Does the Volkswagen Beetle fail the MOT on road wheels more than it should?
The Volkswagen Beetle records 0.36 road wheels failure items per 100 initial MOT tests (2019–2024), against 0.51 expected for a car of the same age mix: about as expected for its class and age (the difference is within its interval or under 0.5 items per 100 tests) (−0.15, 95% interval −0.18 to −0.13). It ranks 357 of 516 models on road wheels (1 = most failures above expected).
Data release dvsa-2024-v2 (24 Sep 2026) · page updated 30 Sep 2026 · all models on road wheels · check a Volkswagen Beetle by registration
What exactly fails on road wheels?
The most frequent DVSA defect wording in this group on the Volkswagen Beetle is “A wheel with a loose or missing wheel nut, bolt or stud”, recorded 919 times in 2019–2024.
| DVSA defect wording | Items | Per 100 tests |
|---|---|---|
| A wheel with a loose or missing wheel nut, bolt or stud | 919 | 0.28 |
| A wheel badly distorted or wear between wheel and hub at spigot mounting | 110 | 0.03 |
| A wheel with more than one loose or missing wheel nut, bolt or stud | 79 | 0.02 |
| Any fracture or welding defect on a wheel | 40 | 0.01 |
Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 325,356 (initial tests) · Method: failure items (major and minor) grouped by DVSA's defect tree; wordings with 30+ items · Updated: 30 Sep 2026 · Release: dvsa-2024-v2 · CSV
If a Volkswagen Beetle gets a road wheels advisory, how often does it fail next time?
1.2% of Volkswagen Beetle MOTs with a road wheels advisory were followed by a fail in the same group at the next MOT, typically 12.2 months and 3,248 miles later (1,621 advisories followed).
Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 1,621 (advisories followed) · Method: the same vehicles followed to their next ordinary MOT · Updated: 30 Sep 2026 · Release: dvsa-2024-v2 · CSV
Other pages for this model
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