MOT Risk Index.co.uk

Vauxhall Meriva — MOT statistics 2024

The Vauxhall Meriva failed 36.97% of 91,310 first MOT attempts in 2024 ("first-time", excluding retests). Adjusted for the age of the fleet, its initial-failure ratio is 104.9 (100 = expected for its age profile). This car fails its MOT about 5% more often than expected for its age.

MOT risk index 104.9, 95% CI 104.1–105.8 (100 = national average) 100 104.9 0 200
Index
104.9
100 = age-normal
Raw fail rate
36.97%
n = 91,310
Dangerous /100
14
national ≈11
Diesel − petrol
+0.6 pp
fail-rate gap
Rank
509 of 761
lower index = better

Age-adjusted peer: Kia Sportage (index 104.9) — the two published results are 0.0 index points apart.

Vauxhall Meriva common problems: what actually fails the MOT

Suspension stands out at 24.5 per 100 tests, against 18.6 per 100 tests across UK vehicles of the same ages.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

Vauxhall Meriva common problems: what actually fails the MOT — 2024 UK MOT data

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 6 groups compared here, roughly one apparent difference in twenty is chance alone, and 1 of these is already inside an interval that includes 1.00×.

GroupThis familyCases behind itUK, same agesFamily / national
Suspension24.5168,59218.61.32×1.31–1.33
Lamps & electrical20.0137,34920.90.96×0.95–0.96
Brakes17.5120,36713.31.31×1.31–1.32
Tyres10.471,6309.71.08×1.07–1.09
Body & structure8.961,5196.31.41×1.40–1.42
Visibility8.558,1238.51.00×0.99–1.00 · not distinguishable
Named defects — items per 100 initial tests, this family vs UK national average; this model measured on 687,721 tests, 2019-2024, national column 2024
What failedper 100 tests (this family)per 100 tests (UK average)ratio family / UKWhat to check
Spring or spring component fractured or seriously…A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened8.632.863.02×Ask the seller about: A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened
Brake pipe damaged or excessively corrodedBrake pipe damaged or excessively corroded5.391.413.84×Look underneath for rust or cracks around subframe and suspension mountings
Suspension joint dust cover missing or no longer…A suspension joint dust cover missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc3.951.782.21×Listen for knocks over bumps — worn joints show up on the test
Steering ball joint with excessive wear or free playA steering ball joint with excessive wear or free play2.921.222.39×Ask the seller about: A steering ball joint with excessive wear or free play
Aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down…The aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down in the requirements3.352.571.31×Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure
Tyre seriously damagedA tyre seriously damaged3.222.541.27×Check tyre tread depth across the full width
Brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mma brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm2.822.151.31×Feel for brake judder and pulling on the test drive
Suspension pin, bush or joint excessively wornA suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn5.354.871.10×Listen for knocks over bumps — worn joints show up on the test
Rear registration plate lamp or light source…A rear registration plate lamp or light source missing or inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources2.872.831.01×Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure
Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the…Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements3.573.590.99×Check tyre tread depth across the full width

Named defects ranked by how much more often they appear than the national average — not by raw rate.

Vauxhall Meriva MOT advisories: what gets flagged

Brakes are highest at 49.0 per 100 tests; Body & structure are lowest at 9.9 per 100 tests — the gap is 39.1 per 100 tests.

higher bar = flagged more oftenadvisory items per 100 initial tests

Vauxhall Meriva MOT advisories: what gets flagged — 2024 UK MOT data
Advisory rates table
GroupAdvisories per 100
Brakes49
Tyres46
Suspension27.2
Non-component advisories12.3
Emissions & leaks10.2
Body & structure9.9

Advisories are wear the tester noted but didn't fail — what will need money soon.

Tyres, brakes and suspension: Vauxhall Meriva against cars of the same age

AgePartVauxhall MerivaSame age, petrol and dieselDifference
3 yearsTyres3.234.17-0.94
3 yearsBrakes0.651.77-1.12
3 yearsSuspension0.220.63-0.41
4 yearsTyres4.224.54-0.32
4 yearsBrakes1.022.43-1.41
4 yearsSuspension0.811.21-0.40
5 yearsTyres4.745.06-0.32
5 yearsBrakes1.883.09-1.21
5 yearsSuspension2.392.190.20
6 yearsTyres5.215.54-0.33
6 yearsBrakes2.643.81-1.17
6 yearsSuspension5.73.721.98
7 yearsTyres6.015.950.06
7 yearsBrakes3.534.55-1.02
7 yearsSuspension8.365.682.68
8 yearsTyres6.566.310.25
8 yearsBrakes3.835.38-1.55
8 yearsSuspension10.547.782.76

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.

If a car like this fails, does it fail again?

A failure rate does not say whether a failure is a one-off or the start of something. This follows the same vehicles into their next ordinary MOT a year later — retests after a repair are excluded, because they follow a failure by definition. 2019-2024.

After this year's testFails next yearVehicles followed
It failed41.6%43,100
It passed29.8%339,897

A failed test raises next year's chance of failing again by 11.8 percentage points. The failure most likely to come back is body, chassis, structure — 41.0% of those vehicles fail again next year. Some of this is the vehicle and some is the owner: a car that was let go once tends to be let go again. One caveat: a car that fails may be sold or scrapped rather than tested again, so these figures describe the vehicles that came back.

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 683,130 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 forIndexReading
Age only109.1fails more often than expected
Age and annual mileage114.6fails more often than vehicles driven as much
Share doing under 3,000 miles a year7.3%a normal spread of use

Mileage matters here: matching on how much these are driven moves the figure by 5.5 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 Vauxhall Meriva 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.

AgeVauxhall MerivaSame class, same ageDifferenceTests
3 years9.71%11.3%-1.59 pp12,214
4 years11.2%14.25%-3.05 pp19,537
5 years14.81%17.42%-2.61 pp27,431
6 years19.27%20.76%-1.5 pp35,894
7 years23.25%24.33%-1.08 pp46,008
8 years26.63%28.16%-1.54 pp59,737
9 years30.76%32.04%-1.28 pp66,196
10 years34.55%35.61%-1.06 pp65,159
11 years38.96%38.65%+0.31 pp65,798
12 years43.06%41.22%+1.83 pp64,886
13 years46.32%43.25%+3.07 pp61,896
14 years51.47%44.96%+6.51 pp50,240
15 years54.05%46.22%+7.83 pp42,128
16 years54.75%47.26%+7.49 pp30,994
17 years53.69%47.74%+5.95 pp19,665
18 years54.54%47.95%+6.59 pp11,394
19 years53.79%47.71%+6.08 pp5,468
20 years51.18%47.35%+3.82 pp2,212

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 Vauxhall Meriva perform as it gets older?

The Meriva at age 20 stands out at 51.5%, against 41.0% for all vehicles of the same age.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

How does the Vauxhall Meriva perform as it gets older? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · failure-rate scale 0–58%.

Takeaway: a 10-year-old Meriva has roughly a 28% chance of failing its MOT; from about age 14 it stays above the national age curve.

Data table
AgeVauxhall MerivaAll vehiclesGap
723.4%20.2%+3.2 pp
824.1%23.3%+0.8 pp
927.1%26.5%+0.6 pp
1028.4%30.1%-1.7 pp
1132.5%33.2%-0.7 pp
1232.6%35.7%-3.1 pp
1335.4%38.2%-2.8 pp
1442.2%40.4%+1.8 pp
1549.0%41.6%+7.4 pp
1651.7%43.1%+8.6 pp
1750.8%43.1%+7.7 pp
1853.6%43.9%+9.7 pp
1953.3%43.5%+9.8 pp
2051.5%41.0%+10.5 pp

Is a Vauxhall Meriva ULEZ compliant?

The share of classifiable 2024 Vauxhall Meriva MOT tests likely ULEZ compliant by first-registration date is 78.8%.

Based on 91,003 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

Age-band estimate from classifiable initial MOT tests
Vehicle age at testLikely ULEZ-compliant shareTests
Under 3 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
3–5 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0
6–7 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 4,493
8 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 6,481
9 years94.2%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 8,272
10–14 years73.3%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 48,545
15–17 years92.8%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 14,958
18 years90.5%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 3,847
19 years0.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 2,352
20+ years0.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 2,055

How dangerous are Vauxhall Meriva MOT failures?

Major defects stand out at 73.4 per 100 tests, against 52.8 per 100 tests nationally.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

How dangerous are Vauxhall Meriva MOT failures? — 2024 UK MOT data
Severity table
SeverityThis family /100National /100Family / national
Minor14.1114.220.99×
Major73.3552.751.39×
Dangerous13.8111.151.24×

Chart values: Minor 14.1 · Major 73.3 · Dangerous 13.8.

Per 100 tests on this family. National average: Minor 14.2 · Major 52.8 · Dangerous 11.2 per 100.

Does the month of a Vauxhall Meriva MOT matter?

Apr is highest at 39.1%; Sep is lowest at 34.7% — the gap is 4.4 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Does the month of a Vauxhall Meriva MOT matter? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart scale: 27%–41%.

bars: Vauxhall Meriva · dashed: all class-4 cars

Month-by-month table
MonthVauxhall MerivaAll vehiclesGap
Jan37.9%31.12%+6.8 pp
Feb37.76%29.99%+7.8 pp
Mar36.45%28.26%+8.2 pp
Apr39.08%29.78%+9.3 pp
May37.63%28.79%+8.8 pp
Jun36.02%28.15%+7.9 pp
Jul36.31%29.33%+7.0 pp
Aug36.35%29.2%+7.2 pp
Sep34.66%28.19%+6.5 pp
Oct36.66%30.34%+6.3 pp
Nov37.04%30.58%+6.5 pp
Dec36.85%29.33%+7.5 pp

Takeaway: the spread between best and worst month is 4.4 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.

Vauxhall Meriva average mileage by age

At age 8, the middle half of Merivas runs from 32,423 miles to 61,165 miles, against 45,469 miles as the median.

further right = more milesmedian is the typical car; band is p25–p75

Bars: Vauxhall Meriva · dashed: all class-4 cars — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · odometer scale 0–116k mi.

Does high mileage mean more Vauxhall Meriva MOT failures at the same age?

Within the same age group, split by odometer (2024 MOTs), so this separates wear from age: at ages 10–14, 21.4% of those with under 40,000 miles failed first time versus 47% of those with over 140,000 miles.Inside this age group, higher mileage goes with more failures.

Does high mileage mean more Vauxhall Meriva MOT failures at the same age? — 2024 UK MOT data
Vauxhall Meriva: first-time failure by mileage within each age group (2024)
AgeOdometer% failing95% intervalTests
6–9<40k miles17.9%17.1–18.8%7,352
6–940-70k miles27.6%26.7–28.6%8,512
6–970-100k miles34%32.3–35.8%2,755
6–9100-140k miles38.6%34.6–42.7%555
6–9140k+ miles38.8%28–50.8%67 (rough estimate)
10–14<40k miles21.4%20.3–22.6%4,604
10–1440-70k miles29.5%28.8–30.2%16,202
10–1470-100k miles37.3%36.6–38%17,775
10–14100-140k miles43.9%42.9–45%8,570
10–14140k+ miles47%44.2–49.7%1,254
15+<40k miles33.7%31–36.5%1,127
15+40-70k miles44.7%43.4–46%5,685
15+70-100k miles53.1%52.1–54.2%8,869
15+100-140k miles56.1%54.9–57.4%6,118
15+140k+ miles60%57–62.9%1,077

line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75)

Mileage by age (p25 / median / p75)
Agep25Medianp75Tests
726,95638,34752,0244,466
832,42345,46961,1656,481
937,50552,34069,4188,273
1041,74957,59875,3967,588
1148,88265,52483,4117,792
1257,74074,39592,5708,881
1366,22684,176103,46014,553
1464,80583,298101,9509,733
1561,29980,22099,8275,220
1666,98685,484104,4835,146
1767,34186,481106,9744,594
1866,55287,662108,7393,848
1969,18389,492110,1512,352
20+68,85488,224110,1762,055

A typical 8-year-old Meriva has ~45,469 miles on the clock. Much more — ask why; much less — check for gaps in the MOT history.

Where in Britain the Vauxhall Meriva fails its MOT most

Kirkcaldy area is highest at 52.4%; Bromley area is lowest at 24.1% — the gap is 28.3 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Vauxhall Meriva line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75) — 2024 UK MOT data
Toughest areas% failingvs model overall
Kirkcaldy (KY)52.36%+15.6 pp
Dundee (DD)51.18%+14.4 pp
Llandrindod Wells (LD)50.12%+13.3 pp
Aberdeen (AB)47.46%+10.7 pp
Perth (PH)46.53%+9.8 pp
Easiest areas% failingvs model overall
Bromley (BR)24.09%-12.7 pp
Sutton (SM)26.81%-10.0 pp
Kingston upon Thames (KT)27.28%-9.5 pp
Uxbridge (UB)27.69%-9.1 pp
Dartford (DA)27.76%-9.0 pp

Why do areas differ?

For each external factor we correlate the area fail rate with the factor across postcode areas that have ≥800 tests of this family, then compare the bottom vs top fifth (quintile) of the factor. Correlation, not causation — factors travel together (the north is colder and often poorer; urban areas are denser and less salted). Road surface condition is joined now, for the 91 English areas the DfT publishes, and it explains nothing: the correlation with suspension failures is −0.01 and with body and structure failures 0.07. Potholes wreck wheels and tyres between tests, but by the time a car reaches the bay the road it drives on leaves no measurable trace.

In areas with the highest mot centre density this model fails 10.6 pp more often than in the lowest fifth (r=0.69, n=115 areas with ≥800 tests).

In areas with the highest frost days this model fails 8.3 pp more often than in the lowest fifth (r=0.60, n=115 areas with ≥800 tests).

In areas with the highest road-salt proxy this model fails 9.0 pp more often than in the lowest fifth (r=0.58, n=115 areas with ≥800 tests).

Vauxhall Meriva Why do areas differ? — 2024 UK MOT data
Values shown in the quintile chart
FactorLow QHigh QGapCorrelation
MOT centre density30.5%41.1%+10.6 ppr=0.69
Frost days34.3%42.5%+8.2 ppr=0.60
Road-salt proxy33.5%42.5%+9.0 ppr=0.58

Factors that only mean something combined

Some conditions are useless on their own and informative multiplied together. Frost days alone say little — Britain barely freezes. Salt tonnage alone says little — it tracks frost. Distance to the sea alone says little. Multiply the first two and divide by the third and you get an index of how hard an area attacks a car's underside, and it lines up with the corrosion defects we actually record. We built five such combinations and tested each against our own data. Three survived; two did not, and the failures are listed here on purpose — a proxy that was never checked is decoration. One survivor only survived on the second attempt: built from a crude stand-in for street parking it failed outright, and rebuilt from the census — terraced streets carrying more cars than they have driveways — it works, and carries information the salt index does not.

Composite area indicators, each tested against a defect rate we measure
CompositeBuilt fromTested againstrVerdict
Underbody corrosionfrost days × salt load ÷ (distance to coast + 1)share of tests with a corrosion defect+0.42holds (116 areas)
Tyre wearrain days × annual miles ÷ age at first tyre advisoryshare of tests failing on tyres+0.45holds (116 areas)
Overnight corrosionterraced housing × cars per household × frost daysshare with a corrosion defect+0.41holds (102 areas) — and adds signal beyond the first index
Deferred maintenancedeprivation × advisory-to-failure conversion ÷ labour ratecars repeating the same advisory−0.26fails (118 areas)
Powertrain stressengine capacity ÷ kerb weightsuspension, brake and emissions failures−0.16fails (22 models)

The deprivation result is the one worth dwelling on. The intuition that poorer areas defer repairs is strong enough that most people treat it as established. We tested it twice — once on raw failure rates (r = 0.04) and again, more fairly, on whether an advisory turns into a failure — and it did not hold any of the three times we tried it — on raw failure rates, on advisory-to-failure conversion, and again with deprivation measured properly inside each nation rather than England alone. We are closing it. What does predict local failure rates is the density of test centres, which is a statement about testing, not about cars.

All external-factor correlations (machine-readable)
Factorrn areasLow-Q fail %High-Q fail %Gap ppLow-Q factorHigh-Q factor
MOT centre density (per 10k vehicles)0.68811530.541.1+10.658.8
Frost days (days/year)0.59811534.342.5+8.311.837.7
Road-salt proxy (g/m²-yr)0.58311533.542.5+9.0223667.4
Urban share (0–1)-0.42711539.431.8-7.70.41
Distance to coast (km)-0.31411540.735.9-4.9678.7
Terrain gradient (% grade)0.2686837.440.3+2.90.53.7
Income deprivation (score)0.2559733.737.3+3.60.10.2

Deprivation uses England IMD 2019 income score only (Scotland SIMD is a different scale). Salt proxy is a simplified NWSRG-style dry-salt sum from air Tmin; coastalness is distance from the area centroid to the nearest coastline.

Every dot is a postcode area — size = how many were tested there, colour = share failing. These figures are not age-adjusted: coastal and rural areas often run older fleets and salted roads, so higher raw fail rates do not automatically mean a worse local stock of this model.

Map labels: Scotland · N. England · Wales · London · S. West. Colour scale: 28%–46% failing.

Vauxhall Meriva survival: which cars are still on the road

By age 19 is well below the reference at 19.8%, against 100.0% at the ages 4–6 reference level.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Vauxhall Meriva survival: which cars are still on the road — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · survival vs ages 4–6 · scale 0–105%.

Survival vs fail rate by age
AgeTestsSurvival vs ages 4–6Fail %
312,21444.2%9.71%
419,53770.7%11.2%
527,43199.3%14.81%
635,894100%19.27%
746,008100%23.25%
859,737100%26.63%
966,196100%30.76%
1065,159100%34.55%
1165,798100%38.96%
1264,886100%43.06%
1361,896100%46.32%
1450,240100%51.47%
1542,128100%54.05%
1630,994100%54.75%
1719,66571.2%53.69%
1811,39441.3%54.54%
195,46819.8%53.79%

By age 19, only about 20% as many cars of this family present for MOT as at ages 4–6 (reference n≈27,620); survivors still fail at 53.8% vs 11.2% at age 4. Older cars that still appear are a selected subset — weaker ones have already left.

How many miles does a Vauxhall Meriva last?

100,000+ miles is highest at 15.4%; 150,000+ miles is lowest at 1.0% — the gap is 14.3 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

OdometerTests ≥ thresholdShare of sample
100,000+ miles104,96315.36%
150,000+ miles6,9611.02%

Of 683,425 tests of this family with a usable odometer in 2024, 15.4% had reached 100k miles, 1.0% had reached 150k miles. This is a cross-section of cars still presenting for MOT, not a full birth cohort.

How many years is a Vauxhall Meriva likely to last?

Bought at age 5 is highest at 12.9 years; Bought at age 15 is lowest at 2.8 years — the gap is 10.1 years.

bigger number = longer remaining lifeyears on the observed survival curve

Age nowTypical mileage (p50)Expected years left
5—12.9
8—9.8
10—7.8
12—5.8
15—at least 2.8

estimateEstimate only — not a warranty: a typical 10-year-old example of this family has about 7.8 expected years of further MOT-present life on the 2024 survival curve. Derived from how many cars of each age still appear for test, not from a longitudinal panel.

Vauxhall Meriva faults that come together

Road Wheels + Seatbelts & SRS stand out at 5.09×, against 1.00× if the faults were independent.

above 1.0× = more than expectedbelow 1.0× = less

Group AGroup BTogetherLift
Road WheelsSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems445.09× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSpeedometer and speed limiter304.96× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureNoise, emissions and leaks10,7314.8×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSeat belt installation check264.39× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleNoise, emissions and leaks3884.2× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksRoad Wheels2204.16× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentRoad Wheels6114.06×
Identification of the vehicleLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment1,0443.97×
Road WheelsTyres3533.93× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems8563.89×
BrakesSteering9,0473.75×
Body, chassis, structureSteering7,0673.72×
BrakesNoise, emissions and leaks10,3393.65×
Identification of the vehicleSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems553.64× (rough estimate)
BrakesRoad Wheels3983.57× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleVisibility5183.56×
Road WheelsVisibility2953.54× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksSteering4,0523.53×
BrakesIdentification of the vehicle6873.53×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentNoise, emissions and leaks13,4283.5×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSteering11,3933.49×
Road WheelsSteering1543.42× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems2,1183.38×
Body, chassis, structureIdentification of the vehicle5123.34×
Body, chassis, structureBrakes15,5553.31×
Body, chassis, structureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment20,8983.29×
Body, chassis, structureRoad Wheels2893.29× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleSteering2593.29× (rough estimate)
BrakesLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment25,4763.16×
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsVisibility1,0863.13×
Identification of the vehicleTyres4913.12× (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsSteering5643.01×
Noise, emissions and leaksVisibility6,1522.9×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentVisibility17,3482.88×
BrakesSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems1,3262.86×
SteeringSuspension12,4032.84×
Noise, emissions and leaksTyres6,2822.74×
Road WheelsSuspension5472.71×
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsTyres1,0022.68×
BrakesSuspension28,4042.63×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentTyres17,1402.63×
Identification of the vehicleSuspension9282.63×
Body, chassis, structureSuspension22,1562.6×
SteeringTyres5,0642.6×
Body, chassis, structureSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems9502.6×
BrakesTyres12,3542.56×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSuspension37,1752.54×
Noise, emissions and leaksSuspension12,9302.52×
Body, chassis, structureVisibility8,8472.52×
SteeringVisibility4,5112.5×
BrakesVisibility11,0782.48×
TyresVisibility8,7402.43×
Body, chassis, structureTyres8,6612.28×
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsSuspension1,8472.2×
SuspensionVisibility16,5662.05×
SuspensionTyres17,7882.04×
Identification of the vehicleRoad Wheels18too few (rough estimate)
Speedometer and speed limiterSuspension16too few (rough estimate)
BrakesSpeedometer and speed limiter13too few (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureSeat belt installation check12too few (rough estimate)
Seat belt installation checkTyres11too few (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksSeat belt installation check10too few (rough estimate)
Seat belt installation checkVisibility9too few (rough estimate)
Speedometer and speed limiterVisibility9too few (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureSpeedometer and speed limiter9too few (rough estimate)
BrakesSeat belt installation check9too few (rough estimate)
Seat belt installation checkSuspension8too few (rough estimate)
Buses and coaches supplementary testsSuspension7too few (rough estimate)
Speedometer and speed limiterTyres7too few (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureBuses and coaches supplementary tests6too few (rough estimate)
Speedometer and speed limiterSteering6too few (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksSpeedometer and speed limiter6too few (rough estimate)

Defects in «Body, chassis, structure» and «Noise, emissions and leaks» appear together 4.80× more often than chance (10,731 co-occurrences in the same test; lift≥1.3, n≥500).

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).

Is low mileage better for a Vauxhall Meriva?

Cars driven under 5,000 miles a year is well below the reference at 25.8%, against 40.8% for cars driven 8,000–12,000 miles a year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

BandFail %Tests
<5k miles/year25.82%152,971
8–12k miles/year40.8%124,598
Gap (low − normal)-14.98 pp—
By fuel and age

Diesel

AgeLow-use fail %nNormal fail %nGap pp
512.846118.17721-5.37 pp
614.566224.191,199-9.69 pp
718.541,30029.662,262-11.13 pp
819.852,50432.465,058-12.62 pp
922.22,87935.335,387-13.13 pp
1022.542,91937.75,141-15.15 pp
1126.042,83842.974,938-16.93 pp
1228.382,77746.314,425-17.93 pp
1330.692,29149.193,476-18.51 pp
1440.241,16857.291,810-17.05 pp

Petrol

AgeLow-use fail %nNormal fail %nGap pp
59.469,61120.374,934-10.91 pp
613.0311,84926.036,474-13 pp
716.313,66829.588,060-13.28 pp
818.3813,89233.2410,558-14.85 pp
922.2814,10838.0412,531-15.76 pp
1026.2913,58242.9911,667-16.7 pp
1130.3313,47047.4911,412-17.15 pp
1235.2713,78652.7510,102-17.48 pp
1338.8414,67955.18,541-16.26 pp
1443.7614,52359.095,874-15.33 pp

At matched ages 5–14, cars averaging under 5k miles/year fail at 25.8% vs 40.8% for 8–12k miles/year — 15.0 pp lower (n_low=152,971, n_normal=124,598). In this family low annual use is associated with fewer MOT fails, not more — the ‘garage queen’ penalty is not visible in overall fail rates. Diesel alone: 25.0% low-use vs 40.2% normal (-15.2 pp).

Which Vauxhall Meriva engine is best?

petrol 1.5–1.8 is highest at 107.6; diesel 1.2–1.5 is lowest at 93.2 — the gap is 14.4 points.

below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age

Engine bands against this model's own failure rate at the same ages
FuelCapacityvs own age normRaw fail %Tests
diesel1.2–1.5 litre93.234.63%592 (rough estimate)
diesel1.5–1.8 litre96.434.98%97,614
petrol1.2–1.5 litre97.232.22%437,980
petrol1.0–1.2 litre102.443.94%874 (rough estimate)
diesel1.0–1.2 litre106.740.89%20,088
petrol1.5–1.8 litre107.652.7%130,012

Splitting this model by fuel alone hides the thing that actually differs. Within the same badge, the petrol 1.5–1.8 runs at 107.6 against this model's own age norm while the diesel 1.5–1.8 runs at 96.4 — a spread of 11.2 points between two cars that share a name.

Read this one with more care than the rest of the page. Age is held constant, but who buys which engine is not: the largest capacity in a range is often a performance or executive variant that is garaged, cherished and lightly driven, while the smallest is frequently a fleet or entry car worked hard from new. The gap below is real in the test records; how much of it is the engine and how much is the owner, this data cannot separate. Bands under 100 tests are not shown; bands under 5,000 tests are rough estimates.

Best year for a Vauxhall Meriva, and the years to avoid

Build year 2009 is highest at 111.1; Build year 2011 is lowest at 88.9 — the gap is 22.2 points.

below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age

build year vs the same model at the same age · 100 = as expected

Vauxhall Meriva build year vs the same model at the same age · 100 = as expected — 2024 UK MOT data
Vauxhall Meriva by build year, tests 2019–2024. Below 100 is better than the model's own age norm.
Every build year with its confidence interval
Build yearvs own age norm95% CIRaw fail %TestsVerdict
2017101.498.1–104.715.29%23,345no different
201699.597.2–101.917.14%39,437no different
201595.793.8–97.619.81%50,276better
201489.787.9–91.422%46,886better
201399.597.9–101.228.38%49,164no different
201289.988.6–91.329.08%58,567better
201188.987.9–89.832.01%101,366better
201099.998.8–101.139.89%73,265no different
2009111.1109.6–112.648.44%42,966worse
2008108.4107–109.750.84%47,454worse
2007106.4105.1–107.752.93%45,818worse
2006104.4103–105.754.39%43,305worse
2005103.5102–10556.22%31,961worse
2004102.4100.8–104.156.55%26,884worse
200398.895.5–102.254.95%6,045no different

The best build year here is 2011 and the weakest is 2009. Comparing build years sounds simple and is not: within a single year of testing, a car's build year and its age are the same number, so a naive comparison of years is a comparison of ages wearing a disguise. Each year below is measured against the same model at the same age in other cohorts, across six years of testing — 10 of 15 years come out distinguishable from their own model's age norm.

Two limits worth knowing before you act on this. Age, test year and build year are locked together by arithmetic, so the test-year effect is taken from the observed national failure level of each year rather than estimated — it is an adjustment, not a solution.

Vauxhall Meriva MOT repair costs

The MOT-failure repair budget per test runs from £107.71 to £204.65, against £54.85 for the test itself.

bigger number = costs morepounds per test, MOT-failing faults only

MOT repairs, budget
£108–205
per test, repairs only
The test itself
£54.85
statutory cap, unchanged since 2010
How the figure is built: chance of failing × typical price of that repair
ComponentFails per 100 testsTypical repairIts priceContribution
Suspension24.5 (nat. 15.36)Suspension coil spring (single corner)£180£44.10
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment20.0 (nat. 18.09)Battery replacement (standard 12V lead-acid)£140£28.00
Brakes17.5 (nat. 11.25)Front brake pads (parts + labour, typical hatchback)£150£26.25
Tyres10.4 (nat. 8.7)Tyre (single mid-range 16" fitted)£90£9.36

Multiply how often each component fails on this model by what that repair usually costs, and you get the amount an owner should expect to budget per test for MOT-failing faults only — roughly £108 to £205, on top of the test fee itself. It is a budgeting figure, not a quote: the spread between a set of pads and a set of discs is most of the range.

Prices are modal quotes from a hand-kept catalogue of published UK garage guides — we do not scrape the booking sites, their terms forbid it, so this list is short and updated by hand with a source and date against each line. Each line prices one typical repair in that group, not a full remedy, and only groups our catalogue actually covers are counted. The contrast worth noticing is the second card: the legal maximum for the test has been £54.85 since 2010, while the repairs it uncovers have followed inflation the whole time.

For scale from a different direction: Warrantywise, which sees used-car warranty claims rather than test failures, puts the average claim at £2,052 across the ten highest-claim models it ranks and £539 for Honda, the lowest-claim make in its index (Warrantywise index 2026, 1.6 million claims, cars aged 3–15). Those sit an order of magnitude above the figures in this table, and the gap is the point: a warranty claim is a gearbox or an engine, which almost never fails an MOT, while the faults that do fail one are corrosion, lamps and tyres, which no warranty pays for. The two numbers answer different questions and neither replaces the other.

Vauxhall Meriva running costs for a fleet

Vehicles failing at age 10 stand out at 28.0%, against 23.0% at age 7, tested in the same year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fails per 100 at age 7
23
vehicles needing work
At age 10
28
other cars of this model tested at age 10 in 2024
Repairs per 100
£10,771
plus £5,485 in test fees
Off the road
1d
median; 46.53% cleared same day
Failure rate and typical odometer by age
AgeFailsMedian odometerTestsGap vs age 5
723.38%38,3474,466—
824.13%45,4696,481—
927.09%52,3408,273—
1028.39%57,5987,588—
1132.49%65,5247,792—
1232.59%74,3958,881—
1335.37%84,17614,553—
1442.21%83,2989,733—
1548.97%80,2205,220—
1651.71%85,4845,146—
1750.85%86,4814,594—
1853.56%87,6623,848—
1953.32%89,4922,352—

The number a fleet manager needs is not the failure rate, it is the year the car starts costing more. Between cars aged 13 and cars aged 14, both tested in 2024, the failure rate of this model is 6.84 percentage points higher — the steepest one-year step in this cross-section of different cars, and a natural planning point for replacement.

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.

Vauxhall Meriva rust problems: where they corrode

Age-standardised corrosion susceptibility stands out at 3.8×, against 1.00× for the national age-standardised rate.

above 1.0× = rusts more than averagebelow 1.0× = rusts less

How it rusts
3.8×
2.91% of tests record a corrosion defect vs 0.77% typical — age-standardised
Salt Belt exposure
57th
percentile among the models published here, from its tests across 115 postcode areas

This Vauxhall Meriva fails on corrosion far more often than average once age is held constant, and its owners live in areas that are about typical 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.

Does a Vauxhall Meriva advisory become a failure?

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment are highest at 28.7%; Identification of the vehicle is lowest at 3.5% — the gap is 25.1 percentage points.

higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability

chance the same component fails at the next MOT, given an advisory now

Vauxhall Meriva chance the same component fails at the next MOT, given an advisory now — 2024 UK MOT data
Vauxhall Meriva, advisory → failure conversion by component group, chained tests 2019–2024. Chart labels and rates: Lamps & electrical 28.7% · Suspension 26.9% · Brakes 17.9% · Steering 16.2% · Body & chassis 16.1% · Visibility 11.8% · Tyres 10.7% · Noise, emissions, leaks 8.2%.
Advisory today → failure at the next test, with how long you have
ComponentFails next timeTypical lead timeMiles of warningAdvisories tracked
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment28.7%12 months4,92410,392
Suspension26.9%12 months4,69876,463
Brakes17.9%12 months4,464131,081
Steering16.2%12 months5,11115,243
Body, chassis, structure16.1%12 months4,66045,400
Visibility11.8%12 months4,967517
Tyres10.7%12 months5,142145,753
Noise, emissions and leaks8.2%12 months5,00046,499
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems4.5%12 months5,2273,327
Identification of the vehicle3.5%12 months5,31613,577

This is the question an advisory note actually raises, and it needs six years of test history to answer. We followed the same vehicles from one MOT to the next across 2019–2024 and measured how often a component that was merely advised came back as a genuine failure at the next test.

Read it as a budgeting horizon, not a prophecy: the most likely component above turns into a failure for about 29 in 100 cars, and the median gap is 12 months and roughly 4,924 miles. The rest were repaired, sold, scrapped, or simply held. Rows with fewer than 500 tracked advisories are not shown.

What will fail next on a Vauxhall Meriva?

Suspension after a failure at age 15-19 is highest at 31.5%; Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment after a passed at age <3 are lowest at 1.0% — the gap is 30.5 percentage points.

higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability

Probability of each component failing at the next test, by age and last result
AgeLast testMost likely next failuresCars tracked
<3passedTyres 2.9% · Visibility 1.6% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 1.0%7,624
<3advisoryTyres 5.0% · Visibility 1.9% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 1.7%1,351
<3failureTyres 5.7% · Visibility 2.6% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 2.4%911
3-5passedSuspension 4.2% · Tyres 3.9% · Visibility 2.7%44,373
3-5advisoryTyres 6.7% · Suspension 6.1% · Visibility 4.0%18,110
3-5failureSuspension 8.4% · Tyres 7.6% · Visibility 5.1%10,866
6-8passedSuspension 9.4% · Tyres 5.0% · Visibility 4.0%62,354
6-8advisorySuspension 12.2% · Tyres 7.6% · Visibility 6.3%40,379
6-8failureSuspension 14.4% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 8.6% · Tyres 8.5%35,563
9-11passedSuspension 13.5% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 8.2% · Tyres 5.5%50,391
9-11advisorySuspension 17.8% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 11.8% · Brakes 8.6%51,256
9-11failureSuspension 20.5% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 17.8% · Brakes 12.7%59,851
12-14passedSuspension 18.8% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 14.0% · Body, chassis, structure 10.4%23,024
12-14advisorySuspension 24.5% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 19.1% · Brakes 14.1%34,959
12-14failureSuspension 27.8% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 26.8% · Brakes 19.4%55,479
15-19passedSuspension 21.2% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 15.2% · Body, chassis, structure 14.9%8,875
15-19advisorySuspension 28.2% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 21.5% · Body, chassis, structure 19.7%16,244
15-19failureSuspension 31.5% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 28.4% · Body, chassis, structure 23.3%28,199
20+failureSuspension 28.7% · Brakes 20.0% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 18.8%80 (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.

Vauxhall Meriva ownership: what six years of MOTs show

The ten-day re-test pass rate is highest at 51.0%; The later re-test pass rate is lowest at 2.4% — the gap is 48.6 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fixed same day
46.53%
of failures re-tested
Fails /10k miles
0.677
miles actually driven
Clean streaks
30.08%
3+ tests, nothing noted
Odometer anomaly
1.678%
reading went backwards

Failing is usually a same-week event, not a disaster. Of 191,264 failures followed through to their re-test, 46.53% were repaired and passed the same day and 51.04% within ten days; the median gap is 1 day. 531,666 defect items were cleared in the process.

Per mile driven, not per year. Dividing failures by the miles that actually went onto the odometers between consecutive tests gives 0.677 failures per 10,000 miles, on a median of 4,397 miles a year across 129,125 chains. This is the number to compare between models — an annual rate quietly rewards cars that barely leave the drive.

Two populations hide inside one model. 30.08% of these cars strung together three or more tests with nothing recorded at all, while 42.32% carried the same advisory three times or more — the same fault, noted, ignored, noted again. When you buy used you are buying one of those two histories, and the MOT record shows which.

Odometer anomalies: 1.678% of 129,217 chains show a reading lower than the previous test, with a median drop of 21,481 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.

Vauxhall Meriva safety recalls and how to check yours

DVSA recall campaigns stand out at 10.

bigger number = more recorded casescompare like-for-like scope, not sample size alone

recall campaigns launched per year

Vauxhall Meriva recall campaigns launched per year — 2024 UK MOT data
Campaigns launched per year for the Vauxhall Meriva. Source: DVSA vehicle safety recalls. Chart values: 2011: 0 · 2012: 0 · 2013: 0 · 2014: 1 · 2015: 3 · 2016: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2018: 0 · 2019: 0 · 2020: 0 · 2021: 0 · 2022: 0 · 2023: 0 · 2024: 0 · 2025: 1.
Most recent safety recall campaigns for the Vauxhall Meriva
ReferenceLaunchedVehiclesConcern
R/2025/51101/12/202576,875Vauxhall cross carline Driver’s Airbag - Takata
R/2017/02717/03/2017289FRONT SEAT SIDE AIRBAG MAY DEPLOY INCORRECTLY
R/2016/26730/01/201767,142SEAT BELT MAY NOT FUNCTION CORRECTLY
R/2016/27428/12/20161,745FRONT PASSENGER AIRBAG MAY NOT DEPLOY AS INTENDED
R/2015/20112/11/201563,462SEATBELT MAY MALFUNCTION IF VEHICLE IS INVOLVED IN A COLLISION
All 10 campaigns
ReferenceLaunchedBuild datesVehiclesConcern
R/2025/51101/12/202505/02/2009 – 24/03/201776,875Vauxhall cross carline Driver’s Airbag - Takata
R/2017/02717/03/201725/08/2016 – 01/12/2016289FRONT SEAT SIDE AIRBAG MAY DEPLOY INCORRECTLY
R/2016/26730/01/201712/02/2010 – 11/02/201667,142SEAT BELT MAY NOT FUNCTION CORRECTLY
R/2016/27428/12/201626/07/2016 – 31/08/20161,745FRONT PASSENGER AIRBAG MAY NOT DEPLOY AS INTENDED
R/2015/20112/11/201505/02/2009 – 31/08/201563,462SEATBELT MAY MALFUNCTION IF VEHICLE IS INVOLVED IN A COLLISION
R/2015/13417/07/201502/10/2013 – 08/01/20151,004POSSIBILITY THAT THE ENGINE MAY STALL
R/2014/17823/01/201509/10/2014 – 11/11/2014752SEAT BELT MAY OPEN INADVERTENTLY IN THE EVENT OF A CRASH
R/2014/10010/10/201419/06/2014 – 21/07/2014451AIRBAG DEPLOYMENT COULD INJURE FRONT SEAT PASSENGER
R/2010/16418/11/201001/09/2010 – 30/09/20101,436FRONT PASSENGER SEAT COULD MOVE WITHOUT WARNING.
R/2007/11810/09/200701/08/2007 – 01/08/2007557STEERING CONTROL MAY BE LOST

DVSA lists 10 safety recall campaigns for the Vauxhall Meriva, covering roughly 213,713 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.

Vauxhall Meriva inspection results in other countries

United Kingdom MOT stands out at 37.0%, against 26.0% nationally.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Same model, different national inspection regimes
CountryTestThis model failsNational averagePositionSample
United KingdomMOT (class 4)36.97%26.01%+11 pp91,310
Netherlands (as the Opel Meriva)APK52%50.8%+1.2 pp48,493
Finland (as the Opel Meriva)Katsastus36.3%26.3%+10 pp1,724
Norway (as the Opel Meriva)PKK42.2%33.7%+8.5 pp1,679

In Netherlands this model is sold as the Opel Meriva; the figures in that row are for the Opel Meriva in Netherlands's own inspection, which is not a UK MOT. In Finland this model is sold as the Opel Meriva; the figures in that row are for the Opel Meriva in Finland's own inspection, which is not a UK MOT. In Norway this model is sold as the Opel Meriva; the figures in that row are for the Opel Meriva in Norway's own inspection, which is not a UK MOT.

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.

What Finland fails it for — share of recorded faults
Fault areaShare
Axles, wheels and suspension32.8%
Brake systems29.5%
Steering equipment14.6%
Environmental hazards12.8%
Chassis and body5.3%

Useful as a cross-check on the UK defect table above: the categories are named differently, but a component that dominates in both regimes is a genuine weak point of the model rather than an artefact of one country's testing style.

The exact faults Netherlands records — APK defect codes, 2024
CodeFaultRecordedType
210Tyre pressure not at the correct value8,129failure
205Tyre with insufficient tread5,257failure
203Tyre damaged3,414failure
RA2Excessive leak of other fluids3,174advisory
516Dipped headlight incorrectly aimed3,119failure
497Number-plate light not working or missing3,071failure
391Wipers leave insufficient visibility2,443failure
AC1Tyre down to 1.6–2.5 mm of tread2,303advisory

Worth dwelling on how mundane the top of that list is: tyre pressure, tread depth, headlight aim. The Dutch APK records 1.294 defects per inspection against a much higher national failure rate than Britain's, and the reason is not that Dutch cars are worse — it is that the two regimes draw the line between "note it" and "fail it" in different places. Codes are the RDW's own; the English wording here is our translation of the Dutch original.

Britain is not the only country that inspects every car every year, and the Vauxhall Meriva 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: RDW open data — Meldingen Keuringsinstantie + Geconstateerde Gebreken + Gekentekende voertuigen (2024), CC0. Not an RDW endorsement.; Traficom — Periodic inspections of cars by model / by model and fault object 2024, CC BY 4.0; Statens vegvesen — Periodisk kjøretøykontroll (PKK) 2024, CC BY 4.0. Adapted; licences and full notice.

Vauxhall Meriva MOT: quick answers

Vauxhall Meriva MOT Risk Index is close to the reference at 104.9, 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 Vauxhall Meriva first-time MOT pass rate?
63.03% of first attempts passed in 2024 (91,310 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 36.97% figure is the first-time initial failure rate, using 91,310 primary tests as the denominator (first-time, excluding retests). The age-adjusted MOT initial-failure ratio 104.9 is shown separately because raw rates compare fleet age as well as cars.

Compare the Vauxhall Meriva with other cars

Renault Captur is highest at 105.1; Fiat Panda is lowest at 104.7 — the gap is 0.4 points.

below 100 is betterabove 100 is worse100 = normal for this model at that age

Same brand

All Vauxhall MOT statisticsVauxhall Astra MOT statsVauxhall Insignia MOT stats

Similar risk

Kia Sportage (index 104.9)Renault Captur (index 105.1)Fiat Panda (index 104.7)

Same size class

how BMW X5 compareshow Nissan X-Trail compareshow Mazda MX-5 compares

By build year

Vauxhall Meriva 2003Vauxhall Meriva 2004Vauxhall Meriva 2005Vauxhall Meriva 2006Vauxhall Meriva 2007Vauxhall Meriva 2008Vauxhall Meriva 2009Vauxhall Meriva 2010Vauxhall Meriva 2011Vauxhall Meriva 2012Vauxhall Meriva 2013Vauxhall Meriva 2014Vauxhall Meriva 2015Vauxhall Meriva 2016Vauxhall Meriva 2017

By area

Vauxhall Meriva MOT failure rate by postcode area

By failure group

Vauxhall Meriva body, chassis and structure failuresVauxhall Meriva brakes failuresVauxhall Meriva vehicle identification failuresVauxhall Meriva lamps, reflectors and electrics failuresVauxhall Meriva noise, emissions and leaks failuresVauxhall Meriva road wheels failuresVauxhall Meriva seat belts and airbags failuresVauxhall Meriva steering failuresVauxhall Meriva suspension failuresVauxhall Meriva tyres failuresVauxhall Meriva visibility failures

Inspections abroad

Vauxhall Meriva in NorwayVauxhall Meriva in FinlandVauxhall Meriva in the Netherlands


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:vauxhall-meriva:dvsa-2024-v2. Full method: methodology.

Cite: MOT Risk Index (2026). Vauxhall Meriva MOT statistics 2024 (data release dvsa-2024-v2; downloadable dataset motriskindex-families-2024-v5, doi:10.5281/zenodo.22975051). https://motriskindex.co.uk/cars/vauxhall-meriva/ · Published 2026-07-30.