MOT Risk Index.co.uk

Volkswagen Tiguan — MOT statistics 2024

The Volkswagen Tiguan failed 17.92% of 240,949 first MOT attempts in 2024 ("first-time", excluding retests). Adjusted for the age of the fleet, its initial-failure ratio is 80.8 (100 = expected for its age profile). This car fails its MOT about 19% less often than expected for its age.

MOT risk index 80.8, 95% CI 80.1–81.5 (100 = national average) 100 80.8 0 200
Index
80.8
100 = age-normal
Raw fail rate
17.92%
n = 240,949
Dangerous /100
8
national ≈11
Diesel − petrol
+8.4 pp
fail-rate gap
Rank
269 of 761
lower index = better

Age-adjusted peer: Honda Jazz (index 80.8) — the two published results are 0.0 index points apart.

Volkswagen Tiguan common problems: what actually fails the MOT

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment are well below the reference at 4.1 per 100 tests, against 8.9 per 100 tests across UK vehicles of the same ages.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

Volkswagen Tiguan 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.

GroupThis familyCases behind itUK, same agesFamily / national
Suspension10.6113,3887.71.38×1.37–1.39
Tyres7.580,1797.80.96×0.95–0.97
Visibility5.053,4446.10.82×0.81–0.82
Lamps & electrical4.143,7608.80.46×0.46–0.47
Brakes4.042,9556.70.60×0.60–0.61
Body & structure1.617,5812.30.71×0.72–0.74
Named defects — items per 100 initial tests, this family vs UK national average; this model measured on 1,066,993 tests, 2019-2024, national column 2024
What failedper 100 tests (this family)per 100 tests (UK average)ratio family / UKWhat to check
Engine warning light onEngine MIL illuminated indicating a malfunction1.281.191.08×Check the engine light goes out after start-up and ask for a fault-code scan: codes can be cleared before a sale.
Tyre tread below the legal limitTyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements3.643.591.01×Check the tread across every tyre with a gauge; wear on one edge points to a tracking fault.
Windscreen or window damaged (minor)Windscreen or window damaged or seriously discoloured but not adversely affecting driver's view2.182.360.92×Look for chips and cracks across the windscreen: chips spread, and larger damage in front of the driver fails.
Broken or weakened suspension springA spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened2.632.860.92×Look behind each wheel at the coil springs for a snapped end, and check the car sits level from side to side.
Suspension joint cover split or missingA suspension joint dust cover missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc1.361.780.76×Ask whether the ball joint was replaced along with its cover: a joint that ran unprotected wears quickly and knocks over bumps.
Tyre cords showing or damagedA tyre cords visible or damaged1.191.630.73×Check the inner edges of the front tyres, where cords show first, and ask whether the alignment was checked.
Tyre badly cut or damagedA tyre seriously damaged1.992.540.78×Check both sidewalls of every tyre, including the inner side, for cuts, bulges and tears.
Brake pads or shoes dangerously thina brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm1.502.150.70×Look through the wheels at the pads and discs, listen for grinding, and ask when they were last replaced.
Worn suspension bush or jointA suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn4.154.870.85×Listen for knocks over speed bumps, feel for the car wandering under braking, and ask which part was replaced.
Wiper missing or not clearing the screenWiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the windscreen1.402.220.63×Wet the screen and run the wipers: they should clear the glass in front of the driver without streaks or juddering.

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

Volkswagen Tiguan MOT advisories: what gets flagged

Tyres are highest at 41.5 per 100 tests; Identification is lowest at 0.9 per 100 tests — the gap is 40.6 per 100 tests.

higher bar = flagged more oftenadvisory items per 100 initial tests

Volkswagen Tiguan MOT advisories: what gets flagged — 2024 UK MOT data
Advisory rates table
GroupAdvisories per 100
Tyres41.5
Brakes31.8
Suspension26.3
Non-component advisories9.2
Emissions & leaks1.2
Identification0.9

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

Tyres, brakes and suspension: Volkswagen Tiguan against cars of the same age

AgePartVolkswagen TiguanSame age, petrol and dieselDifference
3 yearsTyres4.044.17-0.13
3 yearsBrakes1.921.770.15
3 yearsSuspension0.540.63-0.09
4 yearsTyres4.254.54-0.29
4 yearsBrakes2.012.43-0.42
4 yearsSuspension1.331.210.12
5 yearsTyres4.475.06-0.59
5 yearsBrakes2.013.09-1.08
5 yearsSuspension2.212.190.02
6 yearsTyres4.735.54-0.81
6 yearsBrakes2.243.81-1.57
6 yearsSuspension3.583.72-0.14
7 yearsTyres5.025.95-0.93
7 yearsBrakes2.514.55-2.04
7 yearsSuspension5.265.68-0.42
8 yearsTyres5.366.31-0.95
8 yearsBrakes35.38-2.38
8 yearsSuspension8.227.780.44

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 failed23.5%30,430
It passed16.3%653,841

A failed test raises next year's chance of failing again by 7.2 percentage points. The failure most likely to come back is steering — 29.3% 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 1,059,521 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 only79.7fails less often than expected
Age and annual mileage76.1fails less often than vehicles driven as much
Share doing under 3,000 miles a year1.9%a normal spread of use

Mileage changes little here (-3.6 points): this fleet is driven about as much as the vehicles it is compared with. 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 Volkswagen Tiguan 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.

AgeVolkswagen TiguanSame class, same ageDifferenceTests
3 years12.57%11.65%+0.93 pp172,219
4 years11.3%13.38%-2.08 pp158,089
5 years12.11%15.18%-3.07 pp147,192
6 years14%17.45%-3.45 pp123,428
7 years16.1%20.28%-4.18 pp103,116
8 years19.53%23.32%-3.79 pp83,512
9 years23.89%26.81%-2.92 pp71,808
10 years27.72%30.09%-2.37 pp58,689
11 years31%33.5%-2.5 pp48,345
12 years33.44%36.51%-3.07 pp35,240
13 years35.54%38.93%-3.39 pp25,670
14 years36.51%40.87%-4.36 pp18,194
15 years37.28%42.34%-5.06 pp10,650
16 years38.17%43.15%-4.97 pp4,215

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 Volkswagen Tiguan perform as it gets older?

The Tiguan at age 8 is well below the reference at 15.8%, against 23.3% for all vehicles of the same age.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

How does the Volkswagen Tiguan perform as it gets older? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · failure-rate scale 0–47%.

Takeaway: a 10-year-old Tiguan has roughly a 25% chance of failing its MOT.

Data table
AgeVolkswagen TiguanAll vehiclesGap
311.0%12.4%-1.4 pp
411.0%13.1%-2.1 pp
511.9%15.1%-3.3 pp
613.6%17.5%-3.9 pp
713.6%20.2%-6.6 pp
815.8%23.3%-7.5 pp
921.7%26.5%-4.8 pp
1025.5%30.1%-4.6 pp
1126.6%33.2%-6.6 pp
1230.7%35.7%-5.0 pp
1334.6%38.2%-3.6 pp
1436.6%40.4%-3.8 pp
1536.6%41.6%-5.0 pp
1638.2%43.1%-4.9 pp

Is a Volkswagen Tiguan ULEZ compliant?

The share of classifiable 2024 Volkswagen Tiguan MOT tests likely ULEZ compliant by first-registration date is 71.1%.

Based on 240,854 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 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 752
3–5 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 85,188
6–7 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 56,065
8 years100.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 18,632
9 years41.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 19,898
10–14 years3.8%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 50,070
15–17 years6.0%
Check a registration with TfL
n = 10,241
18 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 3
19 yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 5
20+ yearsSuppressed — sample below publication threshold
Check a registration with TfL
n = 0

Volkswagen Tiguan petrol vs diesel: which ages best

Diesel is highest at 20.1%; Petrol is lowest at 11.7% — the gap is 8.4 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Volkswagen Tiguan petrol vs diesel: which ages best — 2024 UK MOT data
Fuel split table
FuelTests% failingGap vs best
Diesel178,15420.1%+8.4 pp
Petrol62,44811.7%+0.0 pp

Chart sample sizes: n=178k · n=62k.

How dangerous are Volkswagen Tiguan MOT failures?

Major defects are well below the reference at 21.2 per 100 tests, against 52.8 per 100 tests nationally.

higher bar = fails more oftenrate per 100 tests

How dangerous are Volkswagen Tiguan MOT failures? — 2024 UK MOT data
Severity table
SeverityThis family /100National /100Family / national
Minor6.8614.220.48×
Major21.2052.750.40×
Dangerous7.7111.150.69×

Chart values: Minor 6.9 · Major 21.2 · Dangerous 7.7.

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

Does the month of a Volkswagen Tiguan MOT matter?

Oct is highest at 18.6%; Mar is lowest at 16.7% — the gap is 1.9 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Does the month of a Volkswagen Tiguan MOT matter? — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart scale: 15%–33%.

bars: Volkswagen Tiguan · dashed: all class-4 cars

Month-by-month table
MonthVolkswagen TiguanAll vehiclesGap
Jan18.54%31.12%-12.6 pp
Feb17.63%29.99%-12.4 pp
Mar16.73%28.26%-11.5 pp
Apr17.88%29.78%-11.9 pp
May17.21%28.79%-11.6 pp
Jun17.21%28.15%-10.9 pp
Jul18.29%29.33%-11.0 pp
Aug17.86%29.2%-11.3 pp
Sep17.33%28.19%-10.9 pp
Oct18.6%30.34%-11.7 pp
Nov18.48%30.58%-12.1 pp
Dec17.61%29.33%-11.7 pp

Takeaway: the spread between best and worst month is 1.9 percentage points — booking month barely matters for this family. 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.

Volkswagen Tiguan average mileage by age

At age 8, the middle half of Tiguans runs from 52,647 miles to 82,893 miles, against 67,066 miles as the median.

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

Bars: Volkswagen Tiguan · dashed: all class-4 cars — 2024 UK MOT data

Chart axes: car age, years · odometer scale 0–157k mi.

Does high mileage mean more Volkswagen Tiguan MOT failures at the same age?

Within the same age group, split by odometer (2024 MOTs), so this separates wear from age: at ages 6–9, 10.4% of those with under 40,000 miles failed first time versus 24.7% of those with over 140,000 miles.Inside this age group, higher mileage goes with more failures.

Does high mileage mean more Volkswagen Tiguan MOT failures at the same age? — 2024 UK MOT data
Volkswagen Tiguan: first-time failure by mileage within each age group (2024)
AgeOdometer% failing95% intervalTests
3–5<40k miles9.8%9.6–10.1%56,359
3–540-70k miles14.1%13.7–14.5%25,237
3–570-100k miles16.9%15.6–18.2%3,086
3–5100-140k miles16.4%13.3–20.1%457 (rough estimate)
6–9<40k miles10.4%9.9–10.9%14,419
6–940-70k miles14.3%14–14.7%47,188
6–970-100k miles18.9%18.5–19.4%25,662
6–9100-140k miles23.7%22.6–24.7%6,465
6–9140k+ miles24.7%21.9–27.7%858
10–14<40k miles16.6%14.7–18.7%1,334
10–1440-70k miles21.7%20.9–22.6%8,998
10–1470-100k miles28%27.4–28.7%17,953
10–14100-140k miles33.7%33–34.4%16,373
10–14140k+ miles36.6%35.3–37.9%5,404
15+<40k miles19.4%11.4–30.9%62 (rough estimate)
15+40-70k miles27.5%23.6–31.9%443 (rough estimate)
15+70-100k miles32.7%30.6–34.9%1,867
15+100-140k miles37.9%36.5–39.3%4,698
15+140k+ miles40.7%39–42.4%3,169

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

Mileage by age (p25 / median / p75)
Agep25Medianp75Tests
319,74026,39734,44624,337
424,21232,32442,20824,810
530,13639,91851,61036,041
639,27650,29763,18429,582
747,65160,35574,72626,483
852,64767,06682,89318,632
958,60373,82090,70719,898
1063,73681,134100,22715,345
1171,94089,969109,88812,303
1281,271100,895123,3258,998
1389,676109,624132,6776,773
1493,930115,663138,4986,651
1598,737120,278142,3966,041
16106,276128,479149,8714,192

A typical 8-year-old Tiguan has ~67,066 miles on the clock. Much more — ask why; much less — check for gaps in the MOT history.

Where in Britain the Volkswagen Tiguan fails its MOT most

Leicester area is highest at 24.3%; Romford area is lowest at 12.6% — the gap is 11.7 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Volkswagen Tiguan line: median · band: middle half of the fleet (p25–p75) — 2024 UK MOT data
Toughest areas% failingvs model overall
Leicester (LE)24.31%+6.5 pp
Truro (TR)24.04%+6.3 pp
Plymouth (PL)22.89%+5.1 pp
Kirkcaldy (KY)22.52%+4.7 pp
Bristol (BS)22.39%+4.6 pp
Easiest areas% failingvs model overall
Romford (RM)12.6%-5.2 pp
Nottingham (NG)12.84%-4.9 pp
London E (E)12.96%-4.8 pp
Outer Hebrides (HS)13.68%-4.1 pp
Southend-on-Sea (SS)13.82%-4.0 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 3.2 pp more often than in the lowest fifth (r=0.42, n=116 areas with ≥800 tests).

In areas with the highest terrain gradient this model fails 2.7 pp more often than in the lowest fifth (r=0.32, n=69 areas with ≥800 tests).

In areas with the highest urban share this model fails 2.6 pp less often than in the lowest fifth (r=-0.31, n=116 areas with ≥800 tests).

Volkswagen Tiguan Why do areas differ? — 2024 UK MOT data
Values shown in the quintile chart
FactorLow QHigh QGapCorrelation
MOT centre density15.8%19.0%+3.2 ppr=0.42
Terrain gradient16.5%19.2%+2.7 ppr=0.32
Urban share18.4%15.7%-2.7 ppr=-0.31

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)0.41611615.819.0+3.258.9
Terrain gradient (% grade)0.3156916.519.2+2.70.54.2
Urban share (0–1)-0.30911618.415.7-2.60.41
Distance to coast (km)-0.26411619.317.2-2.1678.7
Frost days (days/year)0.23111617.818.8+1.011.838
Road-salt proxy (g/m²-yr)0.21811616.918.8+1.9223674.9
Income deprivation (score)-0.0889717.316.9-0.40.10.2

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: 14%–22% failing.

Volkswagen Tiguan survival: which cars are still on the road

By age 16 is well below the reference at 2.9%, against 100.0% at the ages 4–6 reference level.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Volkswagen Tiguan 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 %
3172,219100%12.57%
4158,089100%11.3%
5147,192100%12.11%
6123,42886.4%14%
7103,11672.2%16.1%
883,51258.4%19.53%
971,80850.2%23.89%
1058,68941.1%27.72%
1148,34533.8%31%
1235,24024.7%33.44%
1325,67018%35.54%
1418,19412.7%36.51%
1510,6507.5%37.28%
164,2152.9%38.17%

By age 16, only about 3% as many cars of this family present for MOT as at ages 4–6 (reference n≈142,903); survivors still fail at 38.2% vs 11.3% at age 4. Older cars that still appear are a selected subset — weaker ones have already left.

How many miles does a Volkswagen Tiguan last?

100,000+ miles is highest at 12.7%; 200,000+ miles is lowest at 0.2% — the gap is 12.5 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

OdometerTests ≥ thresholdShare of sample
100,000+ miles134,12212.66%
150,000+ miles19,9741.88%
200,000+ miles1,7620.17%

Of 1,059,643 tests of this family with a usable odometer in 2024, 12.7% had reached 100k miles, 1.9% had reached 150k miles, 0.2% had reached 200k miles. This is a cross-section of cars still presenting for MOT, not a full birth cohort.

How many years is a Volkswagen Tiguan likely to last?

Bought at age 5 is highest at 4.6 years; Bought at age 15 is lowest at 0.9 years — the gap is 3.7 years.

bigger number = longer remaining lifeyears on the observed survival curve

Age nowTypical mileage (p50)Expected years left
5—4.6
8—3.8
10—2.9
12—at least 2.2
15—at least 0.9

estimateEstimate only — not a warranty: a typical 10-year-old example of this family has about 2.9 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.

Volkswagen Tiguan faults that come together

Lamps & electrical + Seatbelts & SRS stand out at 9.33×, against 1.00× if the faults were independent.

above 1.0× = more than expectedbelow 1.0× = less

Group AGroup BTogetherLift
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems1,7029.33×
Body, chassis, structureSteering4458.34× (rough estimate)
BrakesSteering7057.26×
Noise, emissions and leaksRoad Wheels1337.06× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSteering7536.52×
Identification of the vehicleSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems666.35× (rough estimate)
SteeringSuspension1,5016.26×
Noise, emissions and leaksSteering3106.21× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentRoad Wheels2505.74× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment2,8865.56×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentNoise, emissions and leaks2,6265.41×
Road WheelsSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems385.36× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems3934.98× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSuspension11,4324.9×
Body, chassis, structureNoise, emissions and leaks1,0994.9×
Body, chassis, structureSuspension5,1934.82×
Body, chassis, structureRoad Wheels964.76× (rough estimate)
BrakesNoise, emissions and leaks1,9234.71×
BrakesSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems7114.63×
BrakesRoad Wheels1694.61× (rough estimate)
Road WheelsSteering204.46× (rough estimate)
Road WheelsSuspension3894.29× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleNoise, emissions and leaks1164.19× (rough estimate)
BrakesIdentification of the vehicle2194.07× (rough estimate)
BrakesTyres6,0424.03×
Noise, emissions and leaksSuspension3,9813.95×
Identification of the vehicleLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment2513.92× (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsVisibility9483.89×
Noise, emissions and leaksTyres2,9873.87×
BrakesLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment3,6103.82×
BrakesSuspension7,4823.81×
SteeringTyres6823.72×
Road WheelsTyres2553.68× (rough estimate)
Body, chassis, structureBrakes1,5313.51×
Identification of the vehicleSteering233.49× (rough estimate)
Noise, emissions and leaksVisibility2,1393.3×
Body, chassis, structureSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems2743.25× (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsTyres9403.24×
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentTyres5,7063.2×
Identification of the vehicleTyres3213.16× (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsSteering573.04× (rough estimate)
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentVisibility4,5473.03×
SuspensionTyres10,4372.82×
Body, chassis, structureIdentification of the vehicle822.77× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleSuspension3672.76× (rough estimate)
Identification of the vehicleVisibility2362.76× (rough estimate)
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systemsSuspension1,0302.72×
SteeringVisibility4152.69× (rough estimate)
Road WheelsVisibility1562.68× (rough estimate)
BrakesVisibility3,2372.57×
Body, chassis, structureTyres2,0732.51×
TyresVisibility5,9662.5×
Body, chassis, structureVisibility1,7042.46×
SuspensionVisibility6,9962.24×
Identification of the vehicleRoad Wheels18too few (rough estimate)
Seat belt installation checkTyres5too few (rough estimate)

Defects in «Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment» and «Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems» appear together 9.33× more often than chance (1,702 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 Volkswagen Tiguan?

Cars driven under 5,000 miles a year is well below the reference at 12.2%, against 20.6% for cars driven 8,000–12,000 miles a year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

BandFail %Tests
<5k miles/year12.18%64,445
8–12k miles/year20.63%305,920
Gap (low − normal)-8.44 pp—
By fuel and age

Diesel

AgeLow-use fail %nNormal fail %nGap pp
57.9110,78313.2848,205-5.37 pp
68.918,94315.1746,592-6.26 pp
710.287,69817.2442,008-6.96 pp
812.376,66321.1535,226-8.79 pp
914.615,62026.0630,643-11.45 pp
1017.014,1673025,819-12.98 pp
1122.022,99333.0221,945-11 pp
1221.612,04535.9316,292-14.32 pp
1325.211,45237.7412,055-12.54 pp
1427.291,10338.818,541-11.52 pp

Petrol

AgeLow-use fail %nNormal fail %nGap pp
56.515,61913.038,777-6.52 pp
67.742,63414.144,625-6.4 pp
78.431,43615.991,832-7.57 pp
812.1873121.37702-9.19 pp
917.8357227.65528-9.82 pp
1016.4357231.03593-14.6 pp
1117.6449936575-18.36 pp
1223.7941230.48433-6.7 pp
1325.0829937.46315-12.38 pp
1425.4920435.07211-9.58 pp

At matched ages 5–14, cars averaging under 5k miles/year fail at 12.2% vs 20.6% for 8–12k miles/year — 8.4 pp lower (n_low=64,445, n_normal=305,920). 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: 12.8% low-use vs 21.2% normal (-8.5 pp).

Which Volkswagen Tiguan engine is best?

diesel 1.8–2.0 is highest at 101.7; petrol 1.8–2.0 is lowest at 80.7 — the gap is 21.0 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
petrol1.8–2.0 litre80.712.52%38,520
petrol1.2–1.5 litre90.312.02%129,887
diesel1.2–1.5 litre100.231.26%483 (rough estimate)
diesel1.8–2.0 litre101.718.83%897,457

Splitting this model by fuel alone hides the thing that actually differs. Within the same badge, the diesel 1.8–2.0 runs at 101.7 against this model's own age norm while the petrol 1.8–2.0 runs at 80.7 — a spread of 21 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 Volkswagen Tiguan, and the years to avoid

Build year 2018 is highest at 112.1; Build year 2016 is lowest at 90.1 — the gap is 22.0 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

Volkswagen Tiguan build year vs the same model at the same age · 100 = as expected — 2024 UK MOT data
Volkswagen Tiguan 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
202098.596–101.111.4%50,224no different
201997.595.8–99.211.33%109,929better
2018112.1110.4–113.813.67%120,635worse
201796.595–97.912.49%141,181better
201690.188.7–91.612.79%113,339better
20159795.6–98.415.51%121,074better
2014103.2101.7–104.719.27%93,460worse
2013100.598.9–10221.88%74,976no different
2012103.8102.1–105.525.91%55,903worse
2011106.3104.4–108.129.96%42,593worse
2010108.1106.3–109.933.59%42,312worse
2009105.2103.5–10735.08%40,605worse
2008102.2100.2–104.135.88%29,656worse

The best build year here is 2016 and the weakest is 2018. 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 — 11 of 13 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.

Volkswagen Tiguan MOT repair costs

The MOT-failure repair budget per test runs from £37.57 to £71.38, against £54.85 for the test itself.

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

MOT repairs, budget
£38–71
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
Suspension10.6 (nat. 15.36)Suspension coil spring (single corner)£180£19.08
Tyres7.5 (nat. 8.7)Tyre (single mid-range 16" fitted)£90£6.75
Brakes4.0 (nat. 11.25)Front brake pads (parts + labour, typical hatchback)£150£6.00
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment4.1 (nat. 18.09)Battery replacement (standard 12V lead-acid)£140£5.74

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 £38 to £71, 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.

Volkswagen Tiguan running costs for a fleet

Vehicles failing at age 10 stand out at 25.0%, against 12.0% at age 5, tested in the same year.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fails per 100 at age 5
12
vehicles needing work
At age 10
25
other cars of this model tested at age 10 in 2024
Repairs per 100
£3,757
plus £5,485 in test fees
Off the road
1d
median; 45.61% cleared same day
Failure rate and typical odometer by age
AgeFailsMedian odometerTestsGap vs age 5
311%26,39724,337-0.9 pp
411.03%32,32424,810-0.9 pp
511.88%39,91836,041+0.0 pp
613.56%50,29729,582+1.7 pp
713.55%60,35526,483+1.7 pp
815.84%67,06618,632+4.0 pp
921.69%73,82019,898+9.8 pp
1025.46%81,13415,345+13.6 pp
1126.6%89,96912,303+14.7 pp
1230.66%100,8958,998+18.8 pp
1334.58%109,6246,773+22.7 pp
1436.58%115,6636,651+24.7 pp
1536.63%120,2786,041+24.8 pp
1638.19%128,4794,192+26.3 pp

The number a fleet manager needs is not the failure rate, it is the year the car starts costing more. Between cars aged 8 and cars aged 9, both tested in 2024, the failure rate of this model is 5.85 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.

Volkswagen Tiguan rust problems: where they corrode

Age-standardised corrosion susceptibility is well below the reference at 0.88×, against 1.00× for the national age-standardised rate.

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

How it rusts
0.88×
0.67% of tests record a corrosion defect vs 0.77% typical — age-standardised
Salt Belt exposure
77th
percentile among the models published here, from its tests across 116 postcode areas

This Volkswagen Tiguan fails on corrosion at about the average rate once age is held constant, and its owners live in areas that are saltier than most for the models we publish.

Corrosion is the one failure mode that is as much about geography as about the car. We keep the two apart on purpose: a model can look rusty simply because it is popular in Scotland, and a model can look clean simply because it is bought in Surrey. Blending them into a single score would hide which of the two is doing the work.

Exposure is this model's tests weighted by an area corrosion index built from frost days, salt load and distance to the coast — the composite validated at r = 0.42 against corrosion defects we actually record. It is published as a rank, not a raw score, because every mainstream model skews towards low-corrosion areas for the simple reason that most of Britain's cars are in the south. Susceptibility is standardised to the national age profile, so an old fleet does not get labelled a rusty model.

Does a Volkswagen Tiguan advisory become a failure?

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment are highest at 19.7%; Identification of the vehicle is lowest at 2.1% — the gap is 17.6 percentage points.

higher = more likelypercentage is the observed transition probability

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

Volkswagen Tiguan chance the same component fails at the next MOT, given an advisory now — 2024 UK MOT data
Volkswagen Tiguan, advisory → failure conversion by component group, chained tests 2019–2024. Chart labels and rates: Lamps & electrical 19.7% · Suspension 18% · Steering 8.9% · Body & chassis 8.1% · Tyres 7.9% · Visibility 6.2% · Brakes 5.8% · Noise, emissions, leaks 4.9%.
Advisory today → failure at the next test, with how long you have
ComponentFails next timeTypical lead timeMiles of warningAdvisories tracked
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment19.7%12 months6,557610
Suspension18.0%12 months7,164113,882
Steering8.9%12 months8,059824
Body, chassis, structure8.1%12 months7,0346,284
Tyres7.9%12 months7,863183,741
Visibility6.2%12 months9,866858
Brakes5.8%12 months7,506146,758
Noise, emissions and leaks4.9%12 months7,5868,551
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems3.6%12 months7,9312,422
Identification of the vehicle2.1%12 months7,6566,451

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 20 in 100 cars, and the median gap is 12 months and roughly 6,557 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 Volkswagen Tiguan?

Suspension after a failure at age 12-14 is highest at 28.9%; Brakes after a passed at age <3 are lowest at 1.5% — the gap is 27.4 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 3.5% · Visibility 3.5% · Brakes 1.5%72,990
<3advisoryTyres 4.7% · Visibility 3.9% · Brakes 2.9%28,576
<3failureTyres 5.3% · Visibility 3.9% · Brakes 2.8%13,528
3-5passedTyres 3.7% · Visibility 2.7% · Suspension 2.0%187,916
3-5advisoryTyres 5.4% · Visibility 3.6% · Suspension 3.3%110,330
3-5failureTyres 6.1% · Visibility 4.1% · Suspension 3.6%42,164
6-8passedSuspension 7.0% · Tyres 4.2% · Visibility 3.3%92,631
6-8advisorySuspension 10.4% · Tyres 6.3% · Visibility 5.3%75,152
6-8failureSuspension 12.5% · Tyres 8.0% · Visibility 5.7%38,452
9-11passedSuspension 15.4% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 7.2% · Tyres 5.1%41,564
9-11advisorySuspension 20.6% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 9.4% · Tyres 7.6%38,922
9-11failureSuspension 22.9% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 12.3% · Tyres 9.0%34,267
12-14passedSuspension 19.9% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 11.2% · Tyres 6.0%13,153
12-14advisorySuspension 26.6% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 14.6% · Tyres 7.4%15,215
12-14failureSuspension 28.9% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 18.3% · Tyres 9.9%15,839
15-19passedSuspension 17.9% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 10.5% · Body, chassis, structure 7.0%526
15-19advisorySuspension 26.1% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 17.5% · Tyres 8.7%725
15-19failureSuspension 25.8% · Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 19.6% · Visibility 9.7%895

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.

Volkswagen Tiguan ownership: what six years of MOTs show

The ten-day re-test pass rate is highest at 52.2%; The later re-test pass rate is lowest at 2.2% — the gap is 49.9 percentage points.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Fixed same day
45.61%
of failures re-tested
Fails /10k miles
0.237
miles actually driven
Clean streaks
36.39%
3+ tests, nothing noted
Odometer anomaly
0.619%
reading went backwards

Failing is usually a same-week event, not a disaster. Of 150,455 failures followed through to their re-test, 45.61% were repaired and passed the same day and 52.15% within ten days; the median gap is 1 day. 294,830 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 0.237 failures per 10,000 miles, on a median of 7,173 miles a year across 222,172 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. 36.39% of these cars strung together three or more tests with nothing recorded at all, while 24.46% 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: 0.619% of 222,247 chains show a reading lower than the previous test, with a median drop of 18,454 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.

Volkswagen Tiguan safety recalls and how to check yours

DVSA recall campaigns stand out at 30.

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

recall campaigns launched per year

Volkswagen Tiguan recall campaigns launched per year — 2024 UK MOT data
Campaigns launched per year for the Volkswagen Tiguan. Source: DVSA vehicle safety recalls. Chart values: 2011: 1 · 2012: 0 · 2013: 0 · 2014: 0 · 2015: 0 · 2016: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2018: 5 · 2019: 7 · 2020: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2025: 1.
Most recent safety recall campaigns for the Volkswagen Tiguan
ReferenceLaunchedVehiclesConcern
R/2025/22320/06/2025144Curtain airbag
R/2025/00419/12/2024337Lever for seat height adjustment
R/2024/11407/03/2024187Curtain Airbag
R/2023/17813/06/20231Takata Front airbag
R/2022/16630/05/2022305SPORADIC MALFUNCTIONS IN A PRESSURE CASTING SYSTEM CAUSED INDIVIDUAL REAR WHEEL BEARING HO
All 30 campaigns
ReferenceLaunchedBuild datesVehiclesConcern
R/2025/22320/06/202505/12/2018 – 17/02/2019144Curtain airbag
R/2025/00419/12/202414/05/2024 – 21/05/2024337Lever for seat height adjustment
R/2024/11407/03/202427/11/2018 – 09/02/2019187Curtain Airbag
R/2023/17813/06/202306/02/2015 – 06/02/20151Takata Front airbag
R/2022/16630/05/202223/07/2021 – 20/09/2021305SPORADIC MALFUNCTIONS IN A PRESSURE CASTING SYSTEM CAUSED INDIVIDUAL REAR WHEEL BEARING HO
R/2022/08607/04/202223/01/2019 – 10/02/20221,868THE FUSE IN THE HIGH-VOLTAGE SYSTEM OF PLUG-IN HYBRID VEHICLES WAS IN SOME CASES PRODUCED
R/2022/07422/03/202205/09/2020 – 17/02/20227,579ENGINE COMPARTMENT COVERS COULD COME LOOSE FROM THEIR ATTACHMENT
R/2021/40505/11/202109/09/2021 – 29/09/20213THE BOLTED CONNECTION OF THE BRAKE LINE ON THE FRONT RIGHT WHEEL HOUSING MAY NOT HAVE BEEN
R/2021/20307/06/202111/05/2016 – 22/01/2019531A TOW BAR WITH A POSSIBLY DEFECTIVE LOCKING MECHANISM IN THE SWIVELLING MODULE HAS BEEN FI
R/2021/05215/02/202123/09/2020 – 25/09/202033A WELDING TO THE TUBULAR FRAME OF THE DRIVER SEATMAY HAVE BEEN INCORRECTLY PERFORMED
R/2020/25908/09/202026/06/2020 – 29/06/202015THE ADJUSTMENT MECHANISM OF THE BACKREST FRAME OF THE FRONT SEATS MAY BE INCORRECTLY WELDE
R/2020/13311/05/202001/05/2016 – 30/06/20192,495THE ROOF SPOILER CAN PARTIALLY OR COMPLETELY DETACH FROM THE VEHICLE
R/2019/45118/12/201910/10/2019 – 11/10/201953THE WALL THICKNESS OF THE FUEL TANK MAY NOT BE TO SPECIFICATION
R/2020/00512/12/201913/09/2019 – 22/10/2019184WHEELS ORDERED AND BOUGHT AT THE DEALERS MAY NOT BE COMPATIBLE
R/2019/37805/11/201906/01/2015 – 17/12/201517,988A CONDENSER MAY FAIL IN THE AIRBAG CONTROL UNIT
R/2019/26409/08/201909/10/2018 – 28/05/2019373TOO LITTLE TORQUE MAY BE PROVIDED BY THE ENGINE AT LOW ENGINE SPEEDS
R/2019/23118/07/201923/10/2017 – 09/06/201824A WRONG MULTIPLE FUSE WAS INSTALLED IN THE ELECTRONICS BOX
R/2019/21615/07/201904/02/2019 – 05/02/2019101POSSIBLE CRACKS IN LEFT FRONT SEATS
R/2019/17403/06/201911/05/2016 – 05/11/2018454TOW BAR WITH A POSSIBLE DEFECTIVE LOCKING MECHANISM MAY HAVE BEEN FITTED
R/2018/33128/11/201801/04/2015 – 31/07/201837,179A SHORT CIRCUIT IN THE LED MODULE OF THE PANORAMA SUN ROOF CAN OCCUR
R/2018/21722/07/201814/03/2018 – 18/05/201831AIRBAG MAY HAVE BEEN INCORRECTLY FOLDED WHEN PASSENGER AIRBAG MODULE WAS PRODUCED
R/2018/18128/06/201801/02/2017 – 31/03/201898FRONT SWIVEL JOINT NUT INCORRECTLY SECURED ON WHEEL BEARING HOUSING (LEFT AND RIGHT)
R/2018/07419/03/201819/01/2018 – 23/01/201856FRONT BRAKE DISCS MAY NOT BE CORRECT THICKNESS
R/2018/06207/03/201801/03/2011 – 30/11/201116,625STARTER MOTOR MAY MALFUNCTION AND OVERHEAT
R/2017/07922/03/201701/05/2016 – 31/10/20163,879AIRBAG/BELT TENSIONERS MAY NOT TRIGGER IN EVENT OF AN ACCIDENT
R/2016/27227/01/201701/08/2016 – 31/10/20161,706FRONT SEAT BACKREST MAY COLLAPSE IN A COLLISION
R/2017/04023/01/201701/06/2015 – 31/10/201612,440LIGHTS MAY FAIL WITHOUT WARNING
R/2016/14523/06/201625/11/2015 – 14/04/201613,620CHILD LOCK MAY DISENGAGE
R/2011/16915/12/201101/01/2009 – 15/12/201133,719FUEL MAY LEAK
R/2008/09716/07/200811/07/2007 – 10/02/20081,452FIRE MAY OCCUR

DVSA lists 30 safety recall campaigns for the Volkswagen Tiguan, covering roughly 153,480 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.

Volkswagen Tiguan technical service bulletins: what dealers are told

US market, Volkswagen TIGUAN and its variants, model years 2015–2022 only. A count of bulletins, not a UK failure rate.

NHTSA manufacturer communications are 1,585.

bigger number = more recorded dealer communicationsnot affected vehicles or confirmed faults

These are the issues the manufacturer fixes quietly: service communications sent to dealers without a public recall campaign. They show what the service network has been told even when the issue never became news.

United States · NHTSA manufacturer communications

US technical service bulletins by communication year; leading subjects cover the full file
Communication yearBulletinsLeading subjects across all years
20136
  • Equipment (695)
  • Electrical system (349)
  • Engine and cooling (224)
  • Engine (140)
  • Other / uncategorised (135)
  • Structure (96)
  • Visibility (93)
  • Adaptive and mobility equipment (71)
2014108
201598
2016179
201795
2018100
2019236
2020168
2021139
2022145
2023120
202488
202567
202636

Caveat worth stating plainly: this is NHTSA data about US-specification cars. British cars sold under the same name often use different gearboxes, engines and equipment, so a bulletin may describe a component that was never fitted here. The file counts dealer communications, not affected vehicles or confirmed failures, and it cannot tell you whether an individual UK car has the issue. A communication can carry more than one subject tag, so topic counts do not have to add up to the total. Source: NHTSA Manufacturer Communications API (US-market vehicles; queried model years 2015-2022). Licence: U.S. Government work / public domain · retrieved 2026-09-25.

Volkswagen Tiguan owner complaints: what goes wrong

US market, Volkswagen TIGUAN and its variants, model years 2015–2022 only. A count of owner complaints, not a UK failure rate; NHTSA has no UK denominator.

Engine (not MOT-tested) is highest at 365; Brakes are lowest at 79 — the gap is 286.

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

Owner complaints (US) against actual MOT failures (UK) for the same component groups
ComponentComplaintsShareMOT fail items per 100MOT rankAgreement
Engine (not MOT-tested)36528.9%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Lamps & electrical32926.1%4.1#4complained about, fails occasionally
Restraints15512.3%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Transmission (not MOT-tested)13610.8%not in top 6—complained about, rarely an MOT failure
Body & structure917.2%1.6#6complained about, fails occasionally
Brakes796.3%4.0#5complained about, fails occasionally

Two different populations answering two different questions: the MOT records what an inspector can measure once a year, the complaint file records what annoyed or frightened an owner on the road. A component high in one column and absent from the other is the interesting case — driver-assistance and electronics dominate complaints while almost never appearing as an MOT failure item.

What the reports actually say
Car was recently repaired from a deer related accident. Within a week of getting car back I heard an unwinding like sound from steering wheel area while making a left hand turn into parking lot. My airbag light came on and all steering wheel functions like buttons and horn ceased to operate. I did see that this year Tiguan did have an airbag recall.
NHTSA complaint, filed 11/26/2024 · AIR BAGS
Premature timing chain failure (at 70,000 miles). Regularly maintenanced. Confirmed by mechanic. Check engine light notified 2 months prior to failure.
NHTSA complaint, filed 10/02/2024 · ENGINE

US owners have filed 1,261 complaints about the equivalent Volkswagen Tiguan to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, including 32 that mention a crash, 8 a fire and 42 an injury. These are owner reports, not verified findings — but they are the only large public record of what drivers themselves notice, and they cover the years between MOT tests.

Caveat worth stating plainly: US-specification cars, self-selected reporters, no denominator — complaint counts scale with how many cars were sold there and how motivated owners are to file. The mechanical gap matters as much as the statistical one: American cars of the same name often carry different gearboxes, engines and equipment — automatics where Britain buys manuals — so a drivetrain complaint filed in Ohio may describe a part that was never fitted here. Read the ranking inside a model, not between models, and treat drivetrain entries with particular caution. Source: NHTSA ODI consumer complaints (US market, public domain) — US-spec vehicles, indicative only.

Volkswagen Tiguan inspection results in other countries

Netherlands APK is well below the reference at 36.8%, against 50.8% nationally.

higher = larger sharecompare shares in percentage points

Same model, different national inspection regimes
CountryTestThis model failsNational averagePositionSample
United KingdomMOT (class 4)17.92%26.01%-8.1 pp240,949
NetherlandsAPK36.8%50.8%-14 pp43,681
NorwayPKK31.1%33.7%-2.6 pp20,460
FinlandKatsastus16.3%26.3%-10 pp8,195

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.

The exact faults Netherlands records — APK defect codes, 2024
CodeFaultRecordedType
210Tyre pressure not at the correct value8,138failure
205Tyre with insufficient tread4,916failure
516Dipped headlight incorrectly aimed2,837failure
AC1Tyre down to 1.6–2.5 mm of tread2,763advisory
224Spring broken or cracked1,360failure
AC5Mechanical brake parts showing wear1,199advisory
391Wipers leave insufficient visibility1,094failure
203Tyre damaged1,025failure

Worth dwelling on how mundane the top of that list is: tyre pressure, tread depth, headlight aim. The Dutch APK records 0.783 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 Volkswagen Tiguan 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.; Statens vegvesen — Periodisk kjøretøykontroll (PKK) 2024, CC BY 4.0; Traficom — Periodic inspections of cars by model / by model and fault object 2024, CC BY 4.0. Adapted; licences and full notice.

Volkswagen Tiguan MOT: quick answers

Volkswagen Tiguan MOT Risk Index is well below the reference at 80.8, 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 Volkswagen Tiguan first-time MOT pass rate?
82.08% of first attempts passed in 2024 (240,949 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 17.92% figure is the first-time initial failure rate, using 240,949 primary tests as the denominator (first-time, excluding retests). The age-adjusted MOT initial-failure ratio 80.8 is shown separately because raw rates compare fleet age as well as cars.

Compare the Volkswagen Tiguan with other cars

Honda Jazz is highest at 80.8; BMW 3 Series is lowest at 80.7 — the gap is 0.1 points.

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

Same brand

All Volkswagen MOT statisticsVolkswagen Golf MOT statsVolkswagen Passat MOT stats

Similar risk

Honda Jazz (index 80.8)BMW 3 Series (index 80.7)Mercedes-Benz E-Class (index 80.7)

Same size class

how Audi A4 compareshow Nissan Micra compareshow Hyundai i10 compares

By build year

Volkswagen Tiguan 2008Volkswagen Tiguan 2009Volkswagen Tiguan 2010Volkswagen Tiguan 2011Volkswagen Tiguan 2012Volkswagen Tiguan 2013Volkswagen Tiguan 2014Volkswagen Tiguan 2015Volkswagen Tiguan 2016Volkswagen Tiguan 2017Volkswagen Tiguan 2018Volkswagen Tiguan 2019Volkswagen Tiguan 2020

By area

Volkswagen Tiguan MOT failure rate by postcode area

By failure group

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

Inspections abroad

Volkswagen Tiguan in NorwayVolkswagen Tiguan in FinlandVolkswagen Tiguan 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:volkswagen-tiguan:dvsa-2024-v2. Full method: methodology.

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