Ford Focus vs Honda Civic
Take the Honda Civic for lower age-adjusted MOT risk: its index is 100.7 versus 106.9 for the Ford Focus, and the 95% confidence intervals do not overlap.
Lower is better. The index adjusts for each fleet's exact age profile; the raw failure rate below does not. The index gap is 6.2 points. Data release dvsa-2024-v1.
Side-by-side evidence
| Measure | Ford Focus | Honda Civic |
|---|---|---|
| Age-adjusted MOT Risk Index | 106.9 (106.6–107.1) | 100.7 (100.3–101.2) |
| Raw initial failure rate | 31.02% | 32.30% |
| Dangerous defects per 100 tests | 16.34 | 15.27 |
| Initial tests | 1,348,944 | 411,763 |
Where their MOT failures diverge
These are component groups present in both models' published top-six failure lists, sorted by the absolute gap. A positive difference means the Ford Focus records more failure items; a negative one means the Honda Civic does.
| Component group | Ford Focus | Honda Civic | Difference | Lower rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 27.0 | 46.9 | -19.9 pp | Ford Focus |
| Suspension | 22.2 | 32.8 | -10.6 pp | Ford Focus |
| Brakes | 11.4 | 18.6 | -7.2 pp | Ford Focus |
| Visibility | 10.2 | 13.0 | -2.8 pp | Ford Focus |
| Tyres | 13.2 | 10.6 | +2.6 pp | Honda Civic |
Counts are defect items, not the share of cars: one failed test can contain several items. A group absent from a model's top six is not treated as zero.
What the six-year test history says
The longitudinal layer follows the same vehicles between MOTs from 2019 to 2024. It separates a one-day retest from the harder question of what returns next year, and puts failures against miles actually driven.
| Component | Ford Focus | Honda Civic | Difference | Tracked advisories |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 22.2% | 35.2% | -13.0 pp | 120,360 / 42,512 |
| Suspension | 22.5% | 27.6% | -5.1 pp | 828,358 / 258,185 |
| Brakes | 11.1% | 14.0% | -3.0 pp | 796,115 / 303,463 |
| Visibility | 11.6% | 13.2% | -1.6 pp | 6,158 / 1,475 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 6.6% | 7.9% | -1.3 pp | 199,788 / 37,423 |
| Steering | 13.7% | 12.5% | +1.2 pp | 52,139 / 16,572 |
| Tyres | 10.9% | 9.8% | +1.1 pp | 1,254,821 / 354,906 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 14.0% | 13.0% | +1.0 pp | 193,075 / 59,064 |
| Road wheels | 1.1% | 0.8% | +0.3 pp | 50,379 / 5,097 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 3.7% | 3.5% | +0.1 pp | 151,256 / 54,887 |
| Measure | Ford Focus | Honda Civic |
|---|---|---|
| Repaired and passed the same day | 46.3% | 43.6% |
| Passed 1–10 days later | 51.2% | 53.2% |
| Median retest delay | 1.0 days | 1.0 days |
| Failures per 10,000 miles | 0.515 | 0.548 |
| Three-test clean streak | 33.2% | 32.9% |
| Same advisory repeated 3+ times | 34.6% | 35.5% |
Care proxy is descriptive, not a claim about an owner's character: a clean streak means three or more consecutive tests with nothing recorded; the repeat measure means the same advisory appeared at least three times.
Safety recalls
| Model | Campaigns listed | Per 10,000 licensed |
|---|---|---|
| Ford Focus | 96 | 1.12 |
| Honda Civic | — | — |
More campaigns do not by themselves mean a less reliable car: recalls are manufacturer remedies, and the licensed-fleet denominator is unavailable for some families. Check a registration for outstanding work before buying.
Do other countries see the same thing?
Both models appear in the same independent national inspection datasets below. Compare each model with that country's own average; absolute pass rates are not portable between rulebooks.
| Country / test | Model | Model fails | National average | Position | Inspections |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finland · Katsastus | Ford Focus | 28.1% | 26.3% | +1.8 pp | 44,138 |
| Finland · Katsastus | Honda Civic | 22.2% | 26.3% | -4.1 pp | 15,098 |
| Netherlands · APK | Ford Focus | 51.3% | 50.9% | +0.4 pp | 97,021 |
| Netherlands · APK | Honda Civic | 57.0% | 50.9% | +6.1 pp | 18,271 |
| Norway · PKK | Ford Focus | 36.3% | 33.5% | +2.8 pp | 5,843 |
| Norway · PKK | Honda Civic | 37.1% | 33.5% | +3.6 pp | 1,381 |
Sources are the national PKK, Katsastus and APK datasets recorded in each family artifact. Position is model failure rate minus that country's national rate.
Quick answers
- Is the Ford Focus or the Honda Civic more reliable?
- The Honda Civic has the stronger age-adjusted MOT result: index 100.7 against 106.9 for the Ford Focus, with non-overlapping 95% confidence intervals.
- Does the Ford Focus or the Honda Civic fail more MOTs?
- 31.02% of Ford Focus initial tests and 32.30% of Honda Civic initial tests found a failing defect in 2024. The lower raw rate belongs to the Ford Focus, but the age-adjusted index is the fairer model comparison because the fleets can be different ages.
- What are the main MOT problem areas on the Ford Focus and Honda Civic?
- The leading published failure group for the Ford Focus is lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment at 27.0 items per 100 tests; for the Honda Civic it is lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment at 46.9 per 100.
- Should I buy a Ford Focus or a Honda Civic?
- If MOT reliability is the deciding factor, the Honda Civic is the evidence-led choice. Still check the individual car's MOT history and condition: these figures describe whole model populations, not a particular vehicle.
Model pages and nearby comparisons
See the Ford Fiesta and Volkswagen Polo comparisonSee the Ford Focus and Mercedes A Class comparisonSee the Ford Fiesta and Vauxhall Corsa comparison
Browse all car reliability comparisons.
How to read and cite this comparison
Scope: class-4 vehicles, initial tests only, Great Britain 2024. PRS fixed-on-the-spot results count as failures because a defect was present on arrival. Index = observed initial failures ÷ age-profile-expected failures × 100; intervals are 95% confidence intervals. Every model family combines all generations and engines. Full method: methodology.
Cite: MOT Risk Index (2026). Ford Focus vs Honda Civic: MOT reliability comparison, 2024 (dvsa-2024-v1). https://motriskindex.co.uk/compare/ford-focus-vs-honda-civic/