Does the Fiat 500 fail the MOT on brakes more than it should?

The Fiat 500 records 10.06 brakes failure items per 100 initial MOT tests (2019–2024), against 8.77 expected for a car of the same age mix: more than expected for its class and age (+1.29, 95% interval +1.25 to +1.34). It ranks 256 of 712 models on brakes (1 = most failures above expected).

Data release dvsa-2024-v2 (24 Sep 2026) · page updated 30 Sep 2026 · all models on brakes · check a Fiat 500 by registration

What exactly fails on brakes?

The most frequent DVSA defect wording in this group on the Fiat 500 is “a brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm”, recorded 34,887 times in 2019–2024.

Fiat 500: most frequent brakes defect wordings, 2019–2024 (30+ items each)
DVSA defect wording	Items	Per 100 tests
a brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm	34,887	1.92
Parking brake efficiency below minimum requirement	30,217	1.66
Parking brake inoperative on one side	16,287	0.89
Brake disc or drum significantly and obviously worn	15,590	0.86
Significant brake effort recorded with no brake applied indicating a binding brake	12,989	0.71

Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 1,820,554 (initial tests) · Method: failure items (major and minor) grouped by DVSA's defect tree; wordings with 30+ items · Updated: 30 Sep 2026 · Release: dvsa-2024-v2 · CSV

If a Fiat 500 gets a brakes advisory, how often does it fail next time?

11.0% of Fiat 500 MOTs with a brakes advisory were followed by a fail in the same group at the next MOT, typically 12 months and 4,386 miles later (231,346 advisories followed).

Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 231,346 (advisories followed) · Method: the same vehicles followed to their next ordinary MOT · Updated: 30 Sep 2026 · Release: dvsa-2024-v2 · CSV

Does the Fiat 500 fail the MOT on brakes more than it should?

What exactly fails on brakes?

If a Fiat 500 gets a brakes advisory, how often does it fail next time?

Related pages

Other pages for this model