Daihatsu Terios — MOT statistics 2024
The Daihatsu Terios failed 40.33% of 4,027 first MOT attempts in 2024 ("first-time", excluding retests). Adjusted for the age of the fleet, its initial-failure ratio is 94.7 (100 = expected for its age profile). This car fails its MOT about 5% less often than expected for its age. Small sample — treat with care.
Age-adjusted peer: Abarth 500 (index 94.5) — the two published results are 0.2 index points apart.
Daihatsu Terios common problems: what actually fails the MOT
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment are well below the reference at 18.1 per 100 tests, against 34.8 per 100 tests across UK vehicles of the same ages.
higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests
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.
| Group | This family | Cases behind it | UK, same ages | Family / national |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 38.9 | 12,634 | 29.5 | 1.32×1.30–1.34 |
| Body & structure | 27.2 | 8,824 | 12.1 | 2.24×2.19–2.29 |
| Brakes | 20.5 | 6,650 | 21.2 | 0.97×0.94–0.99 |
| Lamps & electrical | 18.1 | 5,878 | 34.8 | 0.52×0.51–0.53 |
| Emissions & leaks | 11.0 | 3,560 | 7.7 | 1.42×1.37–1.47 |
| Visibility | 10.0 | 3,243 | 11.5 | 0.87×0.84–0.90 |
| What failed | per 100 tests (this family) | per 100 tests (UK average) | ratio family / UK | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strength or continuity of the load bearing…The strength or continuity of the load bearing structure within 30cm of any sub-frame, spring or suspension component mounting (a 'prescribed area') is significantly reduced or inadequately repaired | 18.14 | 1.12 | 16.23× | Look underneath for rust or cracks around subframe and suspension mountings |
| Vehicle structure corroded to the extent that the…Vehicle structure corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is seriously reduced | 6.65 | 0.39 | 17.18× | Look underneath for rust or cracks around subframe and suspension mountings |
| Strength or continuity of the load bearing…The strength or continuity of the load bearing structure within 30cm of any seat belt anchorage (a 'prescribed area') is significantly reduced or inadequately repaired | 5.05 | 0.38 | 13.36× | Look underneath for rust or cracks around subframe and suspension mountings |
| Transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot…A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot severely deteriorated | 5.48 | 1.48 | 3.71× | Ask the seller about: A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot severely d |
| Brake pipe damaged or excessively corrodedBrake pipe damaged or excessively corroded | 4.96 | 1.41 | 3.53× | Look underneath for rust or cracks around subframe and suspension mountings |
| Transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot…A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc | 5.09 | 1.56 | 3.27× | Ask the seller about: A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot missing or |
| Suspension joint dust cover severely deterioratedA suspension joint dust cover severely deteriorated | 5.33 | 1.90 | 2.80× | Listen for knocks over bumps — worn joints show up on the test |
| Suspension pin, bush or joint excessively wornA suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn | 8.29 | 4.87 | 1.70× | Listen for knocks over bumps — worn joints show up on the test |
| Exhaust system leaking or insecureExhaust system leaking or insecure | 4.06 | 1.16 | 3.50× | Watch for smoke on a cold start — emissions failures are costly |
| Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the…Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the windscreen | 4.12 | 2.22 | 1.85× | Check wipers, washers and windscreen chips in the driver's view |
Named defects ranked by how much more often they appear than the national average — not by raw rate.
Daihatsu Terios MOT advisories: what gets flagged
Suspension is highest at 81.7 per 100 tests; Lamps & electrical are lowest at 4.0 per 100 tests — the gap is 77.7 per 100 tests.
higher bar = flagged more oftenadvisory items per 100 initial tests
Advisory rates table
| Group | Advisories per 100 |
|---|---|
| Suspension | 81.7 |
| Brakes | 40.3 |
| Tyres | 33.9 |
| Body & structure | 20.9 |
| Non-component advisories | 9.8 |
| Lamps & electrical | 4 |
Advisories are wear the tester noted but didn't fail — what will need money soon.
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 test | Fails next year | Vehicles followed |
|---|---|---|
| It failed | 35.7% | 2,876 |
| It passed | 32.9% | 14,904 |
A failed test raises next year's chance of failing again by 2.8 percentage points. The failure most likely to come back is visibility — 34.5% 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 32,325 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 for | Index | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Age only | 92.8 | fails less often than expected |
| Age and annual mileage | 96.8 | fails less often than vehicles driven as much |
| Share doing under 3,000 miles a year | 11.3% | a normal spread of use |
Mileage matters here: matching on how much these are driven moves the figure by 4.0 points — this fleet is driven less than the vehicles it is measured against, so the age-only view flatters 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 Daihatsu Terios 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.
| Age | Daihatsu Terios | Same class, same age | Difference | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 years | 24.33% | 35.6% | -11.26 pp | 674 |
| 11 years | 25.89% | 38.66% | -12.77 pp | 1,607 |
| 12 years | 30.22% | 41.25% | -11.03 pp | 2,998 |
| 13 years | 32.09% | 43.3% | -11.21 pp | 3,967 |
| 14 years | 37.59% | 45.04% | -7.46 pp | 4,600 |
| 15 years | 40.94% | 46.32% | -5.38 pp | 4,814 |
| 16 years | 43.81% | 47.35% | -3.54 pp | 4,387 |
| 17 years | 45.76% | 47.79% | -2.04 pp | 3,523 |
| 18 years | 48.59% | 47.99% | +0.59 pp | 2,159 |
| 19 years | 49.58% | 47.74% | +1.85 pp | 1,311 |
| 20 years | 51.88% | 47.36% | +4.52 pp | 904 |
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 Daihatsu Terios perform as it gets older?
The Terios at age 20 stands out at 49.6%, against 41.0% for all vehicles of the same age.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Chart axes: car age, years · failure-rate scale 0–54%.
Takeaway: solid line: this family; dashed: all cars.
Data table
| Age | Daihatsu Terios | All vehicles | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 33.6% | 41.6% | -8.0 pp |
| 16 | 36.9% | 43.1% | -6.2 pp |
| 17 | 39.5% | 43.1% | -3.6 pp |
| 18 | 40.2% | 43.9% | -3.7 pp |
| 19 | 49.1% | 43.5% | +5.6 pp |
| 20 | 49.6% | 41.0% | +8.6 pp |
Is a Daihatsu Terios ULEZ compliant?
The share of classifiable 2024 Daihatsu Terios MOT tests likely ULEZ compliant by first-registration date is 78.8%.
Based on 3,933 classifiable initial MOT tests. This describes the tested fleet, not a specific car. MOT data do not record Euro class, so likely compliance is inferred from fuel and first-registration date. For the only authoritative answer, check the registration with TfL's official ULEZ checker.
higher = larger share likely compliantinferred from fuel and first-registration date; not a recorded Euro class
| Vehicle age at test | Likely ULEZ-compliant share | Tests |
|---|---|---|
| Under 3 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 0 |
| 3–5 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 1 |
| 6–7 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 1 |
| 8 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 0 |
| 9 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 0 |
| 10–14 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 14 |
| 15–17 years | 99.8% Check a registration with TfL | n = 2,428 |
| 18 years | 99.8% Check a registration with TfL | n = 663 |
| 19 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 332 |
| 20+ years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 494 |
How dangerous are Daihatsu Terios MOT failures?
Major defects stand out at 107.5 per 100 tests, against 52.8 per 100 tests nationally.
higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests
Severity table
| Severity | This family /100 | National /100 | Family / national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minor | 24.62 | 14.22 | 1.73× |
| Major | 107.54 | 52.75 | 2.04× |
| Dangerous | 12.21 | 11.15 | 1.10× |
Chart values: Minor 24.6 · Major 107.5 · Dangerous 12.2.
Per 100 tests on this family. National average: Minor 14.2 · Major 52.8 · Dangerous 11.2 per 100.
Does the month of a Daihatsu Terios MOT matter?
Nov is highest at 41.5%; Mar is lowest at 37.3% — the gap is 4.2 percentage points.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Chart scale: 27%–43%.
bars: Daihatsu Terios · dashed: all class-4 cars
Month-by-month table
| Month | Daihatsu Terios | All vehicles | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 40.82% | 31.12% | +9.7 pp |
| Feb | 39.2% | 29.99% | +9.2 pp |
| Mar | 37.26% | 28.26% | +9.0 pp |
| Apr | 41.12% | 29.78% | +11.3 pp |
| May | 40.02% | 28.79% | +11.2 pp |
| Jun | 40.68% | 28.15% | +12.5 pp |
| Jul | 37.98% | 29.33% | +8.6 pp |
| Aug | 39.32% | 29.2% | +10.1 pp |
| Sep | 38.86% | 28.19% | +10.7 pp |
| Oct | 41.13% | 30.34% | +10.8 pp |
| Nov | 41.48% | 30.58% | +10.9 pp |
| Dec | 38.07% | 29.33% | +8.7 pp |
Takeaway: the spread between best and worst month is 4.2 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.
Daihatsu Terios average mileage by age
At age 18, the middle half of Terios models runs from 68,317 miles to 114,932 miles, against 91,041 miles as the median.
further right = more milesmedian is the typical car; band is p25–p75
Chart axes: car age, years · odometer scale 0–122k mi.
Does high mileage mean more Daihatsu Terios MOT failures at the same age?
Within the same age group, split by odometer (2024 MOTs), so this separates wear from age: at ages 15+, 21.2% of those with under 40,000 miles failed first time versus 51.8% of those with over 140,000 miles.Inside this age group, higher mileage goes with more failures.
| Age | Odometer | % failing | 95% interval | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15+ | <40k miles | 21.2% | 16.3–27.1% | 217 (rough estimate) |
| 15+ | 40-70k miles | 32.5% | 29.6–35.6% | 934 |
| 15+ | 70-100k miles | 42.7% | 40.1–45.3% | 1,376 |
| 15+ | 100-140k miles | 44.8% | 41.9–47.7% | 1,107 |
| 15+ | 140k+ miles | 51.8% | 46–57.5% | 282 (rough estimate) |
line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75)
Mileage by age (p25 / median / p75)
| Age | p25 | Median | p75 | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 61,972 | 82,437 | 109,119 | 545 |
| 16 | 68,863 | 88,776 | 111,646 | 791 |
| 17 | 69,590 | 90,808 | 115,820 | 1,096 |
| 18 | 68,317 | 91,041 | 114,932 | 664 |
| 19 | 60,071 | 81,173 | 100,731 | 332 |
| 20+ | 64,744 | 80,167 | 102,873 | 494 |
A typical 18-year-old Terios has ~91,041 miles on the clock. Much more — ask why; much less — check for gaps in the MOT history.
Where in Britain the Daihatsu Terios fails its MOT most
Aberdeen area is highest at 59.9%; Dartford area is lowest at 20.0% — the gap is 39.9 percentage points.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
| Toughest areas | % failing | vs model overall |
|---|---|---|
| Aberdeen (AB) | 59.91% | +20.3 pp |
| Inverness (IV) | 51.82% | +12.2 pp |
| Plymouth (PL) | 50.31% | +10.7 pp |
| Salisbury (SP) | 50.3% | +10.7 pp |
| Stoke-on-Trent (ST) | 49.79% | +10.1 pp |
| Easiest areas | % failing | vs model overall |
|---|---|---|
| Dartford (DA) | 20% | -19.6 pp |
| Enfield (EN) | 22.54% | -17.1 pp |
| Twickenham (TW) | 26.8% | -12.8 pp |
| Slough (SL) | 27.56% | -12.1 pp |
| Kingston upon Thames (KT) | 27.61% | -12.0 pp |
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: 32%–49% failing.
How many miles does a Daihatsu Terios last?
100,000+ miles is highest at 27.8%; 150,000+ miles is lowest at 2.9% — the gap is 24.9 percentage points.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
| Odometer | Tests ≥ threshold | Share of sample |
|---|---|---|
| 100,000+ miles | 9,001 | 27.77% |
| 150,000+ miles | 939 | 2.9% |
Of 32,413 tests of this family with a usable odometer in 2024, 27.8% 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.
Daihatsu Terios faults that come together
Identification + Emissions & leaks stand out at 4.43×, against 1.00× if the faults were independent.
above 1.0× = more than expectedbelow 1.0× = less
| Group A | Group B | Together | Lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identification of the vehicle | Noise, emissions and leaks | 36 | 4.43× (rough estimate) |
| Identification of the vehicle | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 56 | 4.03× (rough estimate) |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 306 | 3.66× (rough estimate) |
| Body, chassis, structure | Noise, emissions and leaks | 1,316 | 3.65× |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Suspension | 769 | 3.42× |
| Identification of the vehicle | Visibility | 31 | 3.34× (rough estimate) |
| Body, chassis, structure | Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 560 | 3.02× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Road Wheels | 20 | 2.96× (rough estimate) |
| Road Wheels | Suspension | 24 | 2.93× (rough estimate) |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Tyres | 248 | 2.92× (rough estimate) |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Noise, emissions and leaks | 783 | 2.82× |
| Tyres | Visibility | 269 | 2.78× (rough estimate) |
| Brakes | Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 383 | 2.72× (rough estimate) |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 384 | 2.69× (rough estimate) |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Tyres | 389 | 2.68× (rough estimate) |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Visibility | 845 | 2.66× |
| Steering | Suspension | 910 | 2.63× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Identification of the vehicle | 47 | 2.6× (rough estimate) |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Tyres | 112 | 2.57× (rough estimate) |
| Identification of the vehicle | Suspension | 55 | 2.51× (rough estimate) |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Visibility | 464 | 2.5× (rough estimate) |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Visibility | 235 | 2.46× (rough estimate) |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Suspension | 1,066 | 2.44× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Tyres | 459 | 2.44× (rough estimate) |
| Brakes | Tyres | 347 | 2.43× (rough estimate) |
| Brakes | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,123 | 2.4× |
| Brakes | Identification of the vehicle | 32 | 2.33× (rough estimate) |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Steering | 507 | 2.31× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,419 | 2.3× |
| Brakes | Noise, emissions and leaks | 630 | 2.3× |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Suspension | 1,708 | 2.29× |
| Brakes | Suspension | 1,672 | 2.27× |
| Suspension | Tyres | 510 | 2.24× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Suspension | 2,155 | 2.22× |
| Brakes | Steering | 482 | 2.22× (rough estimate) |
| Steering | Tyres | 149 | 2.22× (rough estimate) |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Steering | 281 | 2.19× (rough estimate) |
| Brakes | Visibility | 674 | 2.15× |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Steering | 140 | 2.12× (rough estimate) |
| Body, chassis, structure | Visibility | 840 | 2.04× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Steering | 574 | 2.01× |
| Steering | Visibility | 294 | 2× (rough estimate) |
| Body, chassis, structure | Brakes | 1,207 | 1.99× |
| Suspension | Visibility | 993 | 1.99× |
| Identification of the vehicle | Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 18 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Brakes | Road Wheels | 18 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Road Wheels | 17 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Identification of the vehicle | Tyres | 15 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Identification of the vehicle | Steering | 14 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Road Wheels | Visibility | 10 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Road Wheels | 9 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Road Wheels | Steering | 7 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Body, chassis, structure | Seat belt installation check | 5 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Road Wheels | Tyres | 5 | too few (rough estimate) |
Defects in «Body, chassis, structure» and «Noise, emissions and leaks» appear together 3.65× more often than chance (1,316 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 Daihatsu Terios?
Cars driven under 5,000 miles a year is well below the reference at 22.2%, against 45.7% for cars driven 8,000–12,000 miles a year.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
| Band | Fail % | Tests |
|---|---|---|
| <5k miles/year | 22.19% | 3,917 |
| 8–12k miles/year | 45.67% | 2,216 |
| Gap (low − normal) | -23.48 pp | — |
By fuel and age
Petrol
| Age | Low-use fail % | n | Normal fail % | n | Gap pp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 17.67 | 215 | 32.24 | 152 | -14.56 pp |
| 11 | 17.58 | 495 | 34.14 | 372 | -16.56 pp |
| 12 | 18.8 | 931 | 42.94 | 666 | -24.15 pp |
| 13 | 20.64 | 1,303 | 43.93 | 774 | -23.28 pp |
| 14 | 26.69 | 1,675 | 49.67 | 755 | -22.98 pp |
At matched ages 5–14, cars averaging under 5k miles/year fail at 22.2% vs 45.7% for 8–12k miles/year — 23.5 pp lower (n_low=3,917, n_normal=2,216). 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.
Best year for a Daihatsu Terios, and the years to avoid
Build year 2002 is highest at 128.9; Build year 2009 is lowest at 88.1 — the gap is 40.8 points.
below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age
build year vs the same model at the same age · 100 = as expected
Every build year with its confidence interval
| Build year | vs own age norm | 95% CI | Raw fail % | Tests | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | 88.1 | 82.7–93.6 | 27.7% | 3,577 | better |
| 2008 | 92.3 | 88–96.7 | 31.81% | 5,385 | better |
| 2007 | 96.1 | 92.6–99.7 | 35.96% | 7,761 | better |
| 2006 | 99.4 | 95.1–103.6 | 39.27% | 5,263 | no different |
| 2005 | 116.7 | 110.7–122.8 | 48.72% | 2,962 | worse |
| 2004 | 118.8 | 110.6–127 | 51.63% | 1,561 | worse |
| 2003 | 123.3 | 114.4–132.3 | 55.37% | 1,313 | worse |
| 2002 | 128.9 | 115.5–142.3 | 59.14% | 602 | worse |
The best build year here is 2008 and the weakest is 2007. 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 — 2 of 8 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.
Daihatsu Terios MOT repair costs
The MOT-failure repair budget per test runs from £148.11 to £281.41, against £54.85 for the test itself.
bigger number = costs morepounds per test, MOT-failing faults only
| Component | Fails per 100 tests | Typical repair | Its price | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 38.9 (nat. 15.36) | Suspension coil spring (single corner) | £180 | £70.02 |
| Brakes | 20.5 (nat. 11.25) | Front brake pads (parts + labour, typical hatchback) | £150 | £30.75 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 18.1 (nat. 18.09) | Battery replacement (standard 12V lead-acid) | £140 | £25.34 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 11.0 (nat. 3.67) | Exhaust rear silencer | £200 | £22.00 |
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 £148 to £281, 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.
Daihatsu Terios running costs for a fleet
Vehicles failing at age 19 stand out at 49.0%, against 34.0% at age 15, tested in the same year.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Failure rate and typical odometer by age
| Age | Fails | Median odometer | Tests | Gap vs age 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 33.58% | 82,437 | 545 | — |
| 16 | 36.92% | 88,776 | 791 | — |
| 17 | 39.51% | 90,808 | 1,096 | — |
| 18 | 40.21% | 91,041 | 664 | — |
| 19 | 49.1% | 81,173 | 332 | — |
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.
Daihatsu Terios rust problems: where they corrode
Age-standardised corrosion susceptibility stands out at 5.45×, against 1.00× for the national age-standardised rate.
above 1.0× = rusts more than averagebelow 1.0× = rusts less
This Daihatsu Terios fails on corrosion far more often than average 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 a Daihatsu Terios advisory become a failure?
Suspension is highest at 26.6%; Non-component advisories are lowest at 0.0% — the gap is 26.6 percentage points.
higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability
chance the same component fails at the next MOT, given an advisory now
| Component | Fails next time | Typical lead time | Miles of warning | Advisories tracked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 26.6% | 12 months | 3,901 | 8,091 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 24.3% | 12.1 months | 3,435 | 3,490 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 21.8% | 12 months | 4,226 | 675 |
| Steering | 21.5% | 12 months | 4,328 | 646 |
| Brakes | 17.5% | 12.1 months | 4,032 | 6,014 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 12.4% | 12 months | 2,898 | 676 |
| Tyres | 7.8% | 12.1 months | 3,931 | 4,750 |
| Non-component advisories | 0.0% | — | — | 2,108 |
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 27 in 100 cars, and the median gap is 12 months and roughly 3,901 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 Daihatsu Terios?
Suspension after a failure at age 20+ is highest at 33.7%; Visibility after a passed at age 9-11 is lowest at 4.4% — the gap is 29.3 percentage points.
higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability
| Age | Last test | Most likely next failures | Cars tracked |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9-11 | passed | Brakes 6.3% · Suspension 5.1% · Visibility 4.4% | 1,600 |
| 9-11 | advisory | Brakes 11.9% · Suspension 10.2% · Visibility 7.5% | 1,153 |
| 9-11 | failure | Brakes 16.7% · Suspension 13.7% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 10.5% | 972 |
| 12-14 | passed | Suspension 11.0% · Brakes 9.1% · Body, chassis, structure 6.8% | 3,719 |
| 12-14 | advisory | Suspension 18.1% · Brakes 13.6% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 10.8% | 3,827 |
| 12-14 | failure | Suspension 22.9% · Brakes 16.9% · Body, chassis, structure 15.6% | 3,921 |
| 15-19 | passed | Suspension 17.3% · Body, chassis, structure 15.8% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 10.2% | 2,413 |
| 15-19 | advisory | Suspension 24.7% · Body, chassis, structure 23.1% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 15.5% | 2,846 |
| 15-19 | failure | Suspension 29.8% · Body, chassis, structure 27.7% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 19.3% | 4,266 |
| 20+ | passed | Body, chassis, structure 18.9% · Suspension 16.2% · Noise, emissions and leaks 8.1% | 259 (rough estimate) |
| 20+ | advisory | Body, chassis, structure 30.6% · Suspension 25.8% · Noise, emissions and leaks 12.4% | 314 (rough estimate) |
| 20+ | failure | Suspension 33.7% · Body, chassis, structure 32.9% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 18.4% | 504 |
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.
Daihatsu Terios ownership: what six years of MOTs show
The ten-day re-test pass rate is highest at 69.3%; The later re-test pass rate is lowest at 7.5% — the gap is 61.8 percentage points.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Failing is usually a same-week event, not a disaster. Of 8,482 failures followed through to their re-test, 23.13% were repaired and passed the same day and 69.34% within ten days; the median gap is 2 days. 25,043 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 0.898 failures per 10,000 miles, on a median of 3,349 miles a year across 6,168 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. 27.15% of these cars strung together three or more tests with nothing recorded at all, while 46.49% 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: 2.201% of 6,180 chains show a reading lower than the previous test, with a median drop of 16,962 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.
Daihatsu Terios inspection results in other countries
United Kingdom MOT stands out at 40.3%, against 26.0% nationally.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
| Country | Test | This model fails | National average | Position | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | MOT (class 4) | 40.33% | 26.01% | +14.3 pp | 4,027 |
| Netherlands | APK | 53% | 50.8% | +2.2 pp | 4,096 |
| Norway | PKK | 42.5% | 33.7% | +8.8 pp | 919 |
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.
| Code | Fault | Recorded | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
210 | Tyre pressure not at the correct value | 895 | failure |
391 | Wipers leave insufficient visibility | 374 | failure |
497 | Number-plate light not working or missing | 283 | failure |
516 | Dipped headlight incorrectly aimed | 281 | failure |
205 | Tyre with insufficient tread | 281 | failure |
584 | Sidelight not working properly | 251 | failure |
AC1 | Tyre down to 1.6–2.5 mm of tread | 206 | advisory |
522 | Dipped-beam cut-off line unclear | 187 | failure |
Worth dwelling on how mundane the top of that list is: tyre pressure, tread depth, headlight aim. The Dutch APK records 1.322 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 Daihatsu Terios 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.
One caveat before you read the UK row: these are raw failure rates, because no other country publishes the age detail our index needs. This model's raw UK rate looks worse than the national average while its age-adjusted index is 94.7 — the fleet here is unusually old, and the raw column silently credits that. The index above is the fair comparison; this table is for reading each country against itself.
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.; Statens vegvesen — Periodisk kjøretøykontroll (PKK) 2024, CC BY 4.0. Adapted; licences and full notice.
Daihatsu Terios MOT: quick answers
Daihatsu Terios MOT Risk Index is well below the reference at 94.7, 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 Daihatsu Terios first-time MOT pass rate?
- 59.67% of first attempts passed in 2024 (4,027 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 40.33% figure is the first-time initial failure rate, using 4,027 primary tests as the denominator (first-time, excluding retests). The age-adjusted MOT initial-failure ratio 94.7 is shown separately because raw rates compare fleet age as well as cars.
Compare the Daihatsu Terios with other cars
Volkswagen e-Golf is highest at 95.1; Abarth 500 is lowest at 94.5 — the gap is 0.6 points.
below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age
Same brand
All Daihatsu MOT statisticsDaihatsu Sirion MOT stats
Similar risk
Abarth 500 (index 94.5)Volkswagen Crafter (index 94.9)Volkswagen e-Golf (index 95.1)
Same size class
how Honda Fit compareshow Peugeot 306 compareshow Audi Q4 compares
By build year
Daihatsu Terios 2002Daihatsu Terios 2003Daihatsu Terios 2004Daihatsu Terios 2005Daihatsu Terios 2006Daihatsu Terios 2007Daihatsu Terios 2008Daihatsu Terios 2009
By area
Daihatsu Terios MOT failure rate by postcode area
By failure group
Daihatsu Terios body, chassis and structure failuresDaihatsu Terios brakes failuresDaihatsu Terios vehicle identification failuresDaihatsu Terios lamps, reflectors and electrics failuresDaihatsu Terios noise, emissions and leaks failuresDaihatsu Terios road wheels failuresDaihatsu Terios seat belts and airbags failuresDaihatsu Terios steering failuresDaihatsu Terios suspension failuresDaihatsu Terios tyres failuresDaihatsu Terios visibility failures
Inspections abroad
Daihatsu Terios in NorwayDaihatsu Terios 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:daihatsu-terios:dvsa-2024-v2. Full method: methodology.
Cite: MOT Risk Index (2026). Daihatsu Terios MOT statistics 2024 (data release dvsa-2024-v2; downloadable dataset motriskindex-families-2024-v5, doi:10.5281/zenodo.22975051). https://motriskindex.co.uk/cars/daihatsu-terios/ · Published 2026-07-30.