MOT Risk Index.co.uk

Citroen C4 — MOT statistics 2024

The Citroen C4 failed 40.66% of 132,717 first MOT attempts in 2024 ("first-time", excluding retests). Adjusted for the age of the fleet, its initial-failure ratio is 133.4 (100 = expected for its age profile). This car fails its MOT about 33% more often than expected for its age.

MOT risk index 133.4, 95% CI 132.6–134.3 (100 = national average) 100 133.4 0 200
Index
133.4
100 = age-normal
Raw fail rate
40.66%
n = 132,717
Dangerous /100
15
national ≈11
Diesel − petrol
+5.4 pp
fail-rate gap
Rank
710 of 761
lower index = better

Age-adjusted peer: Renault Clio (index 136.1) — the two published results are 2.7 index points apart.

Citroen C4 common problems: what actually fails the MOT

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment stand out at 30.6 per 100 tests, against 15.5 per 100 tests across UK vehicles of the same ages.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

Citroen C4 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
Lamps & electrical30.6284,64515.51.97×1.96–1.98
Suspension14.3133,06614.11.02×1.01–1.02
Brakes13.5125,87610.51.29×1.29–1.30
Tyres11.3105,2439.01.25×1.25–1.26
Body & structure9.790,2414.42.19×2.18–2.21
Visibility9.285,7217.51.23×1.23–1.25
Named defects — items per 100 initial tests, this family vs UK national average; this model measured on 929,147 tests, 2019-2024, national column 2024
What failedper 100 tests (this family)per 100 tests (UK average)ratio family / UKWhat to check
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 sources7.202.832.55×Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure
Transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot…A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc5.271.563.38×Ask the seller about: A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot missing or
Stop lamp missing, inoperative or in the case of…Stop lamp missing, inoperative or in the case of a multiple light source more than 1/2 not functioning3.441.502.29×Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure
Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the…Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements5.503.591.53×Check tyre tread depth across the full width
Brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mma brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm3.882.151.80×Feel for brake judder and pulling on the test drive
Lamp missing, inoperative or in the case of a…A lamp missing, inoperative or in the case of a multiple light source more than 1/2 not functioning3.572.091.71×Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure
Aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down…The aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down in the requirements3.732.571.45×Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure
Spring or spring component fractured or seriously…A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened3.722.861.30×Ask the seller about: A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened
Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the…Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the windscreen2.622.221.18×Check wipers, washers and windscreen chips in the driver's view
Suspension pin, bush or joint excessively wornA suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn5.044.871.04×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.

Citroen C4 MOT advisories: what gets flagged

Tyres are highest at 46.9 per 100 tests; Body & structure are lowest at 3.8 per 100 tests — the gap is 43.1 per 100 tests.

higher bar = flagged more oftenadvisory items per 100 initial tests

Citroen C4 MOT advisories: what gets flagged — 2024 UK MOT data
Advisory rates table
GroupAdvisories per 100
Tyres46.9
Brakes40.4
Suspension19.7
Non-component advisories13.3
Emissions & leaks5.4
Body & structure3.8

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

Tyres, brakes and suspension: Citroen C4 against cars of the same age

AgePartCitroen C4Same age, petrol and dieselDifference
3 yearsTyres5.124.170.95
3 yearsBrakes3.311.771.54
3 yearsSuspension1.130.630.50
4 yearsTyres5.974.541.43
4 yearsBrakes4.182.431.75
4 yearsSuspension1.091.21-0.12
5 yearsTyres6.755.061.69
5 yearsBrakes4.833.091.74
5 yearsSuspension1.82.19-0.39
6 yearsTyres7.135.541.59
6 yearsBrakes5.343.811.53
6 yearsSuspension3.423.72-0.30
7 yearsTyres7.475.951.52
7 yearsBrakes5.874.551.32
7 yearsSuspension5.955.680.27
8 yearsTyres7.966.311.65
8 yearsBrakes6.745.381.36
8 yearsSuspension9.147.781.36

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 failed42.6%73,163
It passed32.4%446,970

A failed test raises next year's chance of failing again by 10.2 percentage points. The failure most likely to come back is lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment — 41.0% 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 927,474 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 only129.1fails more often than expected
Age and annual mileage125.4fails more often than vehicles driven as much
Share doing under 3,000 miles a year2.6%a normal spread of use

Mileage changes little here (-3.7 points): this fleet is driven about as much as the vehicles it is compared with. 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 Citroen C4 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.

AgeCitroen C4Same class, same ageDifferenceTests
3 years17.27%11.26%+6 pp33,582
4 years21.4%14.17%+7.23 pp56,923
5 years24.38%17.33%+7.05 pp77,824
6 years27.84%20.66%+7.18 pp86,173
7 years31.21%24.23%+6.99 pp92,521
8 years35.28%28.04%+7.24 pp99,664
9 years39.62%31.92%+7.71 pp90,445
10 years43.7%35.5%+8.21 pp71,649
11 years47.46%38.54%+8.92 pp69,042
12 years49.13%41.14%+7.99 pp71,106
13 years50.21%43.2%+7.01 pp60,989
14 years51.61%44.96%+6.65 pp49,251
15 years51.61%46.26%+5.34 pp33,123
16 years52.39%47.31%+5.08 pp20,845
17 years50.65%47.78%+2.87 pp9,955
18 years50.3%47.99%+2.31 pp3,199
19 years47.47%47.74%-0.27 pp967

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 Citroen C4 perform as it gets older?

The C4 at age 10 stands out at 42.1%, against 30.1% for all vehicles of the same age.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

How does the Citroen C4 perform as it gets older? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · failure-rate scale 0–57%.

Takeaway: a 10-year-old C4 has roughly a 42% chance of failing its MOT; from about age 3 it stays above the national age curve.

Data table
AgeCitroen C4All vehiclesGap
319.1%12.4%+6.7 pp
419.9%13.1%+6.7 pp
521.3%15.1%+6.2 pp
623.5%17.5%+6.0 pp
726.7%20.2%+6.5 pp
834.4%23.3%+11.1 pp
937.7%26.5%+11.2 pp
1042.1%30.1%+12.0 pp
1144.8%33.2%+11.6 pp
1244.6%35.7%+8.9 pp
1345.2%38.2%+7.1 pp
1452.1%40.4%+11.7 pp
1551.8%41.6%+10.2 pp
1653.1%43.1%+10.0 pp
1750.8%43.1%+7.6 pp
1851.3%43.9%+7.4 pp
1946.8%43.5%+3.3 pp

Is a Citroen C4 ULEZ compliant?

The share of classifiable 2024 Citroen C4 MOT tests likely ULEZ compliant by first-registration date is 42.6%.

Based on 132,474 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 = 199
3–5 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 9,068
6–7 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 3,741
8 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 17,443
9 years49.6%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 27,550
10–14 years8.3%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 54,135
15–17 years37.6%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 17,590
18 years67.3%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 1,794
19 years0.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 917
20+ yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 37

Citroen C4 petrol vs diesel: which ages best

Diesel is highest at 41.9%; Petrol is lowest at 36.5% — the gap is 5.4 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Citroen C4 petrol vs diesel: which ages best — 2024 UK MOT data
Fuel split table
FuelTests% failingGap vs best
Diesel102,22641.9%+5.4 pp
Petrol30,47736.5%+0.0 pp

Chart sample sizes: n=102k · n=30k.

How dangerous are Citroen C4 MOT failures?

Major defects stand out at 65.3 per 100 tests, against 52.8 per 100 tests nationally.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

How dangerous are Citroen C4 MOT failures? — 2024 UK MOT data
Severity table
SeverityThis family /100National /100Family / national
Minor16.9814.221.19×
Major65.2852.751.24×
Dangerous15.3411.151.38×

Chart values: Minor 17.0 · Major 65.3 · Dangerous 15.3.

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

Does the month of a Citroen C4 MOT matter?

Oct is highest at 39.4%; Mar is lowest at 35.4% — the gap is 4.0 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Does the month of a Citroen C4 MOT matter? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart scale: 27%–41%.

bars: Citroen C4 · dashed: all class-4 cars

Month-by-month table
MonthCitroen C4All vehiclesGap
Jan38.45%31.12%+7.3 pp
Feb37.49%29.99%+7.5 pp
Mar35.37%28.26%+7.1 pp
Apr38.09%29.78%+8.3 pp
May37.01%28.79%+8.2 pp
Jun36.66%28.15%+8.5 pp
Jul38.07%29.33%+8.7 pp
Aug38.4%29.2%+9.2 pp
Sep37.47%28.19%+9.3 pp
Oct39.37%30.34%+9.0 pp
Nov39.33%30.58%+8.8 pp
Dec38.28%29.33%+9.0 pp

Takeaway: the spread between best and worst month is 4.0 percentage points — noticeable seasonality. 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.

Citroen C4 average mileage by age

At age 8, the middle half of C4s runs from 49,790 miles to 83,127 miles, against 65,238 miles as the median.

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

Bars: Citroen C4 · dashed: all class-4 cars — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · odometer scale 0–133k mi.

Does high mileage mean more Citroen C4 MOT failures at the same age?

Within the same age group, split by odometer (2024 MOTs), so this separates wear from age: at ages 10–14, 25.7% of those with under 40,000 miles failed first time versus 49% of those with over 140,000 miles.Inside this age group, higher mileage goes with more failures.

Does high mileage mean more Citroen C4 MOT failures at the same age? — 2024 UK MOT data
Citroen C4: first-time failure by mileage within each age group (2024)
AgeOdometer% failing95% intervalTests
3–5<40k miles17.2%16.3–18.2%6,279
3–540-70k miles26.9%25.2–28.6%2,504
3–570-100k miles31%25.3–37.3%226 (rough estimate)
6–9<40k miles22%20.9–23.1%5,736
6–940-70k miles32.9%32.3–33.6%19,712
6–970-100k miles40.9%40.1–41.6%16,025
6–9100-140k miles43.3%42–44.6%5,760
6–9140k+ miles33.7%31.3–36.2%1,454
10–14<40k miles25.7%23.8–27.6%2,046
10–1440-70k miles38%37.2–38.9%11,978
10–1470-100k miles45.7%45–46.4%20,714
10–14100-140k miles49.6%48.8–50.4%15,541
10–14140k+ miles49%47.4–50.6%3,758
15+<40k miles31.6%27.6–36%465 (rough estimate)
15+40-70k miles43.8%42–45.7%2,785
15+70-100k miles51.7%50.4–52.9%6,499
15+100-140k miles54.8%53.7–55.9%7,836
15+140k+ miles54.5%52.6–56.3%2,697

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

Mileage by age (p25 / median / p75)
Agep25Medianp75Tests
315,52223,22433,3224,138
418,29324,85735,877136
527,12138,03849,8994,794
633,71245,89360,0562,755
739,88962,503103,522986
849,79065,23883,12717,443
956,98573,01591,37427,551
1064,12481,747101,29620,586
1167,02185,839105,85212,111
1272,92792,910114,4018,396
1379,31699,904121,3356,980
1482,259101,820121,5166,063
1580,867101,069123,1935,066
1683,757104,825126,2537,062
1780,334102,252126,6555,465
1869,22290,738116,4001,796
1966,72389,308117,663917

A typical 8-year-old C4 has ~65,238 miles on the clock. Much more — ask why; much less — check for gaps in the MOT history.

Where in Britain the Citroen C4 fails its MOT most

Dundee area is highest at 49.9%; London E area is lowest at 28.3% — the gap is 21.6 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Where in Britain the Citroen C4 fails its MOT most — 2024 UK MOT data
Toughest areas% failingvs model overall
Dundee (DD)49.88%+12.1 pp
Kirkcaldy (KY)49.37%+11.5 pp
Aberdeen (AB)47.17%+9.4 pp
Cleveland (TS)44.12%+6.3 pp
Llandrindod Wells (LD)43.55%+5.7 pp
Easiest areas% failingvs model overall
London E (E)28.29%-9.5 pp
Southend-on-Sea (SS)29.66%-8.2 pp
Harrow (HA)29.87%-7.9 pp
London SW (SW)29.97%-7.9 pp
Croydon (CR)30.1%-7.7 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 mot centre density this model fails 8.9 pp more often than in the lowest fifth (r=0.66, n=114 areas with ≥800 tests).

In areas with the highest urban share this model fails 7.4 pp less often than in the lowest fifth (r=-0.52, n=114 areas with ≥800 tests).

In areas with the highest road-salt proxy this model fails 5.8 pp more often than in the lowest fifth (r=0.46, n=114 areas with ≥800 tests).

Citroen C4 Why do areas differ? — 2024 UK MOT data
Values shown in the quintile chart
FactorLow QHigh QGapCorrelation
MOT centre density32.1%41.0%+8.9 ppr=0.66
Urban share40.0%32.6%-7.4 ppr=-0.52
Road-salt proxy34.7%40.5%+5.8 ppr=0.46

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
MOT centre density (per 10k vehicles)0.65811432.141.0+8.958.7
Urban share (0–1)-0.51911440.032.6-7.40.41
Road-salt proxy (g/m²-yr)0.45911434.740.5+5.8221.2675.1
Frost days (days/year)0.45811436.140.6+4.411.638.1
Distance to coast (km)-0.26611440.637.2-3.46.279.5
Terrain gradient (% grade)0.2166737.640.3+2.70.53.7
Income deprivation (score)0.0639736.337.1+0.80.10.2

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: 30%–43% failing.

Citroen C4 survival: which cars are still on the road

By age 19 is well below the reference at 1.3%, against 100.0% at the ages 4–6 reference level.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Citroen C4 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 %
333,58245.6%17.27%
456,92377.3%21.4%
577,824100%24.38%
686,173100%27.84%
792,521100%31.21%
899,664100%35.28%
990,445100%39.62%
1071,64997.3%43.7%
1169,04293.8%47.46%
1271,10696.6%49.13%
1360,98982.8%50.21%
1449,25166.9%51.61%
1533,12345%51.61%
1620,84528.3%52.39%
179,95513.5%50.65%
183,1994.3%50.3%
199671.3%47.47%

By age 19, only about 1% as many cars of this family present for MOT as at ages 4–6 (reference n≈73,640); survivors still fail at 47.5% vs 21.4% at age 4. Older cars that still appear are a selected subset — weaker ones have already left.

How many miles does a Citroen C4 last?

100,000+ miles is highest at 22.0%; 200,000+ miles is lowest at 0.4% — the gap is 21.6 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

OdometerTests ≥ thresholdShare of sample
100,000+ miles204,15022.01%
150,000+ miles27,3072.94%
200,000+ miles3,4640.37%

Of 927,708 tests of this family with a usable odometer in 2024, 22.0% had reached 100k miles, 2.9% had reached 150k miles, 0.4% had reached 200k miles. This is a cross-section of cars still presenting for MOT, not a full birth cohort.

How many years is a Citroen C4 likely to last?

Bought at age 5 is highest at 9.8 years; Bought at age 15 is lowest at 1.6 years — the gap is 8.2 years.

bigger number = longer remaining lifeyears on the observed survival curve

Age nowTypical mileage (p50)Expected years left
5—9.8
8—6.8
10—4.9
12—3
15—at least 1.6

estimateEstimate only — not a warranty: a typical 10-year-old example of this family has about 4.9 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.

Citroen C4 faults that come together

Road Wheels + Seatbelts & SRS stand out at 5.10×, against 1.00× if the faults were independent.

above 1.0× = more than expectedbelow 1.0× = less

Group AGroup BTogetherLift
Road WheelsSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems1415.1× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems964.62× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleNoise, emissions and leaks2624.31× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems1,0984.22×
Identification of the vehicleRoad Wheels264.03× (rough estimate)
SteeringSuspension10,2273.47×
Noise, emissions and leaksRoad Wheels2763.42× (rough estimate)
BrakesIdentification of the vehicle5903.35×
BrakesNoise, emissions and leaks7,3543.34×
Identification of the vehicleSteering2163.33× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment1,2843.27×
Identification of the vehicleSuspension6953.16×
Road WheelsSteering2713.14× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleVisibility5053.1×
Body, chassis, structureNoise, emissions and leaks6,6443.09×
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsSteering8543.07×
BrakesSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems2,2963.05×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentRoad Wheels1,5863.04×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentNoise, emissions and leaks14,7753.01×
Road WheelsTyres6813.01×
Identification of the vehicleTyres5133.01×
BrakesRoad Wheels6952.97×
Noise, emissions and leaksSteering2,4022.96×
Body, chassis, structureIdentification of the vehicle5072.95×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems4,9372.94×
BrakesSteering6,8822.93×
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsSuspension2,7662.93×
Road WheelsSuspension8532.91×
Road WheelsVisibility6282.9×
Body, chassis, structureSteering6,5282.84×
Noise, emissions and leaksSuspension7,7452.81×
BrakesSuspension21,8832.74×
Noise, emissions and leaksVisibility5,5512.73×
Body, chassis, structureSuspension21,0022.69×
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsVisibility1,8772.69×
Body, chassis, structureRoad Wheels6152.69×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSteering13,8542.64×
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsTyres1,9202.64×
BrakesTyres16,2222.63×
BrakesLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment36,6752.58×
Body, chassis, structureSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems1,8812.56×
Body, chassis, structureBrakes15,8542.55×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSuspension44,2202.49×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentVisibility32,2792.45×
Noise, emissions and leaksTyres5,1612.42×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentTyres32,7562.38×
Body, chassis, structureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment32,5422.34×
BrakesVisibility13,7902.34×
TyresVisibility13,0852.29×
SteeringTyres5,0922.24×
SuspensionTyres16,6212.15×
Body, chassis, structureVisibility12,0872.1×
SuspensionVisibility15,1592.05×
Body, chassis, structureTyres12,0982.01×
SteeringVisibility4,2071.93×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSeat belt installation check19too few (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSpeedometer and speed limiter14too few (rough estimate)
Buses and coaches supplementary testsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment10too few (rough estimate)
BrakesSeat belt installation check10too few (rough estimate)
Seat belt installation checkSuspension10too few (rough estimate)
Seat belt installation checkTyres8too few (rough estimate)
Seat belt installation checkVisibility7too few (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureSeat belt installation check7too few (rough estimate)
Speedometer and speed limiterSuspension7too few (rough estimate)
BrakesSpeedometer and speed limiter6too few (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksSpeedometer and speed limiter5too few (rough estimate)
Buses and coaches supplementary testsVisibility5too few (rough estimate)

Defects in «Noise, emissions and leaks» and «Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems» appear together 4.22× more often than chance (1,098 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 a Citroen C4?

Cars driven under 5,000 miles a year is well below the reference at 26.9%, against 42.4% for cars driven 8,000–12,000 miles a year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

BandFail %Tests
<5k miles/year26.91%90,586
8–12k miles/year42.38%297,573
Gap (low − normal)-15.47 pp—
By fuel and age

Diesel

AgeLow-use fail %nNormal fail %nGap pp
513.296,28325.9124,134-12.62 pp
617.127,00330.5228,854-13.4 pp
719.927,49534.5531,663-14.63 pp
823.757,94239.0435,250-15.29 pp
926.627,22743.533,806-16.88 pp
1030.085,78447.4727,601-17.39 pp
1134.934,72750.5924,977-15.66 pp
1236.44,2015223,628-15.61 pp
1338.533,62653.2317,487-14.71 pp
1441.223,11055.0711,599-13.84 pp

Petrol

AgeLow-use fail %nNormal fail %nGap pp
516.473,39527.874,445-11.41 pp
618.043,12730.733,723-12.69 pp
718.943,27434.63,769-15.66 pp
821.43,37439.93,910-18.5 pp
922.162,54544.042,725-21.88 pp
1026.331,88450.151,960-23.83 pp
1132.272,51954.354,009-22.08 pp
1236.323,54956.115,432-19.79 pp
13394,47256.574,838-17.57 pp
1441.085,04457.463,733-16.38 pp

At matched ages 5–14, cars averaging under 5k miles/year fail at 26.9% vs 42.4% for 8–12k miles/year — 15.5 pp lower (n_low=90,586, n_normal=297,573). 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: 26.0% low-use vs 41.0% normal (-15.0 pp).

Which Citroen C4 engine is best?

diesel 1.5–1.8 is highest at 101.1; diesel 1.2–1.5 is lowest at 92.9 — the gap is 8.2 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
diesel1.2–1.5 litre92.920.16%8,314
petrol1.8–2.0 litre95.147.83%10,059
petrol1.0–1.2 litre95.525.43%77,822
petrol1.2–1.5 litre97.147.62%12,723
petrol1.5–1.8 litre97.646.52%106,409
diesel1.8–2.0 litre100.241.67%75,133
diesel1.5–1.8 litre101.137.29%638,088

Splitting this model by fuel alone hides the thing that actually differs. Within the same badge, the diesel 1.5–1.8 runs at 101.1 against this model's own age norm while the diesel 1.2–1.5 runs at 92.9 — a spread of 8.2 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 a Citroen C4, and the years to avoid

Build year 2004 is highest at 110.3; Build year 2017 is lowest at 86.2 — the gap is 24.1 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

Citroen C4 build year vs the same model at the same age · 100 = as expected — 2024 UK MOT data
Citroen C4 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
202098.171.2–125.118.35%278no different
20199086.6–93.418.29%14,545better
201886.382.7–9019.1%11,084better
201786.281.1–91.420.36%5,323better
2016100.299.1–101.425.87%109,656no different
201598.697.8–99.529.22%171,698better
201498.797.8–99.732.86%129,227better
2013102.8101.7–10438.09%78,352worse
201297.696.3–98.939.54%56,354better
201194.793.4–9641.35%50,421better
2010106.8105.5–108.249.59%49,455worse
2009102.8101.5–104.149.99%48,969worse
2008102.2101.2–103.251.52%82,482worse
200798.297.2–99.250.47%72,595better
200698.997.3–100.651.5%25,913no different
2005100.198–102.252.55%16,154no different
2004110.398.5–122.157.96%578no different

The best build year here is 2017 and the weakest is 2010. 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 — 12 of 17 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.

Citroen C4 MOT repair costs

The MOT-failure repair budget per test runs from £99.00 to £188.10, against £54.85 for the test itself.

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

MOT repairs, budget
£99–188
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
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment30.6 (nat. 18.09)Battery replacement (standard 12V lead-acid)£140£42.84
Suspension14.3 (nat. 15.36)Suspension coil spring (single corner)£180£25.74
Brakes13.5 (nat. 11.25)Front brake pads (parts + labour, typical hatchback)£150£20.25
Tyres11.3 (nat. 8.7)Tyre (single mid-range 16" fitted)£90£10.17

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 £99 to £188, 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.

Citroen C4 running costs for a fleet

Vehicles failing at age 10 stand out at 42.0%, against 21.0% at age 5, tested in the same year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fails per 100 at age 5
21
vehicles needing work
At age 10
42
other cars of this model tested at age 10 in 2024
Repairs per 100
£9,900
plus £5,485 in test fees
Off the road
1d
median; 45.86% cleared same day
Failure rate and typical odometer by age
AgeFailsMedian odometerTestsGap vs age 5
319.12%23,2244,138-2.2 pp
419.85%24,857136-1.5 pp
521.32%38,0384,794+0.0 pp
623.48%45,8932,755+2.2 pp
726.67%62,503986+5.4 pp
834.43%65,23817,443+13.1 pp
937.73%73,01527,551+16.4 pp
1042.07%81,74720,586+20.8 pp
1144.79%85,83912,111+23.5 pp
1244.64%92,9108,396+23.3 pp
1345.23%99,9046,980+23.9 pp
1452.09%101,8206,063+30.8 pp
1551.8%101,0695,066+30.5 pp
1653.13%104,8257,062+31.8 pp
1750.76%102,2525,465+29.4 pp
1851.28%90,7381,796+30.0 pp
1946.78%89,308917+25.5 pp

The number a fleet manager needs is not the failure rate, it is the year the car starts costing more. Between cars aged 13 and cars aged 14, both tested in 2024, the failure rate of this model is 6.86 percentage points higher — the steepest one-year step in this cross-section of different cars, and a 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.

Citroen C4 rust problems: where they corrode

Age-standardised corrosion susceptibility is close to the reference at 1.01×, against 1.00× for the national age-standardised rate.

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

How it rusts
1.01×
0.78% of tests record a corrosion defect vs 0.77% typical — age-standardised
Salt Belt exposure
66th
percentile among the models published here, from its tests across 114 postcode areas

This Citroen C4 fails on corrosion at about the average rate once age is held constant, and its owners live in areas that are saltier than most 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 a Citroen C4 advisory become a failure?

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment are highest at 33.0%; Identification of the vehicle is lowest at 3.6% — the gap is 29.3 percentage points.

higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability

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

Citroen C4 chance the same component fails at the next MOT, given an advisory now — 2024 UK MOT data
Citroen C4, advisory → failure conversion by component group, chained tests 2019–2024. Chart labels and rates: Lamps & electrical 33% · Suspension 20.6% · Steering 17.9% · Body & chassis 14% · Brakes 12.9% · Visibility 11.7% · Tyres 10.7% · Noise, emissions, leaks 8.2%.
Advisory today → failure at the next test, with how long you have
ComponentFails next timeTypical lead timeMiles of warningAdvisories tracked
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment33.0%12 months6,37616,640
Suspension20.6%12 months6,56980,322
Steering17.9%12 months6,14212,729
Body, chassis, structure14.0%12 months5,94822,252
Brakes12.8%12 months6,473170,555
Visibility11.7%12.1 months5,986785
Tyres10.7%12 months6,855202,352
Noise, emissions and leaks8.2%12 months6,13731,595
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems6.2%12 months5,9332,947
Identification of the vehicle3.6%12 months6,64111,100

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 33 in 100 cars, and the median gap is 12 months and roughly 6,376 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 a Citroen C4?

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment after a failure at age 15-19 are highest at 35.7%; Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment after a passed at age <3 are lowest at 4.1% — the gap is 31.6 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
<3passedVisibility 4.4% · Tyres 4.2% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 4.1%13,039
<3advisoryTyres 6.3% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 6.2% · Visibility 5.9%5,932
<3failureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 8.8% · Visibility 6.9% · Tyres 6.8%3,658
3-5passedLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 8.6% · Tyres 5.2% · Visibility 5.2%84,871
3-5advisoryLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 11.8% · Tyres 7.3% · Visibility 6.7%54,926
3-5failureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 15.3% · Tyres 8.7% · Visibility 7.7%43,289
6-8passedLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 13.1% · Suspension 8.4% · Tyres 6.1%90,339
6-8advisoryLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 17.4% · Suspension 10.6% · Tyres 8.3%71,224
6-8failureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 21.7% · Suspension 13.7% · Body, chassis, structure 10.2%80,725
9-11passedLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 18.0% · Suspension 12.1% · Body, chassis, structure 8.6%43,652
9-11advisoryLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 22.6% · Suspension 15.3% · Brakes 10.5%41,974
9-11failureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 28.5% · Suspension 18.3% · Body, chassis, structure 13.5%71,270
12-14passedLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 21.2% · Suspension 13.3% · Body, chassis, structure 10.9%25,499
12-14advisoryLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 26.9% · Suspension 17.0% · Body, chassis, structure 13.1%31,447
12-14failureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 33.8% · Suspension 20.7% · Body, chassis, structure 16.8%55,943
15-19passedLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 22.0% · Suspension 14.4% · Body, chassis, structure 11.1%4,802
15-19advisoryLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 28.0% · Suspension 19.4% · Body, chassis, structure 13.5%7,128
15-19failureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 35.7% · Suspension 22.8% · Body, chassis, structure 16.7%12,155

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.

Citroen C4 ownership: what six years of MOTs show

The ten-day re-test pass rate is highest at 51.7%; The later re-test pass rate is lowest at 2.5% — the gap is 49.2 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fixed same day
45.86%
of failures re-tested
Fails /10k miles
0.531
miles actually driven
Clean streaks
29.31%
3+ tests, nothing noted
Odometer anomaly
1.794%
reading went backwards

Failing is usually a same-week event, not a disaster. Of 251,391 failures followed through to their re-test, 45.86% were repaired and passed the same day and 51.66% within ten days; the median gap is 1 day. 686,578 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 0.531 failures per 10,000 miles, on a median of 6,145 miles a year across 173,280 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. 29.31% of these cars strung together three or more tests with nothing recorded at all, while 37.8% 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: 1.794% of 173,550 chains show a reading lower than the previous test, with a median drop of 41,462 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.

Citroen C4 safety recalls and how to check yours

DVSA recall campaigns stand out at 67.

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

recall campaigns launched per year

Citroen C4 recall campaigns launched per year — 2024 UK MOT data
Campaigns launched per year for the Citroen C4. Source: DVSA vehicle safety recalls. Chart values: 2012: 5 · 2013: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2015: 1 · 2016: 5 · 2017: 4 · 2018: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2021: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2025: 10 · 2026: 1.
Most recent safety recall campaigns for the Citroen C4
ReferenceLaunchedVehiclesConcern
R/2026/07309/03/2026937Alternator protection
R/2025/34618/08/202515Emission recall – On Board Diagnostics
R/2025/30031/07/20256,153Citroen C4 Citroen DS5 Driver Airbag (Takata)
R/2025/28318/07/2025539Citroen Fuel Pipe
R/2025/24703/07/20256,026Citroen DV5R Engines Camshaft Chain.
All 67 campaigns
ReferenceLaunchedBuild datesVehiclesConcern
R/2026/07309/03/202604/10/2023 – 12/01/2026937Alternator protection
R/2025/34618/08/202512/12/2017 – 28/11/202015Emission recall – On Board Diagnostics
R/2025/30031/07/202502/02/2010 – 10/09/20136,153Citroen C4 Citroen DS5 Driver Airbag (Takata)
R/2025/28318/07/202504/10/2023 – 23/04/2025539Citroen Fuel Pipe
R/2025/24703/07/202525/01/2018 – 27/06/20226,026Citroen DV5R Engines Camshaft Chain.
R/2025/14714/04/202529/05/2024 – 05/06/20242Brake Pressure Modulator Valve.
R/2025/12224/03/202503/05/2022 – 15/03/20231,182Traction Battery software
R/2025/09104/03/202527/06/2024 – 09/09/20241Citroen Autonomous Telematics Box failure after OTA update
R/2025/07014/02/202505/03/2024 – 26/06/20242Citroen Automomous Telematics Box.
R/2025/04607/02/202507/07/2023 – 13/02/202429Citroen C4 C4X eVCU update
R/2025/01209/01/202520/07/2022 – 09/10/2023256Citroen C3 C4 C4X Selective Catalytic Reduction diagnosis issues.
R/2024/48606/12/202401/02/2024 – 21/05/2024619Citroen C4 C4X Radio software via OTA update.
R/2024/44701/11/202402/02/2010 – 20/05/201817,614Citroen C4 DriverPassenger Airbag (Takata)
R/2024/13613/03/202404/01/2022 – 24/11/2022150Cross carline Engine software
R/2023/14109/05/202326/05/2020 – 17/11/20226,867On affected vehicles the AC compressor stator wiring could develop a fault leading to curr
R/2023/01017/01/202329/06/2022 – 02/12/20221,254There is an error in the software calibration of the traction battery control unit which c
R/2023/03613/12/202203/04/2017 – 30/07/201813,740On the affected vehicles the operation of the brake vacuum pump may be affected by materia
R/2023/04613/12/202231/01/2017 – 02/04/2017652On the affected vehicles the operation of the brake vacuum pump may be affected by materia
R/2022/23025/07/202217/11/2021 – 17/11/20211THE REAR HUB BEARING LOCATING BOLTS MAY BE INCORRECTLY TIGHTENED
R/2022/20213/07/202225/03/2022 – 29/04/202211THE HIGH VOLTAGE HARNESS FITTED MIGHT NOT BE TO CORRECT SPECIFICATION
R/2021/38128/10/202103/09/2020 – 18/08/2021748BELOW 3 DEGREES TEMPERATURE THERE IS LOSS OF THE FRONT WINDSCREEN WIPER FUNCTION WHEN THE
R/2021/25305/07/202123/10/2020 – 23/04/20211THERE MAY BE AN INCORRECT TIGHTENING TORQUE APPLICATION ON THE REAR WHEEL HUB
R/2021/23823/06/202101/07/2014 – 08/03/20173,101THE OPERATION OF THE BRAKE VACUMN PUMP MAY BE AFFECTED DUE TO MATERIAL DETACHING FROM THE
R/2021/14114/04/202110/02/2021 – 11/02/20217THE WHEEL BOLTS MAY HAVE AN INCOMPLETE THREAD
R/2020/32720/01/202120/03/2013 – 01/04/201721,226THE BRAKE VACUUM PUMP MAY BE AFFECTED BY MATERIAL DETACHING FROM THE TIMING BELT
R/2019/33917/09/202002/09/2009 – 12/04/20171,080FRONT AIR BAG IGNITERS MAY NOT DEPLOY CORRECTLY
R/2019/32926/09/201925/09/2013 – 15/05/20165,290DUE TO THE CALIBRATION OF THE ENGINE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE NOX EMISSIONS MAY NOT COMPLY WITH
R/2019/06827/02/201925/11/2011 – 01/04/20152THE BATTERY CHARGE PROGRAM MAY NOT BE CORRECT TO SPECIFICATION
R/2018/34804/12/201820/03/2008 – 17/11/20119ANCILLARIES BELT TENSIONER MOUNTING MAY NOT BE CORRECT TO SPECIFICATION
R/2018/17817/07/201803/03/2016 – 08/03/2018138Engine could overheat leading to failure
R/2018/04913/02/201817/07/2014 – 30/04/20152,098ENGINE MAY OVERHEAT
R/2017/33915/12/201701/10/2017 – 30/11/201775ENGINE COMPONENT MAY NOT BE TO SPECIFICATION
R/2017/29026/10/201711INGRESS OF WATER AND CORROSION MAY CAUSE THE WIPER MOTOR TO FAIL
R/2017/28926/10/201711CORROSION WITHIN THE TAILGATE STRUT ASSEMBLY COULD CAUSE THE STRUT TO FAIL
R/2017/20806/07/201715/05/2013 – 02/04/20172,014STARTER SUPPLY WIRE MAY CHAFE
R/2016/24101/12/201619/11/2009 – 27/05/201641,893BONNET MAY OPEN UNEXPECTEDLY
R/2016/22917/10/201601/04/2016 – 21/04/2016787LOSS OF CONTROL
R/2016/15914/07/201615/05/2014 – 23/05/20143FUEL MAY LEAK
R/2016/04210/03/201625/01/2016 – 15/02/201617OIL LEAK MAY DAMAGE ENGINE
R/2016/03029/02/201613/07/2015 – 14/07/201530SEATBELT MAY FAIL
R/2015/24308/12/201501/09/2012 – 02/01/20149,483FUEL MAY LEAK
R/2014/02526/02/201407/01/2014 – 15/01/2014279FUEL MAY LEAK AND CREATE FIRE RISK
R/2014/02106/02/201430/11/2011 – 30/11/20112SUDDEN LOSS OF POWER
R/2013/01406/02/201303/10/2012 – 03/10/20123REAR BRAKE CALLIPER MOUNTING BOLTS MAY BE TORQUED INCORRECTLY
R/2012/13407/11/201226/07/2012 – 26/07/20128DIRECTIONAL CONTROL MAY BE LOST
R/2012/06101/05/201206/02/2012 – 08/02/20126SUSPENSION BOLT TORQUE MAY BE INCORRECT
R/2012/04823/04/201213/10/2011 – 15/11/201178VEHICLE MAY CUT OUT
R/2012/02608/03/201222/11/2011 – 22/11/201188SEAT BELT FIXING BOLTS MAY LOOSEN
R/2012/01130/01/201227/10/2011 – 27/10/201115BRAKING PERFORMANCE MAY DECREASE
R/2011/16108/12/201101/10/2011 – 01/10/20112PEDAL BRACKET MAY FAIL
R/2011/16108/12/201103/10/2011 – 03/10/20112PEDAL BRACKET MAY FAIL
R/2011/03905/04/201129/05/2004 – 21/07/200610,844TAILGATE MAY OPERATE INCORRECTLY
R/2011/02925/03/201114/09/2010 – 14/09/20105LOSS OF POWER
R/2011/01822/02/201108/07/2010 – 13/10/201033FUEL MAY LEAK
R/2010/22317/12/201021/12/2006 – 27/03/200920,089BRAKING ASSISTANCE MAY NOT PERFORM CORRECTLY
R/2009/10019/10/200927/03/2009 – 14/04/200956BRAKE PERFORMANCE MAY BE AFFECTED
R/2008/19924/12/200801/02/2008 – 14/06/20086,031WIPERS / LIGHTS/ BATTERY CHARGING MAY BE AFFECTED.
R/2008/05106/05/200831/03/2006 – 03/01/20072,557THE BRAKE PEDAL COULD BECOME STIFF THEREBY REDUCING BRAKING ASSISTANCE
R/2008/01705/02/200801/07/2005 – 30/03/2006520POSSIBILITY OF REDUCED BRAKING PERFORMANCE
R/2007/19117/01/200802/06/2005 – 26/09/200628,049POTENTIAL LOSS OF ABS AND ESP FUNCTIONS
R/2007/19117/01/200807/04/2006 – 26/09/200628,049POTENTIAL LOSS OF ABS AND ESP FUNCTIONS
R/2007/19117/01/200825/05/2004 – 04/04/200628,049POTENTIAL LOSS OF ABS AND ESP FUNCTIONS
R/2006/08103/05/200619/11/2004 – 12/01/200625,083FRONT AIRBAG MAY NOT DEPLOY AS DESIGNED IN A FRONTAL IMPACT
R/2006/03725/02/200601/06/2005 – 30/09/20056,906BRAKE FLUID MAY LEAK
R/2005/18515/12/200509/09/2005 – 26/11/20056,772POSSIBLE LOSS OF BRAKING EFFICIENCY
R/2005/17625/11/200501/01/2004 – 31/12/200512,220SHORT CIRCUIT MAY OCCUR/RISK OF FIRE
R/2005/05725/04/200501/07/2004 – 30/10/20041,286DIESEL FUEL RETURN PIPE MAY LEAK

DVSA lists 67 safety recall campaigns for the Citroen C4, covering roughly 321,106 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.

Citroen C4 inspection results in other countries

Finland Katsastus stands out at 41.7%, against 26.3% nationally.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Same model, different national inspection regimes
CountryTestThis model failsNational averagePositionSample
United KingdomMOT (class 4)40.66%26.01%+14.6 pp132,717
NetherlandsAPK54.8%50.8%+4 pp9,611
FinlandKatsastus41.7%26.3%+15.4 pp7,962
NorwayPKK41.2%33.7%+7.5 pp2,762

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.

What Finland fails it for — share of recorded faults
Fault areaShare
Axles, wheels and suspension38.6%
Brake systems23.9%
Chassis and body12.4%
Steering equipment10.7%
Environmental hazards10.3%

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.

The exact faults Netherlands records — APK defect codes, 2024
CodeFaultRecordedType
210Tyre pressure not at the correct value1,793failure
205Tyre with insufficient tread1,326failure
497Number-plate light not working or missing880failure
AC1Tyre down to 1.6–2.5 mm of tread751advisory
516Dipped headlight incorrectly aimed693failure
RA2Excessive leak of other fluids667advisory
203Tyre damaged499failure
584Sidelight not working properly392failure

Worth dwelling on how mundane the top of that list is: tyre pressure, tread depth, headlight aim. The Dutch APK records 1.339 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 Citroen C4 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; Statens vegvesen — Periodisk kjøretøykontroll (PKK) 2024, CC BY 4.0. Adapted; licences and full notice.

Citroen C4 MOT: quick answers

Citroen C4 MOT Risk Index stands out at 133.4, 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 Citroen C4 first-time MOT pass rate?
59.34% of first attempts passed in 2024 (132,717 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 40.66% figure is the first-time initial failure rate, using 132,717 primary tests as the denominator (first-time, excluding retests). The age-adjusted MOT initial-failure ratio 133.4 is shown separately because raw rates compare fleet age as well as cars.

Compare the Citroen C4 with other cars

Renault Clio is highest at 136.1; Ford Transit Connect is lowest at 127.9 — the gap is 8.2 points.

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

Same brand

All Citroen MOT statisticsCitroen C3 MOT statsCitroen Berlingo MOT stats

Similar risk

Renault Clio (index 136.1)Peugeot 2008 (index 128.5)Ford Transit Connect (index 127.9)

Same size class

how Peugeot 308 compareshow Peugeot 2008 compareshow Audi Q3 compares

By build year

Citroen C4 2004Citroen C4 2005Citroen C4 2006Citroen C4 2007Citroen C4 2008Citroen C4 2009Citroen C4 2010Citroen C4 2011Citroen C4 2012Citroen C4 2013Citroen C4 2014Citroen C4 2015Citroen C4 2016Citroen C4 2017Citroen C4 2018Citroen C4 2019Citroen C4 2020

By area

Citroen C4 MOT failure rate by postcode area

By failure group

Citroen C4 body, chassis and structure failuresCitroen C4 brakes failuresCitroen C4 vehicle identification failuresCitroen C4 lamps, reflectors and electrics failuresCitroen C4 noise, emissions and leaks failuresCitroen C4 road wheels failuresCitroen C4 seat belts and airbags failuresCitroen C4 steering failuresCitroen C4 suspension failuresCitroen C4 tyres failuresCitroen C4 visibility failures

Inspections abroad

Citroen C4 in NorwayCitroen C4 in FinlandCitroen C4 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:citroen-c4:dvsa-2024-v2. Full method: methodology.

Cite: MOT Risk Index (2026). Citroen C4 MOT statistics 2024 (data release dvsa-2024-v2; downloadable dataset motriskindex-families-2024-v5, doi:10.5281/zenodo.22975051). https://motriskindex.co.uk/cars/citroen-c4/ · Published 2026-07-30.