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.
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
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×.
| Group | This family | Cases behind it | UK, same ages | Family / national |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 24.5 | 168,592 | 18.6 | 1.32×1.31–1.33 |
| Lamps & electrical | 20.0 | 137,349 | 20.9 | 0.96×0.95–0.96 |
| Brakes | 17.5 | 120,367 | 13.3 | 1.31×1.31–1.32 |
| Tyres | 10.4 | 71,630 | 9.7 | 1.08×1.07–1.09 |
| Body & structure | 8.9 | 61,519 | 6.3 | 1.41×1.40–1.42 |
| Visibility | 8.5 | 58,123 | 8.5 | 1.00×0.99–1.00 · not distinguishable |
| What failed | per 100 tests (this family) | per 100 tests (UK average) | ratio family / UK | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring or spring component fractured or seriously…A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened | 8.63 | 2.86 | 3.02× | Ask the seller about: A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened |
| Brake pipe damaged or excessively corrodedBrake pipe damaged or excessively corroded | 5.39 | 1.41 | 3.84× | 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 etc | 3.95 | 1.78 | 2.21× | 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 play | 2.92 | 1.22 | 2.39× | 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 requirements | 3.35 | 2.57 | 1.31× | Try every light and switch — lamps are a top failure |
| Tyre seriously damagedA tyre seriously damaged | 3.22 | 2.54 | 1.27× | Check tyre tread depth across the full width |
| Brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mma brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm | 2.82 | 2.15 | 1.31× | Feel for brake judder and pulling on the test drive |
| Suspension pin, bush or joint excessively wornA suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn | 5.35 | 4.87 | 1.10× | 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 sources | 2.87 | 2.83 | 1.01× | 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 requirements | 3.57 | 3.59 | 0.99× | 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
Advisory rates table
| Group | Advisories per 100 |
|---|---|
| Brakes | 49 |
| Tyres | 46 |
| Suspension | 27.2 |
| Non-component advisories | 12.3 |
| Emissions & leaks | 10.2 |
| Body & structure | 9.9 |
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
| Age | Part | Vauxhall Meriva | Same age, petrol and diesel | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 years | Tyres | 3.23 | 4.17 | -0.94 |
| 3 years | Brakes | 0.65 | 1.77 | -1.12 |
| 3 years | Suspension | 0.22 | 0.63 | -0.41 |
| 4 years | Tyres | 4.22 | 4.54 | -0.32 |
| 4 years | Brakes | 1.02 | 2.43 | -1.41 |
| 4 years | Suspension | 0.81 | 1.21 | -0.40 |
| 5 years | Tyres | 4.74 | 5.06 | -0.32 |
| 5 years | Brakes | 1.88 | 3.09 | -1.21 |
| 5 years | Suspension | 2.39 | 2.19 | 0.20 |
| 6 years | Tyres | 5.21 | 5.54 | -0.33 |
| 6 years | Brakes | 2.64 | 3.81 | -1.17 |
| 6 years | Suspension | 5.7 | 3.72 | 1.98 |
| 7 years | Tyres | 6.01 | 5.95 | 0.06 |
| 7 years | Brakes | 3.53 | 4.55 | -1.02 |
| 7 years | Suspension | 8.36 | 5.68 | 2.68 |
| 8 years | Tyres | 6.56 | 6.31 | 0.25 |
| 8 years | Brakes | 3.83 | 5.38 | -1.55 |
| 8 years | Suspension | 10.54 | 7.78 | 2.76 |
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 test | Fails next year | Vehicles followed |
|---|---|---|
| It failed | 41.6% | 43,100 |
| It passed | 29.8% | 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 for | Index | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Age only | 109.1 | fails more often than expected |
| Age and annual mileage | 114.6 | fails more often than vehicles driven as much |
| Share doing under 3,000 miles a year | 7.3% | 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.
| Age | Vauxhall Meriva | Same class, same age | Difference | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 years | 9.71% | 11.3% | -1.59 pp | 12,214 |
| 4 years | 11.2% | 14.25% | -3.05 pp | 19,537 |
| 5 years | 14.81% | 17.42% | -2.61 pp | 27,431 |
| 6 years | 19.27% | 20.76% | -1.5 pp | 35,894 |
| 7 years | 23.25% | 24.33% | -1.08 pp | 46,008 |
| 8 years | 26.63% | 28.16% | -1.54 pp | 59,737 |
| 9 years | 30.76% | 32.04% | -1.28 pp | 66,196 |
| 10 years | 34.55% | 35.61% | -1.06 pp | 65,159 |
| 11 years | 38.96% | 38.65% | +0.31 pp | 65,798 |
| 12 years | 43.06% | 41.22% | +1.83 pp | 64,886 |
| 13 years | 46.32% | 43.25% | +3.07 pp | 61,896 |
| 14 years | 51.47% | 44.96% | +6.51 pp | 50,240 |
| 15 years | 54.05% | 46.22% | +7.83 pp | 42,128 |
| 16 years | 54.75% | 47.26% | +7.49 pp | 30,994 |
| 17 years | 53.69% | 47.74% | +5.95 pp | 19,665 |
| 18 years | 54.54% | 47.95% | +6.59 pp | 11,394 |
| 19 years | 53.79% | 47.71% | +6.08 pp | 5,468 |
| 20 years | 51.18% | 47.35% | +3.82 pp | 2,212 |
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
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
| Age | Vauxhall Meriva | All vehicles | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 23.4% | 20.2% | +3.2 pp |
| 8 | 24.1% | 23.3% | +0.8 pp |
| 9 | 27.1% | 26.5% | +0.6 pp |
| 10 | 28.4% | 30.1% | -1.7 pp |
| 11 | 32.5% | 33.2% | -0.7 pp |
| 12 | 32.6% | 35.7% | -3.1 pp |
| 13 | 35.4% | 38.2% | -2.8 pp |
| 14 | 42.2% | 40.4% | +1.8 pp |
| 15 | 49.0% | 41.6% | +7.4 pp |
| 16 | 51.7% | 43.1% | +8.6 pp |
| 17 | 50.8% | 43.1% | +7.7 pp |
| 18 | 53.6% | 43.9% | +9.7 pp |
| 19 | 53.3% | 43.5% | +9.8 pp |
| 20 | 51.5% | 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
| Vehicle age at test | Likely ULEZ-compliant share | Tests |
|---|---|---|
| Under 3 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 0 |
| 3–5 years | Suppressed — sample below publication threshold Check a registration with TfL | n = 0 |
| 6–7 years | 100.0% Check a registration with TfL | n = 4,493 |
| 8 years | 100.0% Check a registration with TfL | n = 6,481 |
| 9 years | 94.2% Check a registration with TfL | n = 8,272 |
| 10–14 years | 73.3% Check a registration with TfL | n = 48,545 |
| 15–17 years | 92.8% Check a registration with TfL | n = 14,958 |
| 18 years | 90.5% Check a registration with TfL | n = 3,847 |
| 19 years | 0.0% Check a registration with TfL | n = 2,352 |
| 20+ years | 0.0% 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
Severity table
| Severity | This family /100 | National /100 | Family / national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minor | 14.11 | 14.22 | 0.99× |
| Major | 73.35 | 52.75 | 1.39× |
| Dangerous | 13.81 | 11.15 | 1.24× |
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
Chart scale: 27%–41%.
bars: Vauxhall Meriva · dashed: all class-4 cars
Month-by-month table
| Month | Vauxhall Meriva | All vehicles | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 37.9% | 31.12% | +6.8 pp |
| Feb | 37.76% | 29.99% | +7.8 pp |
| Mar | 36.45% | 28.26% | +8.2 pp |
| Apr | 39.08% | 29.78% | +9.3 pp |
| May | 37.63% | 28.79% | +8.8 pp |
| Jun | 36.02% | 28.15% | +7.9 pp |
| Jul | 36.31% | 29.33% | +7.0 pp |
| Aug | 36.35% | 29.2% | +7.2 pp |
| Sep | 34.66% | 28.19% | +6.5 pp |
| Oct | 36.66% | 30.34% | +6.3 pp |
| Nov | 37.04% | 30.58% | +6.5 pp |
| Dec | 36.85% | 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
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.
| Age | Odometer | % failing | 95% interval | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6–9 | <40k miles | 17.9% | 17.1–18.8% | 7,352 |
| 6–9 | 40-70k miles | 27.6% | 26.7–28.6% | 8,512 |
| 6–9 | 70-100k miles | 34% | 32.3–35.8% | 2,755 |
| 6–9 | 100-140k miles | 38.6% | 34.6–42.7% | 555 |
| 6–9 | 140k+ miles | 38.8% | 28–50.8% | 67 (rough estimate) |
| 10–14 | <40k miles | 21.4% | 20.3–22.6% | 4,604 |
| 10–14 | 40-70k miles | 29.5% | 28.8–30.2% | 16,202 |
| 10–14 | 70-100k miles | 37.3% | 36.6–38% | 17,775 |
| 10–14 | 100-140k miles | 43.9% | 42.9–45% | 8,570 |
| 10–14 | 140k+ miles | 47% | 44.2–49.7% | 1,254 |
| 15+ | <40k miles | 33.7% | 31–36.5% | 1,127 |
| 15+ | 40-70k miles | 44.7% | 43.4–46% | 5,685 |
| 15+ | 70-100k miles | 53.1% | 52.1–54.2% | 8,869 |
| 15+ | 100-140k miles | 56.1% | 54.9–57.4% | 6,118 |
| 15+ | 140k+ miles | 60% | 57–62.9% | 1,077 |
line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75)
Mileage by age (p25 / median / p75)
| Age | p25 | Median | p75 | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 26,956 | 38,347 | 52,024 | 4,466 |
| 8 | 32,423 | 45,469 | 61,165 | 6,481 |
| 9 | 37,505 | 52,340 | 69,418 | 8,273 |
| 10 | 41,749 | 57,598 | 75,396 | 7,588 |
| 11 | 48,882 | 65,524 | 83,411 | 7,792 |
| 12 | 57,740 | 74,395 | 92,570 | 8,881 |
| 13 | 66,226 | 84,176 | 103,460 | 14,553 |
| 14 | 64,805 | 83,298 | 101,950 | 9,733 |
| 15 | 61,299 | 80,220 | 99,827 | 5,220 |
| 16 | 66,986 | 85,484 | 104,483 | 5,146 |
| 17 | 67,341 | 86,481 | 106,974 | 4,594 |
| 18 | 66,552 | 87,662 | 108,739 | 3,848 |
| 19 | 69,183 | 89,492 | 110,151 | 2,352 |
| 20+ | 68,854 | 88,224 | 110,176 | 2,055 |
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
| Toughest areas | % failing | vs 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 | % failing | vs 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).
| Factor | Low Q | High Q | Gap | Correlation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOT centre density | 30.5% | 41.1% | +10.6 pp | r=0.69 |
| Frost days | 34.3% | 42.5% | +8.2 pp | r=0.60 |
| Road-salt proxy | 33.5% | 42.5% | +9.0 pp | r=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 | Built from | Tested against | r | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Underbody corrosion | frost days × salt load ÷ (distance to coast + 1) | share of tests with a corrosion defect | +0.42 | holds (116 areas) |
| Tyre wear | rain days × annual miles ÷ age at first tyre advisory | share of tests failing on tyres | +0.45 | holds (116 areas) |
| Overnight corrosion | terraced housing × cars per household × frost days | share with a corrosion defect | +0.41 | holds (102 areas) — and adds signal beyond the first index |
| Deferred maintenance | deprivation × advisory-to-failure conversion ÷ labour rate | cars repeating the same advisory | −0.26 | fails (118 areas) |
| Powertrain stress | engine capacity ÷ kerb weight | suspension, brake and emissions failures | −0.16 | fails (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)
| Factor | r | n areas | Low-Q fail % | High-Q fail % | Gap pp | Low-Q factor | High-Q factor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOT centre density (per 10k vehicles) | 0.688 | 115 | 30.5 | 41.1 | +10.6 | 5 | 8.8 |
| Frost days (days/year) | 0.598 | 115 | 34.3 | 42.5 | +8.3 | 11.8 | 37.7 |
| Road-salt proxy (g/m²-yr) | 0.583 | 115 | 33.5 | 42.5 | +9.0 | 223 | 667.4 |
| Urban share (0–1) | -0.427 | 115 | 39.4 | 31.8 | -7.7 | 0.4 | 1 |
| Distance to coast (km) | -0.314 | 115 | 40.7 | 35.9 | -4.9 | 6 | 78.7 |
| Terrain gradient (% grade) | 0.268 | 68 | 37.4 | 40.3 | +2.9 | 0.5 | 3.7 |
| Income deprivation (score) | 0.255 | 97 | 33.7 | 37.3 | +3.6 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
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
Chart axes: car age, years · survival vs ages 4–6 · scale 0–105%.
Survival vs fail rate by age
| Age | Tests | Survival vs ages 4–6 | Fail % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 12,214 | 44.2% | 9.71% |
| 4 | 19,537 | 70.7% | 11.2% |
| 5 | 27,431 | 99.3% | 14.81% |
| 6 | 35,894 | 100% | 19.27% |
| 7 | 46,008 | 100% | 23.25% |
| 8 | 59,737 | 100% | 26.63% |
| 9 | 66,196 | 100% | 30.76% |
| 10 | 65,159 | 100% | 34.55% |
| 11 | 65,798 | 100% | 38.96% |
| 12 | 64,886 | 100% | 43.06% |
| 13 | 61,896 | 100% | 46.32% |
| 14 | 50,240 | 100% | 51.47% |
| 15 | 42,128 | 100% | 54.05% |
| 16 | 30,994 | 100% | 54.75% |
| 17 | 19,665 | 71.2% | 53.69% |
| 18 | 11,394 | 41.3% | 54.54% |
| 19 | 5,468 | 19.8% | 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
| Odometer | Tests ≥ threshold | Share of sample |
|---|---|---|
| 100,000+ miles | 104,963 | 15.36% |
| 150,000+ miles | 6,961 | 1.02% |
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 now | Typical 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 A | Group B | Together | Lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| Road Wheels | Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 44 | 5.09× (rough estimate) |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Speedometer and speed limiter | 30 | 4.96× (rough estimate) |
| Body, chassis, structure | Noise, emissions and leaks | 10,731 | 4.8× |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Seat belt installation check | 26 | 4.39× (rough estimate) |
| Identification of the vehicle | Noise, emissions and leaks | 388 | 4.2× (rough estimate) |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Road Wheels | 220 | 4.16× (rough estimate) |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Road Wheels | 611 | 4.06× |
| Identification of the vehicle | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,044 | 3.97× |
| Road Wheels | Tyres | 353 | 3.93× (rough estimate) |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 856 | 3.89× |
| Brakes | Steering | 9,047 | 3.75× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Steering | 7,067 | 3.72× |
| Brakes | Noise, emissions and leaks | 10,339 | 3.65× |
| Identification of the vehicle | Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 55 | 3.64× (rough estimate) |
| Brakes | Road Wheels | 398 | 3.57× (rough estimate) |
| Identification of the vehicle | Visibility | 518 | 3.56× |
| Road Wheels | Visibility | 295 | 3.54× (rough estimate) |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Steering | 4,052 | 3.53× |
| Brakes | Identification of the vehicle | 687 | 3.53× |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Noise, emissions and leaks | 13,428 | 3.5× |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Steering | 11,393 | 3.49× |
| Road Wheels | Steering | 154 | 3.42× (rough estimate) |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 2,118 | 3.38× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Identification of the vehicle | 512 | 3.34× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Brakes | 15,555 | 3.31× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 20,898 | 3.29× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Road Wheels | 289 | 3.29× (rough estimate) |
| Identification of the vehicle | Steering | 259 | 3.29× (rough estimate) |
| Brakes | Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 25,476 | 3.16× |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Visibility | 1,086 | 3.13× |
| Identification of the vehicle | Tyres | 491 | 3.12× (rough estimate) |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Steering | 564 | 3.01× |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Visibility | 6,152 | 2.9× |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Visibility | 17,348 | 2.88× |
| Brakes | Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 1,326 | 2.86× |
| Steering | Suspension | 12,403 | 2.84× |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Tyres | 6,282 | 2.74× |
| Road Wheels | Suspension | 547 | 2.71× |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Tyres | 1,002 | 2.68× |
| Brakes | Suspension | 28,404 | 2.63× |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Tyres | 17,140 | 2.63× |
| Identification of the vehicle | Suspension | 928 | 2.63× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Suspension | 22,156 | 2.6× |
| Steering | Tyres | 5,064 | 2.6× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 950 | 2.6× |
| Brakes | Tyres | 12,354 | 2.56× |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Suspension | 37,175 | 2.54× |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Suspension | 12,930 | 2.52× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Visibility | 8,847 | 2.52× |
| Steering | Visibility | 4,511 | 2.5× |
| Brakes | Visibility | 11,078 | 2.48× |
| Tyres | Visibility | 8,740 | 2.43× |
| Body, chassis, structure | Tyres | 8,661 | 2.28× |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Suspension | 1,847 | 2.2× |
| Suspension | Visibility | 16,566 | 2.05× |
| Suspension | Tyres | 17,788 | 2.04× |
| Identification of the vehicle | Road Wheels | 18 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Speedometer and speed limiter | Suspension | 16 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Brakes | Speedometer and speed limiter | 13 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Body, chassis, structure | Seat belt installation check | 12 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Seat belt installation check | Tyres | 11 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Seat belt installation check | 10 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Seat belt installation check | Visibility | 9 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Speedometer and speed limiter | Visibility | 9 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Body, chassis, structure | Speedometer and speed limiter | 9 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Brakes | Seat belt installation check | 9 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Seat belt installation check | Suspension | 8 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Buses and coaches supplementary tests | Suspension | 7 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Speedometer and speed limiter | Tyres | 7 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Body, chassis, structure | Buses and coaches supplementary tests | 6 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Speedometer and speed limiter | Steering | 6 | too few (rough estimate) |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | Speedometer and speed limiter | 6 | too 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
| Band | Fail % | Tests |
|---|---|---|
| <5k miles/year | 25.82% | 152,971 |
| 8–12k miles/year | 40.8% | 124,598 |
| Gap (low − normal) | -14.98 pp | — |
By fuel and age
Diesel
| Age | Low-use fail % | n | Normal fail % | n | Gap pp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 12.8 | 461 | 18.17 | 721 | -5.37 pp |
| 6 | 14.5 | 662 | 24.19 | 1,199 | -9.69 pp |
| 7 | 18.54 | 1,300 | 29.66 | 2,262 | -11.13 pp |
| 8 | 19.85 | 2,504 | 32.46 | 5,058 | -12.62 pp |
| 9 | 22.2 | 2,879 | 35.33 | 5,387 | -13.13 pp |
| 10 | 22.54 | 2,919 | 37.7 | 5,141 | -15.15 pp |
| 11 | 26.04 | 2,838 | 42.97 | 4,938 | -16.93 pp |
| 12 | 28.38 | 2,777 | 46.31 | 4,425 | -17.93 pp |
| 13 | 30.69 | 2,291 | 49.19 | 3,476 | -18.51 pp |
| 14 | 40.24 | 1,168 | 57.29 | 1,810 | -17.05 pp |
Petrol
| Age | Low-use fail % | n | Normal fail % | n | Gap pp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 9.46 | 9,611 | 20.37 | 4,934 | -10.91 pp |
| 6 | 13.03 | 11,849 | 26.03 | 6,474 | -13 pp |
| 7 | 16.3 | 13,668 | 29.58 | 8,060 | -13.28 pp |
| 8 | 18.38 | 13,892 | 33.24 | 10,558 | -14.85 pp |
| 9 | 22.28 | 14,108 | 38.04 | 12,531 | -15.76 pp |
| 10 | 26.29 | 13,582 | 42.99 | 11,667 | -16.7 pp |
| 11 | 30.33 | 13,470 | 47.49 | 11,412 | -17.15 pp |
| 12 | 35.27 | 13,786 | 52.75 | 10,102 | -17.48 pp |
| 13 | 38.84 | 14,679 | 55.1 | 8,541 | -16.26 pp |
| 14 | 43.76 | 14,523 | 59.09 | 5,874 | -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
| Fuel | Capacity | vs own age norm | Raw fail % | Tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| diesel | 1.2–1.5 litre | 93.2 | 34.63% | 592 (rough estimate) |
| diesel | 1.5–1.8 litre | 96.4 | 34.98% | 97,614 |
| petrol | 1.2–1.5 litre | 97.2 | 32.22% | 437,980 |
| petrol | 1.0–1.2 litre | 102.4 | 43.94% | 874 (rough estimate) |
| diesel | 1.0–1.2 litre | 106.7 | 40.89% | 20,088 |
| petrol | 1.5–1.8 litre | 107.6 | 52.7% | 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
Every build year with its confidence interval
| Build year | vs own age norm | 95% CI | Raw fail % | Tests | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 101.4 | 98.1–104.7 | 15.29% | 23,345 | no different |
| 2016 | 99.5 | 97.2–101.9 | 17.14% | 39,437 | no different |
| 2015 | 95.7 | 93.8–97.6 | 19.81% | 50,276 | better |
| 2014 | 89.7 | 87.9–91.4 | 22% | 46,886 | better |
| 2013 | 99.5 | 97.9–101.2 | 28.38% | 49,164 | no different |
| 2012 | 89.9 | 88.6–91.3 | 29.08% | 58,567 | better |
| 2011 | 88.9 | 87.9–89.8 | 32.01% | 101,366 | better |
| 2010 | 99.9 | 98.8–101.1 | 39.89% | 73,265 | no different |
| 2009 | 111.1 | 109.6–112.6 | 48.44% | 42,966 | worse |
| 2008 | 108.4 | 107–109.7 | 50.84% | 47,454 | worse |
| 2007 | 106.4 | 105.1–107.7 | 52.93% | 45,818 | worse |
| 2006 | 104.4 | 103–105.7 | 54.39% | 43,305 | worse |
| 2005 | 103.5 | 102–105 | 56.22% | 31,961 | worse |
| 2004 | 102.4 | 100.8–104.1 | 56.55% | 26,884 | worse |
| 2003 | 98.8 | 95.5–102.2 | 54.95% | 6,045 | no 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
| Component | Fails per 100 tests | Typical repair | Its price | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 24.5 (nat. 15.36) | Suspension coil spring (single corner) | £180 | £44.10 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 20.0 (nat. 18.09) | Battery replacement (standard 12V lead-acid) | £140 | £28.00 |
| Brakes | 17.5 (nat. 11.25) | Front brake pads (parts + labour, typical hatchback) | £150 | £26.25 |
| Tyres | 10.4 (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
Failure rate and typical odometer by age
| Age | Fails | Median odometer | Tests | Gap vs age 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | 23.38% | 38,347 | 4,466 | — |
| 8 | 24.13% | 45,469 | 6,481 | — |
| 9 | 27.09% | 52,340 | 8,273 | — |
| 10 | 28.39% | 57,598 | 7,588 | — |
| 11 | 32.49% | 65,524 | 7,792 | — |
| 12 | 32.59% | 74,395 | 8,881 | — |
| 13 | 35.37% | 84,176 | 14,553 | — |
| 14 | 42.21% | 83,298 | 9,733 | — |
| 15 | 48.97% | 80,220 | 5,220 | — |
| 16 | 51.71% | 85,484 | 5,146 | — |
| 17 | 50.85% | 86,481 | 4,594 | — |
| 18 | 53.56% | 87,662 | 3,848 | — |
| 19 | 53.32% | 89,492 | 2,352 | — |
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
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
| Component | Fails next time | Typical lead time | Miles of warning | Advisories tracked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 28.7% | 12 months | 4,924 | 10,392 |
| Suspension | 26.9% | 12 months | 4,698 | 76,463 |
| Brakes | 17.9% | 12 months | 4,464 | 131,081 |
| Steering | 16.2% | 12 months | 5,111 | 15,243 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 16.1% | 12 months | 4,660 | 45,400 |
| Visibility | 11.8% | 12 months | 4,967 | 517 |
| Tyres | 10.7% | 12 months | 5,142 | 145,753 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 8.2% | 12 months | 5,000 | 46,499 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 4.5% | 12 months | 5,227 | 3,327 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 3.5% | 12 months | 5,316 | 13,577 |
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
| Age | Last test | Most likely next failures | Cars tracked |
|---|---|---|---|
| <3 | passed | Tyres 2.9% · Visibility 1.6% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 1.0% | 7,624 |
| <3 | advisory | Tyres 5.0% · Visibility 1.9% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 1.7% | 1,351 |
| <3 | failure | Tyres 5.7% · Visibility 2.6% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 2.4% | 911 |
| 3-5 | passed | Suspension 4.2% · Tyres 3.9% · Visibility 2.7% | 44,373 |
| 3-5 | advisory | Tyres 6.7% · Suspension 6.1% · Visibility 4.0% | 18,110 |
| 3-5 | failure | Suspension 8.4% · Tyres 7.6% · Visibility 5.1% | 10,866 |
| 6-8 | passed | Suspension 9.4% · Tyres 5.0% · Visibility 4.0% | 62,354 |
| 6-8 | advisory | Suspension 12.2% · Tyres 7.6% · Visibility 6.3% | 40,379 |
| 6-8 | failure | Suspension 14.4% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 8.6% · Tyres 8.5% | 35,563 |
| 9-11 | passed | Suspension 13.5% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 8.2% · Tyres 5.5% | 50,391 |
| 9-11 | advisory | Suspension 17.8% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 11.8% · Brakes 8.6% | 51,256 |
| 9-11 | failure | Suspension 20.5% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 17.8% · Brakes 12.7% | 59,851 |
| 12-14 | passed | Suspension 18.8% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 14.0% · Body, chassis, structure 10.4% | 23,024 |
| 12-14 | advisory | Suspension 24.5% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 19.1% · Brakes 14.1% | 34,959 |
| 12-14 | failure | Suspension 27.8% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 26.8% · Brakes 19.4% | 55,479 |
| 15-19 | passed | Suspension 21.2% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 15.2% · Body, chassis, structure 14.9% | 8,875 |
| 15-19 | advisory | Suspension 28.2% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 21.5% · Body, chassis, structure 19.7% | 16,244 |
| 15-19 | failure | Suspension 31.5% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 28.4% · Body, chassis, structure 23.3% | 28,199 |
| 20+ | failure | Suspension 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
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
| Reference | Launched | Vehicles | Concern |
|---|---|---|---|
R/2025/511 | 01/12/2025 | 76,875 | Vauxhall cross carline Driver’s Airbag - Takata |
R/2017/027 | 17/03/2017 | 289 | FRONT SEAT SIDE AIRBAG MAY DEPLOY INCORRECTLY |
R/2016/267 | 30/01/2017 | 67,142 | SEAT BELT MAY NOT FUNCTION CORRECTLY |
R/2016/274 | 28/12/2016 | 1,745 | FRONT PASSENGER AIRBAG MAY NOT DEPLOY AS INTENDED |
R/2015/201 | 12/11/2015 | 63,462 | SEATBELT MAY MALFUNCTION IF VEHICLE IS INVOLVED IN A COLLISION |
All 10 campaigns
| Reference | Launched | Build dates | Vehicles | Concern |
|---|---|---|---|---|
R/2025/511 | 01/12/2025 | 05/02/2009 – 24/03/2017 | 76,875 | Vauxhall cross carline Driver’s Airbag - Takata |
R/2017/027 | 17/03/2017 | 25/08/2016 – 01/12/2016 | 289 | FRONT SEAT SIDE AIRBAG MAY DEPLOY INCORRECTLY |
R/2016/267 | 30/01/2017 | 12/02/2010 – 11/02/2016 | 67,142 | SEAT BELT MAY NOT FUNCTION CORRECTLY |
R/2016/274 | 28/12/2016 | 26/07/2016 – 31/08/2016 | 1,745 | FRONT PASSENGER AIRBAG MAY NOT DEPLOY AS INTENDED |
R/2015/201 | 12/11/2015 | 05/02/2009 – 31/08/2015 | 63,462 | SEATBELT MAY MALFUNCTION IF VEHICLE IS INVOLVED IN A COLLISION |
R/2015/134 | 17/07/2015 | 02/10/2013 – 08/01/2015 | 1,004 | POSSIBILITY THAT THE ENGINE MAY STALL |
R/2014/178 | 23/01/2015 | 09/10/2014 – 11/11/2014 | 752 | SEAT BELT MAY OPEN INADVERTENTLY IN THE EVENT OF A CRASH |
R/2014/100 | 10/10/2014 | 19/06/2014 – 21/07/2014 | 451 | AIRBAG DEPLOYMENT COULD INJURE FRONT SEAT PASSENGER |
R/2010/164 | 18/11/2010 | 01/09/2010 – 30/09/2010 | 1,436 | FRONT PASSENGER SEAT COULD MOVE WITHOUT WARNING. |
R/2007/118 | 10/09/2007 | 01/08/2007 – 01/08/2007 | 557 | STEERING 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
| Country | Test | This model fails | National average | Position | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | MOT (class 4) | 36.97% | 26.01% | +11 pp | 91,310 |
| Netherlands (as the Opel Meriva) | APK | 52% | 50.8% | +1.2 pp | 48,493 |
| Finland (as the Opel Meriva) | Katsastus | 36.3% | 26.3% | +10 pp | 1,724 |
| Norway (as the Opel Meriva) | PKK | 42.2% | 33.7% | +8.5 pp | 1,679 |
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.
| Fault area | Share |
|---|---|
| Axles, wheels and suspension | 32.8% |
| Brake systems | 29.5% |
| Steering equipment | 14.6% |
| Environmental hazards | 12.8% |
| Chassis and body | 5.3% |
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.
| Code | Fault | Recorded | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
210 | Tyre pressure not at the correct value | 8,129 | failure |
205 | Tyre with insufficient tread | 5,257 | failure |
203 | Tyre damaged | 3,414 | failure |
RA2 | Excessive leak of other fluids | 3,174 | advisory |
516 | Dipped headlight incorrectly aimed | 3,119 | failure |
497 | Number-plate light not working or missing | 3,071 | failure |
391 | Wipers leave insufficient visibility | 2,443 | failure |
AC1 | Tyre down to 1.6–2.5 mm of tread | 2,303 | advisory |
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.