Suzuki SX4 S-Cross — MOT statistics 2024
The Suzuki SX4 S-Cross failed 8.74% of 2,356 first MOT attempts in 2024 ("first-time", excluding retests). Adjusted for the age of the fleet, its initial-failure ratio is 70.1 (100 = expected for its age profile). This car fails its MOT about 30% less often than expected for its age. Small sample — treat with care.
Age-adjusted peer: Suzuki Celerio (index 70.0) — the two published results are 0.1 index points apart.
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross common problems: what actually fails the MOT
Tyres are well below the reference at 2.4 per 100 tests, against 5.7 per 100 tests across UK vehicles of the same ages.
higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests
family vs national — matched to UK vehicles 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 2 groups compared here, roughly one apparent difference in twenty is chance alone.
| Group | This family | Cases behind it | UK, same ages | Family / national |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Visibility | 5.1 | 157 | 4.3 | 1.18×1.01–1.39 |
| Tyres | 2.4 | 74 | 5.7 | 0.42×0.33–0.53 |
| What failed | per 100 tests (this family) | per 100 tests (UK average) | ratio family / UK | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wiper blade defectiveWiper blade defective | 2.29 | 1.26 | 1.82× | Check wipers, washers and windscreen chips in the driver's view |
Named defects ranked by how much more often they appear than the national average — not by raw rate.
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross MOT advisories: what gets flagged
Tyres are highest at 24.8 per 100 tests; Non-component advisories are lowest at 4.9 per 100 tests — the gap is 19.9 per 100 tests.
higher bar = flagged more oftenadvisory items per 100 initial tests
Advisory rates table
| Group | Advisories per 100 |
|---|---|
| Tyres | 24.8 |
| Brakes | 6.1 |
| Non-component advisories | 4.9 |
Advisories are wear the tester noted but didn't fail — what will need money soon.
Tyres, brakes and suspension: Suzuki SX4 S-Cross against cars of the same age
| Age | Part | Suzuki SX4 S-Cross | Same age, petrol and diesel | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 years | Tyres | 1.73 | 4.17 | -2.44 |
| 3 years | Brakes | 0.69 | 1.77 | -1.08 |
| 3 years | Suspension | 0.26 | 0.63 | -0.37 |
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.
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 car with vehicles of the same age, and then with vehicles of the same age and the same annual mileage, 2019-2024, on 3,055 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 for | Index | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Age only | 71.9 | fails less often than expected |
| Age and annual mileage | 78.7 | fails less often than vehicles driven as much |
| Share doing under 3,000 miles a year | 11.8% | a normal spread of use |
Mileage matters here: matching on how much these are driven moves the figure by 6.8 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 car 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 Suzuki SX4 S-Cross compares with cars of its own age and size
Not against the whole fleet — against cars of the same size class tested at the same age, 2019-2024.
| Age | Suzuki SX4 S-Cross | Same class, same age | Difference | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 years | 9.52% | 11.3% | -1.78 pp | 2,311 |
| 4 years | 7.23% | 14.24% | -7.01 pp | 553 |
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 Suzuki SX4 S-Cross perform as it gets older?
The SX4 S-Cross at age 4 is well below the reference at 7.4%, against 13.1% for all vehicles of the same age.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Chart axes: car age, years · failure-rate scale 0–16%.
Takeaway: solid line: this family; dashed: all cars.
Data table
| Age | Suzuki SX4 S-Cross | All vehicles | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 9.4% | 12.4% | -3.0 pp |
| 4 | 7.4% | 13.1% | -5.7 pp |
Is a Suzuki SX4 S-Cross ULEZ compliant?
The share of classifiable 2024 Suzuki SX4 S-Cross MOT tests likely ULEZ compliant by first-registration date is 100.0%.
Based on 2,356 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
| Vehicle age at test | Likely ULEZ-compliant share | Tests |
|---|---|---|
| Under 3 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 63 |
| 3–5 years | 100.0% Check a registration with TfL | n = 2,291 |
| 6–7 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 1 |
| 8 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 1 |
| 9 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 0 |
| 10–14 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 0 |
| 15–17 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 0 |
| 18 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 0 |
| 19 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 0 |
| 20+ years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 0 |
How dangerous are Suzuki SX4 S-Cross MOT failures?
Major defects are well below the reference at 4.4 per 100 tests, against 52.8 per 100 tests nationally.
higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests
Severity table
| Severity | This family /100 | National /100 | Family / national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minor | 3.79 | 14.22 | 0.27× |
| Major | 4.35 | 52.75 | 0.08× |
| Dangerous | 2.12 | 11.15 | 0.19× |
Chart values: Minor 3.8 · Major 4.3 · Dangerous 2.1.
Per 100 tests on this family. National average: Minor 14.2 · Major 52.8 · Dangerous 11.2 per 100.
Does the month of a Suzuki SX4 S-Cross MOT matter?
Mar is highest at 11.8%; Nov is lowest at 7.3% — the gap is 4.5 percentage points.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Chart scale: 6%–33%.
bars: Suzuki SX4 S-Cross · dashed: all class-4 cars
Month-by-month table
| Month | Suzuki SX4 S-Cross | All vehicles | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 7.87% | 31.12% | -23.3 pp |
| Feb | 7.75% | 29.99% | -22.2 pp |
| Mar | 11.76% | 28.26% | -16.5 pp |
| Apr | 10.29% | 29.78% | -19.5 pp |
| May | 10.84% | 28.79% | -17.9 pp |
| Jun | 7.34% | 28.15% | -20.8 pp |
| Jul | 8.13% | 29.33% | -21.2 pp |
| Aug | 9.45% | 29.2% | -19.8 pp |
| Sep | 9.16% | 28.19% | -19.0 pp |
| Oct | 9.43% | 30.34% | -20.9 pp |
| Nov | 7.26% | 30.58% | -23.3 pp |
| Dec | 8.39% | 29.33% | -20.9 pp |
Takeaway: the spread between best and worst month is 4.5 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.
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross average mileage by age
At age 4, the middle half of SX4 S-Cross models runs from 15,940 miles to 31,560 miles, against 23,438 miles as the median.
further right = more milesmedian is the typical car; band is p25–p75
Does high mileage mean more Suzuki SX4 S-Cross MOT failures at the same age?
Within the same age group, split by odometer (2024 MOTs), so this separates wear from age: at ages 3–5, 8.3% of those with under 40,000 miles failed first time versus 14.1% of those with 40,000–70,000 miles.Inside this age group, higher mileage goes with more failures.
| Age | Odometer | % failing | 95% interval | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3–5 | <40k miles | 8.3% | 7.2–9.6% | 2,024 |
| 3–5 | 40-70k miles | 14.1% | 10.3–18.9% | 249 (rough estimate) |
line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75)
Mileage by age (p25 / median / p75)
| Age | p25 | Median | p75 | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 13,751 | 20,347 | 30,032 | 1,746 |
| 4 | 15,940 | 23,438 | 31,560 | 527 |
A typical 4-year-old SX4 S-Cross has ~23,438 miles on the clock. Much more — ask why; much less — check for gaps in the MOT history.
Where in Britain the Suzuki SX4 S-Cross fails its MOT most
Too few tests in any single postcode area to name one, so this is the wider picture across 3,059 tests, 2019-2024.
| Part of Britain | % failing | Tests |
|---|---|---|
| Wales | 11.92% | 193 |
| Southern England | 11.29% | 921 |
| Scotland | 8.87% | 417 |
| Northern England | 7.69% | 689 |
| Midlands | 7.27% | 839 |
Raw pass/fail rates, not age-adjusted: fleets differ by region. England is split north of Sheffield, between Sheffield and Oxford, and south of it.
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross survival: which cars are still on the road
By age 4 is close to the reference at 100.0%, against 100.0% at the ages 4–6 reference level.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Survival vs fail rate by age
| Age | Tests | Survival vs ages 4–6 | Fail % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2,311 | 100% | 9.52% |
| 4 | 553 | 100% | 7.23% |
By age 4, only about 100% as many cars of this family present for MOT as at ages 4–6 (reference n≈553); survivors still fail at 7.2% vs 7.2% at age 4. Older cars that still appear are a selected subset — weaker ones have already left.
How many years is a Suzuki SX4 S-Cross likely to last?
| Age now | Typical mileage (p50) | Expected years left |
|---|
estimateObserved only until age 4. The curve does not run five years past the stated age with the share still tested under 50%, so no 'years left' number is given.
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross faults that come together
| Group A | Group B | Together | Lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | Visibility | 8 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Visibility | 7 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Tyres | Visibility | 7 | too few (rough estimate) |
Defects in «Brakes» and «Visibility» were seen together in 8 tests (36 pairs compared).
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).
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross running costs for a fleet
Vehicles failing at age 4 are well below the reference at 7.0%, against 9.0% at age 3, tested in the same year.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Failure rate and typical odometer by age
| Age | Fails | Median odometer | Tests | Gap vs age 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 9.45% | 20,347 | 1,746 | — |
| 4 | 7.4% | 23,438 | 527 | — |
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.
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross rust problems: where they corrode
Salt-belt exposure stands out at highest percentile, against 50th percentile as the middle of published models.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
This Suzuki SX4 S-Cross has too few tests to judge for corrosion once age is held constant, and its owners live in areas that are saltier than most for the models we publish.
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.
What will fail next on a Suzuki SX4 S-Cross?
Visibility after a advisory at age <3 is highest at 9.8%; Tyres after a passed at age <3 are lowest at 1.6% — the gap is 8.2 percentage points.
higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability
| Age | Last test | Most likely next failures | Cars tracked |
|---|---|---|---|
| <3 | passed | Visibility 3.8% · Tyres 1.6% | 500 |
| <3 | advisory | Visibility 9.8% | 82 (rough estimate) |
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.
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross ownership: what six years of MOTs show
Odometer anomalies stand out at 0.3%.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
Per mile driven, not per year. Dividing failures by the miles that actually went onto the odometers between consecutive tests gives 0.11 failures per 10,000 miles, on a median of 5,655 miles a year across 681 chains. This is the number to compare between models — an annual rate quietly rewards cars that barely leave the drive.
Odometer anomalies: 0.293% of 683 chains show a reading lower than the previous test, with a median drop of 49,954 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.
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross safety recalls and how to check yours
DVSA recall campaigns stand out at 4.
bigger number = more recorded casescompare like-for-like scope, not sample size alone
recall campaigns launched per year
| Reference | Launched | Vehicles | Concern |
|---|---|---|---|
R/2021/059 | 26/02/2021 | 7,001 | VEHICLE EMISSION OUTPUTS MAY NOT BE CORRECT |
R/2016/095 | 09/05/2016 | 10,945 | FRONT AIRBAGS MAY NOT DEPLOY CORRECTLY |
R/2016/041 | 08/03/2016 | 2,760 | REAR AXLE MAY FAIL |
R/2016/041 | 08/03/2016 | 2,760 | REAR AXLE MAY FAIL |
DVSA lists 4 safety recall campaigns for the Suzuki SX4 S-Cross, covering roughly 23,466 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.
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross inspection results in other countries
United Kingdom MOT is well below the reference at 8.7%, against 26.0% nationally.
higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points
| Country | Test | This model fails | National average | Position | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | MOT (class 4) | 8.74% | 26.01% | -17.3 pp | 2,356 |
| Norway | PKK | 23.6% | 33.7% | -10.1 pp | 3,165 |
The verdict is consistent across every regime where the difference is clear, which is the strongest form this comparison takes: independent inspectorates, different rulebooks, same direction of travel.
Britain is not the only country that inspects every car every year, and the Suzuki SX4 S-Cross is on the road in all of them. Each national regime writes its own rules, so the pass rates below are not comparable to each other — what does travel across a border is whether a model sits above or below its own country's average.
Rows with fewer than 500 inspections are not published. Sources: Statens vegvesen — Periodisk kjøretøykontroll (PKK) 2024, CC BY 4.0. Adapted; licences and full notice.
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross MOT: quick answers
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross MOT Risk Index is well below the reference at 70.1, 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 Suzuki SX4 S-Cross first-time MOT pass rate?
- 91.26% of first attempts passed in 2024 (2,356 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 8.74% figure is the first-time initial failure rate, using 2,356 primary tests as the denominator (first-time, excluding retests). The age-adjusted MOT initial-failure ratio 70.1 is shown separately because raw rates compare fleet age as well as cars.
Compare the Suzuki SX4 S-Cross with other cars
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross is highest at 70.1; Audi Q7 is lowest at 69.8 — the gap is 0.3 points.
below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age
Same brand
All Suzuki MOT statisticsSuzuki Celerio MOT statsSuzuki Vitara MOT stats
Similar risk
Suzuki Celerio (index 70.0)Audi Q5 (index 69.9)Audi Q7 (index 69.8)
Same size class
how Nissan NV300 compareshow SsangYong Musso compareshow Nissan GT-R compares
By area
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross MOT failure rate by postcode area
By failure group
Suzuki SX4 S-Cross tyres failuresSuzuki SX4 S-Cross visibility failures
Inspections abroad
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:suzuki-sx4-s-cross:dvsa-2024-v2. Full method: methodology.
Cite: MOT Risk Index (2026). Suzuki SX4 S-Cross MOT statistics 2024 (data release dvsa-2024-v2; downloadable dataset motriskindex-families-2024-v5, doi:10.5281/zenodo.22975051). https://motriskindex.co.uk/cars/suzuki-sx4-s-cross/ · Published 2026-07-30.