Does the Mazda MX-5 fail the MOT on road wheels more than it should?
The Mazda MX-5 records 0.19 road wheels failure items per 100 initial MOT tests (2019–2024), against 0.48 expected for a car of the same age mix: about as expected for its class and age (the difference is within its interval or under 0.5 items per 100 tests) (−0.29, 95% interval −0.31 to −0.27). It ranks 467 of 516 models on road wheels (1 = most failures above expected).
Data release dvsa-2024-v2 (24 Sep 2026) · page updated 30 Sep 2026 · all models on road wheels · check a Mazda MX-5 by registration
What exactly fails on road wheels?
The most frequent DVSA defect wording in this group on the Mazda MX-5 is “A wheel with a loose or missing wheel nut, bolt or stud”, recorded 617 times in 2019–2024.
| DVSA defect wording | Items | Per 100 tests |
|---|---|---|
| A wheel with a loose or missing wheel nut, bolt or stud | 617 | 0.12 |
| A wheel badly distorted or wear between wheel and hub at spigot mounting | 121 | 0.02 |
| A wheel with more than one loose or missing wheel nut, bolt or stud | 115 | 0.02 |
| Any fracture or welding defect on a wheel | 59 | 0.01 |
Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 499,285 (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 Mazda MX-5 gets a road wheels advisory, how often does it fail next time?
0.8% of Mazda MX-5 MOTs with a road wheels advisory were followed by a fail in the same group at the next MOT, typically 11.9 months and 1,964 miles later (3,175 advisories followed).
Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 3,175 (advisories followed) · Method: the same vehicles followed to their next ordinary MOT · Updated: 30 Sep 2026 · Release: dvsa-2024-v2 · CSV
Other pages for this model
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