)

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 A7 ownership: what six years of MOTs show

The ten-day re-test pass rate is highest at 63.9%; The later re-test pass rate is lowest at 2.8% — the gap is 61.0 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fixed same day
33.3%
of failures re-tested
Fails /10k miles
0.185
miles actually driven
Clean streaks
52.54%
3+ tests, nothing noted
Odometer anomaly
0.974%
reading went backwards

Failing is usually a same-week event, not a disaster. Of 11,245 failures followed through to their re-test, 33.3% were repaired and passed the same day and 63.87% within ten days; the median gap is 1 day. 19,889 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 0.185 failures per 10,000 miles, on a median of 7,311 miles a year across 17,759 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. 52.54% of these cars strung together three or more tests with nothing recorded at all, while 15.2% 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: 0.974% of 17,769 chains show a reading lower than the previous test, with a median drop of 35,510 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.

Audi A7 safety recalls and how to check yours

DVSA recall campaigns stand out at 14.

bigger number = more recorded casescompare like-for-like scope, not sample size alone

recall campaigns launched per year

Audi A7 recall campaigns launched per year — 2024 UK MOT data
Campaigns launched per year for the Audi A7. Source: DVSA vehicle safety recalls. Chart values: 2014: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2016: 0 · 2017: 1 · 2018: 0 · 2019: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2021: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2024: 0 · 2025: 1.
Most recent safety recall campaigns for the Audi A7
ReferenceLaunchedVehiclesConcern
R/2025/46324/10/202572Software update for battery control unit
R/2023/31727/10/20235On certain vehicles an incorrect bracket for the side airbag was fitted in the left front
R/2023/02720/01/20235,487The fuel gauge may not show the drop in fuel level correctly during vehicle operation
R/2022/16910/06/2022109ENGINE CONTROL UNITS MIGHT BE FITTED WITH SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS THAT DO NOT MEET SPECIF
R/2022/13204/05/20224,690THE MESH SIZE OF THE OIL STRAINER IN THE OIL SUPPLY FOR BOTH TURBOCHARGERS IS TOO SMALL
All 14 campaigns
ReferenceLaunchedBuild datesVehiclesConcern
R/2025/46324/10/202520/12/2021 – 10/06/202472Software update for battery control unit
R/2023/31727/10/202304/07/2023 – 05/07/20235On certain vehicles an incorrect bracket for the side airbag was fitted in the left front
R/2023/02720/01/202307/04/2018 – 06/10/20215,487The fuel gauge may not show the drop in fuel level correctly during vehicle operation
R/2022/16910/06/202223/01/2022 – 09/02/2022109ENGINE CONTROL UNITS MIGHT BE FITTED WITH SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS THAT DO NOT MEET SPECIF
R/2022/13204/05/202210/05/2012 – 30/03/20174,690THE MESH SIZE OF THE OIL STRAINER IN THE OIL SUPPLY FOR BOTH TURBOCHARGERS IS TOO SMALL
R/2021/20407/06/202102/12/2015 – 17/12/2018263VEHICLES MAY HAVE BEEN FITTED WITH A HINGED TOWING BRACKET ON WHICH THE LOCKING MECHANISM
R/2021/11726/03/202107/02/2018 – 14/12/20201,298THE FRONT PASSENGER AIRBAG MIGHT NOT INFLATE FULLY IN THE EVENT OF AN ACCIDENT
R/2020/13830/06/202001/06/2017 – 31/03/202034,982MOISTURE MAY ENTER THE BELT-DRIVEN STARTER-ALTERNATOR
R/2019/17503/06/201902/12/2015 – 17/12/2018135THE LOCKING MECHANISM IN THE HINGED TOWING BRACKET COULD BE FAULTY
R/2019/09918/03/201918/02/2014 – 02/09/20162,763FUEL MAY ESCAPE FROM ONE OR BOTH FUEL RAILS
R/2019/06022/02/201908/07/2014 – 31/10/20144,907THE AUXILIARY HEATER ELEMENT IN THE AIR CONDITIONER MAY FAIL
R/2017/07820/02/201701/05/2016 – 31/10/20162,622AIRBAG/BELT TENSIONERS MAY NOT TRIGGER IN EVENT OF AN ACCIDENT
R/2015/03120/04/201501/04/2011 – 30/04/20121,073FUEL MAY LEAK
R/2014/09801/10/201401/01/2012 – 27/08/20145,755REDUCTION IN BRAKING PERFORMANCE

DVSA lists 14 safety recall campaigns for the Audi A7, covering roughly 64,161 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 A7 technical service bulletins: what dealers are told

US market, Audi A7 and its variants, model years 2015–2021 only. A count of bulletins, not a UK failure rate.

NHTSA manufacturer communications are 2,868.

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

US technical service bulletins by communication year; leading subjects cover the full file
Communication yearBulletinsLeading subjects across all years
20123
  • Electrical system (963)
  • Equipment (905)
  • Other / uncategorised (218)
  • Engine and cooling (190)
  • Engine (137)
  • Structure (137)
  • Powertrain (117)
  • Adaptive and mobility equipment (110)
201351
2014191
2015175
2016167
2017143
201880
2019295
2020285
2021257
2022200
2023287
2024409
2025212
2026113

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 2026-09-25.

Audi A7 owner complaints: what goes wrong

US market, Audi A7 and its variants, model years 2015–2021 only. A count of owner complaints, not a UK failure rate; NHTSA has no UK denominator.

Lamps & electrical are highest at 30; Brakes are lowest at 5 — the gap is 25.

bigger number = more recorded casescompare like-for-like scope, not sample size alone

Owner complaints (US) against actual MOT failures (UK) for the same component groups
ComponentComplaintsShareMOT fail items per 100MOT rankAgreement
Lamps & electrical3040.5%2.6#5complained about, fails occasionally
Engine (not MOT-tested)1925.7%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Transmission (not MOT-tested)912.2%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Restraints810.8%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Steering68.1%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Brakes56.8%2.6#4complained 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
TAKATA RECALL I'M EXPERIENCING A VERY ANNOYING SQUEAKING NOISE EVERY TIME I TURN MY WHEEL LEFT OR RIGHT. THE NOISES ARE COMING FROM MY STEERING COLUMN AND I THINK THIS SHOULD REALLY BE A RECALL TO HAVE REPLACED AS MY VEHICLE ONLY HAS 40,000 ON IT.
NHTSA complaint, filed 06/18/2019 · STEERING
BRAKE ROTORS WARP EASILY CAUSING VIBRATION. THE DEALER TELLS ME THEY ARE AWARE OF THIS. THEY AGREED TO PAY HALF OF THE $1200 COST TO REPAIR THEM. AUDI FORUMS HAVE NUMEROUS POSTS ON THIS YET AUDI DOESN'T TAKE 100% RESPONSIBILITY FOR REPAIRS. MY CAR HAD ONLY 19000 MILES WHEN I PURCHASED IT SO IT OCCURRED SOMETIME BEFORE THAT. ACCORDING TO THE FORUMS WARPING HAS OCCURRED AS EARLY AS 12000 MILES.
NHTSA complaint, filed 03/28/2018 · SERVICE BRAKES

US owners have filed 74 complaints about the equivalent Audi A7 to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, including 1 that mention a crash, 0 a fire and 4 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 A7 inspection results in other countries

Netherlands APK is well below the reference at 35.8%, against 50.8% nationally.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Same model, different national inspection regimes
CountryTestThis model failsNational averagePositionSample
United KingdomMOT (class 4)15.72%26.01%-10.3 pp17,065
NetherlandsAPK35.8%50.8%-15 pp1,539
FinlandKatsastus13.7%26.3%-12.6 pp1,051

The verdict is consistent across every regime where the difference is clear, which is the strongest form this comparison takes: independent inspectorates, different rulebooks, same direction of travel.

The exact faults Netherlands records — APK defect codes, 2024
CodeFaultRecordedType
210Tyre pressure not at the correct value276failure
205Tyre with insufficient tread207failure
AC1Tyre down to 1.6–2.5 mm of tread133advisory
516Dipped headlight incorrectly aimed115failure
RA2Excessive leak of other fluids42advisory
AC5Mechanical brake parts showing wear42advisory
203Tyre damaged39failure
115Exhaust not gas-tight or venting unsafely26failure

Worth dwelling on how mundane the top of that list is: tyre pressure, tread depth, headlight aim. The Dutch APK records 0.728 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 A7 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: RDW open data — Meldingen Keuringsinstantie + Geconstateerde Gebreken + Gekentekende voertuigen (2024), CC0. Not an RDW endorsement.; Traficom — Periodic inspections of cars by model / by model and fault object 2024, CC BY 4.0. Adapted; licences and full notice.

Audi A7 MOT: quick answers

Audi A7 MOT Risk Index is well below the reference at 61.5, 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 A7 first-time MOT pass rate?
84.28% of first attempts passed in 2024 (17,065 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 15.72% figure is the first-time initial failure rate, using 17,065 primary tests as the denominator (first-time, excluding retests). The age-adjusted MOT initial-failure ratio 61.5 is shown separately because raw rates compare fleet age as well as cars.

Compare the Audi A7 with other cars

Volkswagen T-Roc is highest at 62.4; Lexus CT is lowest at 60.8 — the gap is 1.6 points.

below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age

Same brand

All Audi MOT statisticsAudi Q2 MOT statsAudi Q7 MOT stats

Similar risk

Lexus CT (index 60.8)Audi Q2 (index 62.4)Volkswagen T-Roc (index 62.4)

Same size class

how BMW X4 compareshow Toyota Estima compareshow Jaguar I-Pace compares

By build year

Audi A7 2010Audi A7 2011Audi A7 2012Audi A7 2013Audi A7 2014Audi A7 2015Audi A7 2016Audi A7 2017Audi A7 2018Audi A7 2019Audi A7 2020

By area

Audi A7 MOT failure rate by postcode area

By failure group

Audi A7 body, chassis and structure failuresAudi A7 brakes failuresAudi A7 vehicle identification failuresAudi A7 lamps, reflectors and electrics failuresAudi A7 noise, emissions and leaks failuresAudi A7 road wheels failuresAudi A7 seat belts and airbags failuresAudi A7 steering failuresAudi A7 suspension failuresAudi A7 tyres failuresAudi A7 visibility failures

Inspections abroad

Audi A7 in FinlandAudi A7 in the Netherlands


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-v2, frozen baseline; headline claim_id=family-stats:audi-a7:dvsa-2024-v2. Full method: methodology.

Cite: MOT Risk Index (2026). Audi A7 MOT statistics 2024 (data release dvsa-2024-v2; downloadable dataset motriskindex-families-2024-v5, doi:10.5281/zenodo.22975051). https://motriskindex.co.uk/cars/audi-a7/ · Published 2026-07-30.