Does the Kia Rio fail the MOT on brakes more than it should?

The Kia Rio records 12.90 brakes failure items per 100 initial MOT tests (2019–2024), against 9.47 expected for a car of the same age mix: more than expected for its class and age (+3.43, 95% interval +3.33 to +3.52). It ranks 166 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 Kia Rio by registration

What exactly fails on brakes?

The most frequent DVSA defect wording in this group on the Kia Rio is “a brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm”, recorded 13,954 times in 2019–2024.

Kia Rio: 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	13,954	2.44
Brake pipe damaged or excessively corroded	9,751	1.70
Significant brake effort recorded with no brake applied indicating a binding brake	6,947	1.21
Parking brake efficiency below minimum requirement	6,892	1.20
Brake disc or drum significantly and obviously worn	6,145	1.07

Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 572,396 (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 Kia Rio gets a brakes advisory, how often does it fail next time?

13.9% of Kia Rio MOTs with a brakes advisory were followed by a fail in the same group at the next MOT, typically 12 months and 5,217 miles later (96,753 advisories followed).

Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 96,753 (advisories followed) · Method: the same vehicles followed to their next ordinary MOT · Updated: 30 Sep 2026 · Release: dvsa-2024-v2 · CSV

Does the Kia Rio fail the MOT on brakes more than it should?

What exactly fails on brakes?

If a Kia Rio gets a brakes advisory, how often does it fail next time?

Related pages

Other pages for this model