Does the Mercedes-Benz GLA fail the MOT on steering more than it should?

The Mercedes-Benz GLA records 0.09 steering failure items per 100 initial MOT tests (2019–2024), against 0.74 expected for a car of the same age mix: less than expected for its class and age (−0.65, 95% interval −0.68 to −0.62). It ranks 319 of 640 models on steering (1 = most failures above expected).

Data release dvsa-2024-v2 (24 Sep 2026) · page updated 30 Sep 2026 · all models on steering · check a Mercedes-Benz GLA by registration

What exactly fails on steering?

The most frequent DVSA defect wording in this group on the Mercedes-Benz GLA is “A steering ball joint with excessive wear or free play”, recorded 165 times in 2019–2024.

Mercedes-Benz GLA: most frequent steering defect wordings, 2019–2024 (30+ items each)
DVSA defect wording	Items	Per 100 tests
A steering ball joint with excessive wear or free play	165	0.05
Steering rack gaiter or ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated	46	0.01
Steering lock missing or not functioning	37	0.01
Steering rack gaiter or ball joint dust cover missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc	37	0.01

Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 353,008 (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

Does the Mercedes-Benz GLA fail the MOT on steering more than it should?

What exactly fails on steering?

Related pages

Other pages for this model