MOT Risk Index.co.uk

Fiat Qubo — MOT statistics 2024

The Fiat Qubo failed 36.26% of 4,289 first MOT attempts in 2024 ("first-time", excluding retests). Adjusted for the age of the fleet, its initial-failure ratio is 107.5 (100 = expected for its age profile). This van fails its MOT about 8% more often than expected for its age. Small sample — treat with care.

MOT risk index 107.5, 95% CI 103.3–111.8 (100 = national average) 100 107.5 0 200
Index
107.5
100 = age-normal
Raw fail rate
36.26%
n = 4,289
Dangerous /100
12
national ≈11
Rank
535 of 761
lower index = better

Age-adjusted peer: Volkswagen Caravelle (index 106.4) — the two published results are 1.1 index points apart.

Fiat Qubo common problems: what actually fails the MOT

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment are well below the reference at 13.2 per 100 tests, against 31.8 per 100 tests across UK vans and pickups of the same ages.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

Fiat Qubo common problems: what actually fails the MOT — 2024 UK MOT data

family vs national — matched to UK vans and pickups 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
Suspension24.16,55723.51.02×1.00–1.05
Lamps & electrical13.23,59331.80.42×0.40–0.43
Tyres10.72,9128.61.25×1.20–1.30
Visibility9.82,65515.30.64×0.62–0.66
Brakes6.31,71419.00.33×0.32–0.35
Body & structure4.91,32411.10.44×0.42–0.46
Named defects — items per 100 initial tests, this family vs UK national average; this model measured on 27,190 tests, 2019-2024, national column 2024
What failedper 100 tests (this family)per 100 tests (UK average)ratio family / UKWhat to check
Spring or spring component fractured or seriously…A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened8.962.863.13×Ask the seller about: A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened
Shock absorber bush excessively wornA shock absorber bush excessively worn 6.200.2031.16×Ask the seller about: A shock absorber bush excessively worn
Tyre cords visible or damagedA tyre cords visible or damaged3.791.632.33×Check tyre tread depth across the full width
Windscreen or window damaged or seriously…Windscreen or window damaged or seriously discoloured but not adversely affecting driver's view3.242.361.37×Check wipers, washers and windscreen chips in the driver's view
Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the…Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements4.053.591.13×Check tyre tread depth across the full width
Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the…Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the windscreen2.092.220.94×Check wipers, washers and windscreen chips in the driver's view
Tyre seriously damagedA tyre seriously damaged2.262.540.89×Check tyre tread depth across the full width
Rear registration plate lamp or light source…A rear registration plate lamp or light source missing or inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources2.352.830.83×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 requirements1.532.570.60×Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure
Suspension pin, bush or joint excessively wornA suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn2.704.870.55×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.

Fiat Qubo MOT advisories: what gets flagged

Tyres are highest at 45.0 per 100 tests; Lamps & electrical are lowest at 4.3 per 100 tests — the gap is 40.7 per 100 tests.

higher bar = flagged more oftenadvisory items per 100 initial tests

Fiat Qubo MOT advisories: what gets flagged — 2024 UK MOT data
Advisory rates table
GroupAdvisories per 100
Tyres45
Suspension25.8
Brakes21.8
Non-component advisories7.9
Emissions & leaks7.1
Lamps & electrical4.3

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

Tyres, brakes and suspension: Fiat Qubo against cars of the same age

AgePartFiat QuboSame age, petrol and dieselDifference
4 yearsTyres4.944.540.40
4 yearsBrakes1.652.43-0.78
4 yearsSuspension4.351.213.14
5 yearsTyres4.385.06-0.68
5 yearsBrakes1.963.09-1.13
5 yearsSuspension7.772.195.58
6 yearsTyres6.445.540.90
6 yearsBrakes3.553.81-0.26
6 yearsSuspension13.423.729.70
7 yearsTyres7.255.951.30
7 yearsBrakes3.964.55-0.59
7 yearsSuspension14.595.688.91
8 yearsTyres7.486.311.17
8 yearsBrakes4.425.38-0.96
8 yearsSuspension16.357.788.57

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 van 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 failed34.8%1,315
It passed30.5%14,183

A failed test raises next year's chance of failing again by 4.3 percentage points. The failure most likely to come back is visibility — 35.8% 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 van with vehicles of the same age, and then with vehicles of the same age and the same annual mileage, 2019-2024, on 26,871 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 only108.5fails more often than expected
Age and annual mileage119.2fails more often than vehicles driven as much
Share doing under 3,000 miles a year14.8%a normal spread of use

Mileage matters here: matching on how much these are driven moves the figure by 10.7 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 van 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 Fiat Qubo compares with cars of its own age and size

Not against the whole fleet — against other light commercials tested at the same age, 2019-2024.

AgeFiat QuboSame class, same ageDifferenceTests
3 years13.39%19.94%-6.56 pp717
4 years18%22.97%-4.97 pp850
5 years20.71%25.47%-4.76 pp1,120
6 years28.61%28.92%-0.32 pp1,692
7 years29.13%32.36%-3.23 pp2,523
8 years31.83%35.67%-3.84 pp3,010
9 years33.64%38.46%-4.82 pp3,552
10 years35.19%40.91%-5.73 pp3,882
11 years37.06%43.11%-6.05 pp3,524
12 years38.7%44.93%-6.23 pp2,801
13 years39.89%46.09%-6.2 pp1,855
14 years43.94%46.86%-2.92 pp1,147
15 years46.54%47.39%-0.85 pp462

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 Fiat Qubo perform as it gets older?

The Qubo at age 6 stands out at 27.9%, against 17.5% for all vehicles of the same age.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

How does the Fiat Qubo perform as it gets older? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: van age, years · failure-rate scale 0–50%.

Takeaway: solid line: this family; dashed: all cars.

Data table
AgeFiat QuboAll vehiclesGap
516.8%15.1%+1.7 pp
627.9%17.5%+10.4 pp
722.1%20.2%+1.9 pp
831.4%23.3%+8.1 pp
932.8%26.5%+6.3 pp
1036.6%30.1%+6.5 pp
1134.9%33.2%+1.8 pp
1236.1%35.7%+0.4 pp
1334.7%38.2%-3.5 pp
1444.5%40.4%+4.1 pp
1546.5%41.6%+4.9 pp

Is a Fiat Qubo ULEZ compliant?

The share of classifiable 2024 Fiat Qubo MOT tests likely ULEZ compliant by first-registration date is 31.7%.

Based on 4,288 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 = 0
3–5 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 156
6–7 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 335
8 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 159
9 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 189
10–14 years18.6%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 2,989
15–17 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 460
18 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
19 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
20+ yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0

How dangerous are Fiat Qubo MOT failures?

Minor defects are well below the reference at 13.0 per 100 tests, against 14.2 per 100 tests nationally.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

How dangerous are Fiat Qubo MOT failures? — 2024 UK MOT data
Severity table
SeverityThis family /100National /100Family / national
Minor13.0314.220.92×
Major52.0452.750.99×
Dangerous11.9711.151.07×

Chart values: Minor 13.0 · Major 52.0 · Dangerous 12.0.

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

Does the month of a Fiat Qubo MOT matter?

Apr is highest at 35.6%; Dec is lowest at 30.8% — the gap is 4.8 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Does the month of a Fiat Qubo MOT matter? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart scale: 27%–37%.

bars: Fiat Qubo · dashed: all class-4 cars

Month-by-month table
MonthFiat QuboAll vehiclesGap
Jan31.79%31.12%+0.7 pp
Feb33.57%29.99%+3.6 pp
Mar34.7%28.26%+6.4 pp
Apr35.63%29.78%+5.9 pp
May33.99%28.79%+5.2 pp
Jun33.29%28.15%+5.1 pp
Jul33.43%29.33%+4.1 pp
Aug34.36%29.2%+5.2 pp
Sep33.4%28.19%+5.2 pp
Oct33.85%30.34%+3.5 pp
Nov32.41%30.58%+1.8 pp
Dec30.84%29.33%+1.5 pp

Takeaway: the spread between best and worst month is 4.8 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.

Fiat Qubo average mileage by age

At age 8, the middle half of Qubos runs from 23,638 miles to 60,042 miles, against 35,111 miles as the median.

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

Bars: Fiat Qubo · dashed: all class-4 cars — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: van age, years · odometer scale 0–121k mi.

Does high mileage mean more Fiat Qubo 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, 27.7% of those with under 40,000 miles failed first time versus 43.6% of those with over 140,000 miles.Inside this age group, higher mileage goes with more failures.

Does high mileage mean more Fiat Qubo MOT failures at the same age? — 2024 UK MOT data
Fiat Qubo: first-time failure by mileage within each age group (2024)
AgeOdometer% failing95% intervalTests
6–9<40k miles20.4%16.7–24.6%398 (rough estimate)
6–940-70k miles37.1%30.9–43.8%213 (rough estimate)
6–970-100k miles42.9%30.8–55.9%56 (rough estimate)
10–14<40k miles27.7%24.1–31.8%519
10–1440-70k miles33.6%30.7–36.7%960
10–1470-100k miles42.1%39–45.3%933
10–14100-140k miles43.3%38.8–47.9%450 (rough estimate)
10–14140k+ miles43.6%33.1–54.6%78 (rough estimate)
15+40-70k miles46.9%36.4–57.7%81 (rough estimate)
15+70-100k miles44%36.3–52%150 (rough estimate)
15+100-140k miles47.7%39.4–56.2%132 (rough estimate)

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

Mileage by age (p25 / median / p75)
Agep25Medianp75Tests
512,76523,54434,718113
612,88023,62339,611122
718,47132,97151,166213
823,63835,11160,042159
927,93442,52160,179189
1035,78951,50273,950298
1142,88161,83781,692604
1249,49269,79990,333845
1350,65774,31696,099620
1457,28481,404107,630622
1569,40189,168115,215428

A typical 8-year-old Qubo has ~35,111 miles on the clock. Much more — ask why; much less — check for gaps in the MOT history.

Where in Britain the Fiat Qubo fails its MOT most

Kirkcaldy area is highest at 53.2%; Twickenham area is lowest at 19.4% — the gap is 33.7 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fiat Qubo line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75) — 2024 UK MOT data
Toughest areas% failingvs model overall
Kirkcaldy (KY)53.18%+19.8 pp
Kilmarnock (KA)48.19%+14.8 pp
Edinburgh (EH)46.19%+12.8 pp
Falkirk (FK)46.15%+12.7 pp
Exeter (EX)43.38%+10.0 pp
Easiest areas% failingvs model overall
Twickenham (TW)19.44%-14.0 pp
London N (N)19.66%-13.8 pp
Dartford (DA)22%-11.4 pp
Dorchester (DT)23.78%-9.6 pp
London SE (SE)24.11%-9.3 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: 26%–43% failing.

Fiat Qubo survival: which cars are still on the road

By age 15 is well below the reference at 37.8%, against 100.0% at the ages 4–6 reference level.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fiat Qubo survival: which cars are still on the road — 2024 UK MOT data

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

Survival vs fail rate by age
AgeTestsSurvival vs ages 4–6Fail %
371758.7%13.39%
485069.6%18%
51,12091.8%20.71%
61,692100%28.61%
72,523100%29.13%
83,010100%31.83%
93,552100%33.64%
103,882100%35.19%
113,524100%37.06%
122,801100%38.7%
131,855100%39.89%
141,14794%43.94%
1546237.8%46.54%

By age 14, only about 94% as many cars of this family present for MOT as at ages 4–6 (reference n≈1,220); survivors still fail at 43.9% vs 18.0% at age 4. Older cars that still appear are a selected subset — weaker ones have already left.

How many miles does a Fiat Qubo last?

100,000+ miles stands out at 11.4%.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

OdometerTests ≥ thresholdShare of sample
100,000+ miles3,05311.36%

Of 26,871 tests of this family with a usable odometer in 2024, 11.4% had reached 100k miles. This is a cross-section of cars still presenting for MOT, not a full birth cohort.

How many years is a Fiat Qubo likely to last?

Bought at age 5 is highest at 10.2 years; Bought at age 12 is lowest at 2.4 years — the gap is 7.8 years.

bigger number = longer remaining lifeyears on the observed survival curve

Age nowTypical mileage (p50)Expected years left
5—at least 10.2
8—at least 6.4
10—at least 4.4
12—at least 2.4

estimateEstimate only — not a warranty: a typical 10-year-old example of this family has at least 4.4 expected years of further MOT-present life. The curve is observed only until age 14, so the true figure is likely higher.

Fiat Qubo faults that come together

Lamps & electrical + Road Wheels stand out at 6.05×, against 1.00× if the faults were independent.

above 1.0× = more than expectedbelow 1.0× = less

Group AGroup BTogetherLift
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentRoad Wheels216.05× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureNoise, emissions and leaks1825.16× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems1053.96× (rough estimate)
BrakesNoise, emissions and leaks1523.95× (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsSteering263.64× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems353.61× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureSteering913.5× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentNoise, emissions and leaks2473.46× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSteering1693.21× (rough estimate)
BrakesSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems463.21× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksSteering613.17× (rough estimate)
BrakesSteering893.13× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment2953.06× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleSuspension232.96× (rough estimate)
BrakesLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment3092.93× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureBrakes1522.92× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems372.82× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentVisibility5142.7×
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsSuspension1402.65× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksVisibility1832.63× (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsTyres602.54× (rough estimate)
BrakesSuspension5182.46×
BrakesTyres2282.43× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureVisibility2232.37× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentTyres4072.34× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureTyres1992.32× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSuspension8882.28×
Noise, emissions and leaksSuspension3252.28× (rough estimate)
SteeringSuspension2382.27× (rough estimate)
BrakesVisibility2322.26× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksTyres1432.25× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureSuspension4312.24× (rough estimate)
SteeringVisibility1152.24× (rough estimate)
SuspensionTyres7202.08×
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsVisibility532.05× (rough estimate)
SteeringTyres942.01× (rough estimate)
TyresVisibility3361.98× (rough estimate)
SuspensionVisibility6831.8×
Road WheelsSuspension17too few (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment15too few (rough estimate)
Road WheelsTyres14too few (rough estimate)
BrakesIdentification of the vehicle13too few (rough estimate)
Road WheelsVisibility13too few (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureIdentification of the vehicle12too few (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleVisibility11too few (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleTyres10too few (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksRoad Wheels6too few (rough estimate)
BrakesRoad Wheels6too few (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureRoad Wheels5too few (rough estimate)

Defects in «Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment» and «Visibility» appear together 2.70× more often than chance (514 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 Fiat Qubo?

Cars driven under 5,000 miles a year is well below the reference at 26.6%, against 41.1% for cars driven 8,000–12,000 miles a year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

BandFail %Tests
<5k miles/year26.56%6,695
8–12k miles/year41.12%4,439
Gap (low − normal)-14.55 pp—
By fuel and age

Diesel

AgeLow-use fail %nNormal fail %nGap pp
518.3136634.9149-16.59 pp
626.8551436.93306-10.08 pp
724.5872035.8528-11.21 pp
824.4285639.16641-14.74 pp
926.1795940.38733-14.21 pp
1027.461,01641.44806-13.98 pp
1127.0790543.35699-16.28 pp
1229.573943.98507-14.48 pp
1331.0148746.71319-15.7 pp
1432.5826452.02198-19.44 pp

Petrol

AgeLow-use fail %nNormal fail %nGap pp
513.4620818.9237-5.46 pp
617.8622436.9646-19.1 pp
719.2824938.347-19.02 pp
825.7324134.8566-9.12 pp
924.5527741.18102-16.63 pp
1031.4127741.67120-10.26 pp
1127.4925145.71105-18.22 pp
1229.7620556.4785-26.71 pp
1337.1213253.754-16.58 pp
1440.78658.0631-17.37 pp

At matched ages 5–14, cars averaging under 5k miles/year fail at 26.6% vs 41.1% for 8–12k miles/year — 14.6 pp lower (n_low=6,695, n_normal=4,439). 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: 26.5% low-use vs 40.8% normal (-14.2 pp).

Best year for a Fiat Qubo, and the years to avoid

Build year 2009 is highest at 104.4; Build year 2017 is lowest at 75.1 — the gap is 29.3 points.

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

build year vs the same model at the same age · 100 = as expected

Fiat Qubo build year vs the same model at the same age · 100 = as expected — 2024 UK MOT data
Fiat Qubo 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
201775.160.1–90.122.8%421better
201689.774.7–104.727.57%497no different
201586.975.1–98.727.33%761better
201495.586.9–104.130.76%1,541no different
20139892.6–103.432.76%3,822no different
201297.292.8–101.633.66%5,556no different
201197.592.5–102.535.07%4,212no different
2010104.199.1–109.239.36%4,182no different
2009104.498.8–110.141.52%3,141no different

The best build year here is 2017 and the weakest is 2015. 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 9 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.

Fiat Qubo MOT repair costs

The MOT-failure repair budget per test runs from £80.94 to £153.79, against £54.85 for the test itself.

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

MOT repairs, budget
£81–154
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
Suspension24.1 (nat. 15.36)Suspension coil spring (single corner)£180£43.38
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment13.2 (nat. 18.09)Battery replacement (standard 12V lead-acid)£140£18.48
Tyres10.7 (nat. 8.7)Tyre (single mid-range 16" fitted)£90£9.63
Brakes6.3 (nat. 11.25)Front brake pads (parts + labour, typical hatchback)£150£9.45

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 £81 to £154, 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.

Fiat Qubo running costs for a fleet

Vehicles failing at age 10 stand out at 37.0%, against 17.0% at age 5, tested in the same year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fails per 100 at age 5
17
vehicles needing work (rough estimate: 113 tests)
At age 10
37
other cars of this model tested at age 10 in 2024 (rough estimate: 298 tests)
Repairs per 100
£8,094
plus £5,485 in test fees
Off the road
1d
median; 41.19% cleared same day
Failure rate and typical odometer by age
AgeFailsMedian odometerTestsGap vs age 5
516.81%23,544113+0.0 pp
627.87%23,623122+11.1 pp
722.07%32,971213+5.3 pp
831.45%35,111159+14.6 pp
932.8%42,521189+16.0 pp
1036.58%51,502298+19.8 pp
1134.93%61,837604+18.1 pp
1236.09%69,799845+19.3 pp
1334.68%74,316620+17.9 pp
1444.53%81,404622+27.7 pp
1546.5%89,168428+29.7 pp

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

Repair spend uses the same modal prices as the section above, so it inherits the same limits: one typical repair per component group, not a full remedy. Downtime is the gap between the failed test and the passed re-test, which is the window a vehicle is legally off the road.

Fiat Qubo rust problems: where they corrode

Age-standardised corrosion susceptibility is well below the reference at 0.57×, against 1.00× for the national age-standardised rate.

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

How it rusts
0.57×
0.44% of tests record a corrosion defect vs 0.77% typical — age-standardised
Salt Belt exposure
90th
percentile among the models published here, from its tests across 1 postcode areas

This Fiat Qubo fails on corrosion much less often than average once age is held constant, and its owners live in areas that are saltier than most for the models we publish. Both point the same way and reinforce each other: it resists corrosion even though its owners live in saltier areas than most.

Corrosion is the one failure mode that is as much about geography as about the car. We keep the two apart on purpose: a model can look rusty simply because it is popular in Scotland, and a model can look clean simply because it is bought in Surrey. Blending them into a single score would hide which of the two is doing the work.

Exposure is this model's tests weighted by an area corrosion index built from frost days, salt load and distance to the coast — the composite validated at r = 0.42 against corrosion defects we actually record. It is published as a rank, not a raw score, because every mainstream model skews towards low-corrosion areas for the simple reason that most of Britain's cars are in the south. Susceptibility is standardised to the national age profile, so an old fleet does not get labelled a rusty model.

Does a Fiat Qubo advisory become a failure?

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment are highest at 23.8%; Non-component advisories are lowest at 0.0% — the gap is 23.8 percentage points.

higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability

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

Fiat Qubo chance the same component fails at the next MOT, given an advisory now — 2024 UK MOT data
Fiat Qubo, advisory → failure conversion by component group, chained tests 2019–2024. Chart labels and rates: Lamps & electrical 23.8% · Suspension 23.4% · Body & chassis 15.4% · Tyres 10.4% · Steering 9.9% · Brakes 8.7% · Noise, emissions, leaks 7.1% · Non-component 0%.
Advisory today → failure at the next test, with how long you have
ComponentFails next timeTypical lead timeMiles of warningAdvisories tracked
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment23.8%12 months5,249622
Suspension23.4%12 months4,8783,223
Body, chassis, structure15.4%12 months5,342559
Tyres10.4%12 months4,4025,916
Steering9.9%12 months4,710566
Brakes8.7%12 months4,8003,106
Noise, emissions and leaks7.1%12 months5,2151,386
Non-component advisories0.0%——1,534

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 24 in 100 cars, and the median gap is 12 months and roughly 5,249 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 Fiat Qubo?

Suspension after a failure at age 12-14 is highest at 25.2%; Suspension after a passed at age <3 is lowest at 2.8% — the gap is 22.4 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 4.8% · Tyres 3.0% · Suspension 2.8%394 (rough estimate)
<3advisoryVisibility 10.1% · Tyres 6.4%109 (rough estimate)
3-5passedSuspension 9.5% · Visibility 4.1% · Tyres 3.9%1,569
3-5advisorySuspension 12.1% · Visibility 7.0% · Tyres 6.5%710
3-5failureSuspension 14.6% · Tyres 8.1% · Visibility 7.6%670
6-8passedSuspension 13.8% · Tyres 5.6% · Visibility 5.2%3,094
6-8advisorySuspension 18.5% · Visibility 8.8% · Tyres 8.1%2,142
6-8failureSuspension 20.3% · Tyres 10.3% · Visibility 9.2%2,319
9-11passedSuspension 16.8% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 8.6% · Visibility 6.4%2,925
9-11advisorySuspension 20.1% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 12.1% · Visibility 9.5%2,704
9-11failureSuspension 21.8% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 15.3% · Visibility 11.1%3,167
12-14passedSuspension 17.9% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 11.7% · Visibility 8.3%674
12-14advisorySuspension 20.4% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 17.3% · Visibility 13.6%774
12-14failureSuspension 25.2% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 22.2% · Visibility 16.4%1,019

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.

Fiat Qubo ownership: what six years of MOTs show

The ten-day re-test pass rate is highest at 56.1%; The later re-test pass rate is lowest at 2.7% — the gap is 53.4 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fixed same day
41.19%
of failures re-tested
Fails /10k miles
0.665
miles actually driven
Clean streaks
35.69%
3+ tests, nothing noted
Odometer anomaly
1.147%
reading went backwards

Failing is usually a same-week event, not a disaster. Of 7,370 failures followed through to their re-test, 41.19% were repaired and passed the same day and 56.09% within ten days; the median gap is 1 day. 16,383 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 0.665 failures per 10,000 miles, on a median of 4,084 miles a year across 4,879 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. 35.69% of these cars strung together three or more tests with nothing recorded at all, while 34.66% 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: 1.147% of 4,881 chains show a reading lower than the previous test, with a median drop of 16,808 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.

Fiat Qubo safety recalls and how to check yours

DVSA recall campaigns stand out at 2.

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

recall campaigns launched per year

Fiat Qubo recall campaigns launched per year — 2024 UK MOT data
Campaigns launched per year for the Fiat Qubo. Source: DVSA vehicle safety recalls. Chart values: 2012: 1 · 2013: 0 · 2014: 0 · 2015: 1.
Most recent safety recall campaigns for the Fiat Qubo
ReferenceLaunchedVehiclesConcern
R/2015/03531/03/201524UNINTENDED AIRBAG DEPLOYMENT
R/2012/13907/12/20123,095BRAKING EFFICIENCY MAY BE REDUCED

DVSA lists 2 safety recall campaigns for the Fiat Qubo, covering roughly 3,119 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.

Fiat Qubo MOT: quick answers

Fiat Qubo MOT Risk Index stands out at 107.5, against 100 for a car with the same age profile.

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

What is the Fiat Qubo first-time MOT pass rate?
63.74% of first attempts passed in 2024 (4,289 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 36.26% figure is the first-time initial failure rate, using 4,289 primary tests as the denominator (first-time, excluding retests). The age-adjusted MOT initial-failure ratio 107.5 is shown separately because raw rates compare fleet age as well as cars.

Compare the Fiat Qubo with other cars

Hyundai Santa Fe is highest at 107.8; Nissan Almera is lowest at 107.1 — the gap is 0.7 points.

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

Same brand

All Fiat MOT statisticsFiat Grande Punto MOT statsFiat Panda MOT stats

Similar risk

Ford S-MAX (index 107.6)Hyundai Santa Fe (index 107.8)Nissan Almera (index 107.1)

Same size class

how Audi Q8 compareshow Aston Martin DB9 compareshow Mitsubishi Shogun Sport compares

By build year

Fiat Qubo 2009Fiat Qubo 2010Fiat Qubo 2011Fiat Qubo 2012Fiat Qubo 2013Fiat Qubo 2014Fiat Qubo 2015Fiat Qubo 2016Fiat Qubo 2017

By area

Fiat Qubo MOT failure rate by postcode area

By failure group

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


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:fiat-qubo:dvsa-2024-v2. Full method: methodology.

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