Does the Toyota Corolla fail the MOT on brakes more than it should?
The Toyota Corolla records 19.60 brakes failure items per 100 initial MOT tests (2019–2024), against 18.94 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) (+0.66, 95% interval +0.55 to +0.77). It ranks 282 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 Toyota Corolla by registration
What exactly fails on brakes?
The most frequent DVSA defect wording in this group on the Toyota Corolla is “a brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm”, recorded 18,036 times in 2019–2024.
| DVSA defect wording | Items | Per 100 tests |
|---|---|---|
| a brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm | 18,036 | 2.93 |
| Significant brake effort recorded with no brake applied indicating a binding brake | 17,775 | 2.89 |
| Brake pipe damaged or excessively corroded | 14,682 | 2.39 |
| Parking brake efficiency below minimum requirement | 10,293 | 1.67 |
| Brakes imbalance across an axle such that the braking effort from any wheel is less than 70% of the maximum effort recorded from the other wheel on the same axle. | 7,753 | 1.26 |
Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 615,584 (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 Toyota Corolla gets a brakes advisory, how often does it fail next time?
17.8% of Toyota Corolla MOTs with a brakes advisory were followed by a fail in the same group at the next MOT, typically 12 months and 4,120 miles later (121,713 advisories followed).
Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 121,713 (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
Toyota Corolla 1998 · Toyota Corolla 1999 · Toyota Corolla 2000 · Toyota Corolla 2001 · Toyota Corolla 2002 · Toyota Corolla 2003 · Toyota Corolla 2004 · Toyota Corolla 2005 · Toyota Corolla 2006 · Toyota Corolla 2007 · Toyota Corolla 2008 · Toyota Corolla 2009 · Toyota Corolla 2010 · Toyota Corolla 2019 · Toyota Corolla 2020 · Toyota Corolla in Norway · Toyota Corolla in Finland · Toyota Corolla in the Netherlands · Toyota Corolla by postcode area · Toyota Corolla body, chassis and structure failures · Toyota Corolla vehicle identification failures · Toyota Corolla lamps, reflectors and electrics failures · Toyota Corolla noise, emissions and leaks failures · Toyota Corolla road wheels failures · Toyota Corolla seat belts and airbags failures · Toyota Corolla steering failures · Toyota Corolla suspension failures · Toyota Corolla tyres failures · Toyota Corolla visibility failures