MOT cost .
Ford Fiesta
MOT 2023
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Ford

Fiesta

1,761,562 MOT tests analysed. lands in the middle of the pack — here's where Fiestas pass, fail, and end up on the retest sheet.

That's 3.4 points below the UK fleet average across our 1,988 tracked models — buyers should expect more first-time fails than the typical UK car.

Pass

72.3%

Pass-after-fix

5.9%

Fail

21.3%

Avg miles

69,164

Pass + Pass-after-fix + Fail = 100%

The picture

Britain's most-tested car, warts and all

At 72.28% first-time pass across 1.76 million tests, the Fiesta sits squarely in the UK middle — respectable but not stellar. Suspension pin and bush wear tops the failure chart, followed by stop-lamps out, both fixable at a tester's bench without drama. Owners of the 2021 mild-hybrid trim report a different kind of drain: the 12-volt battery drops to 40% within weeks of delivery, knocking out the air conditioning and triggering door-latch faults. The 1.0 EcoBoost heater resistor has a habit of failing twice before dealers admit the proper fix is a dashboard-out strip. Average test mileage sits at 69,164 — young enough that none of this should be happening.

Top ten reasons for rejection.

  1. 01

    A suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn

    63,566 occurrences · 3.6% of tests

  2. 02

    Stop lamp missing, inoperative or in the case of a multiple light source more than 1/2 not functioning

    56,301 occurrences · 3.2% of tests

  3. 03

    Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements

    48,421 occurrences · 2.7% of tests

  4. 04

    A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened

    47,359 occurrences · 2.7% of tests

  5. 05

    A suspension joint dust cover severely deteriorated

    37,696 occurrences · 2.1% of tests

  6. 06

    A steering ball joint with excessive wear or free play

    35,969 occurrences · 2.0% of tests

  7. 07

    A rear registration plate lamp or light source missing or inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources

    33,664 occurrences · 1.9% of tests

  8. 08

    A lamp missing, inoperative or in the case of a multiple light source more than 1/2 not functioning

    33,376 occurrences · 1.9% of tests

  9. 09

    Windscreen or window damaged or seriously discoloured but not adversely affecting driver's view

    29,717 occurrences · 1.7% of tests

  10. 10

    A tyre cords visible or damaged

    26,325 occurrences · 1.5% of tests

Counts cover Major and Dangerous defects logged at test. Advisory items excluded so this shows why a car was rejected, not just what the tester flagged in passing.

Worst-case fix budget · top 5 failures

£308–£850

If every one of this Fiesta's most-logged Major fails hit at the same MOT, that's the real-world UK garage range. Reality is usually one or two items, not all of them. Open the estimator →

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Build your own retest budget.

Tools that pre-empt a retest.

Picked against this car's top failure patterns. Affiliate links to Amazon UK — we earn a small cut at no cost to you. Disclosed up-front, doesn't shape the data.

Item 01 · Amazon UK

H7 / W21W bulb pack

A spare-bulb kit lives in the boot. Test morning is not the time to find your stop-lamp's gone.

Search Amazon UK

Item 02 · Amazon UK

Digital tyre-tread depth gauge

Five quid for a gauge beats £150 for a retest. UK MOT minimum is 1.6mm — most testers fail anything below 2mm to be safe.

Search Amazon UK

Owner reports · Honest John

What owners actually report.

Verbatim faults logged by owners on honestjohn.co.uk over recent years. We didn't summarise — these are the words people typed in.

What's good

The Ford Fiesta is the first car many people ever drive and, for many, it’s all the car they will ever need. Its versatility, low running costs and practicality are all at their best in this generation of Ford’s superlative hatchback.

Where it falls short

Several Fiesta models including Vignale now list at more than £20,000.

Recent owner-reported faults

  1. 5 Jul 2023

    Report of a one year old Ford Fiesta Ecoboost MHEV where the 12v battery keeps running down so the air con will not work.

  2. 15 Dec 2021

    Heater failure on 2017 Ford Fiesta 1.0 EcoBoost The heater fan ceased to work on two occasions in any position except four, the highest. Each time the repair was done by fitting a new resistor. The latest repair failed again. Ford dealer now thinks that to effect a proper repair a new heater motor will have to be fitted. They say that five and a half hours labour will be required as access has to be carried out through the dashboard. The new motor will cost approximately £400 and the total bill will come to just over £1000. Unclear if the dealer or Ford will contribute towards the cost of the repair.

  3. 6 Dec 2021

    Problems reported with 2021 1.0 mHEV Fiesta. After three weeks of ownership there were problems with the passenger door touch sensitive unlocking. Owner took the car back to the dealer who said it was because the 12v battery was low (40 per cent). They suggested that because the owner only does around 100 miles a week and the hybrid system is only really charging the hybrid battery, so the standard one is likely to regularly run down.

  4. 23 Jul 2020

    Report of 2020 Ford Fiesta breaking down on the drive home from the dealership. Engine warning light appeared on the dashboard with the message "low oil pressure". Dealership recovered the car and stated it needed parts to be ordered from Germany and the owner would have the car back in a week. Owner is rejecting the car under the consumer rights act 2015.

  5. 9 Nov 2019

    Complaint about Sync3 not working in a 2018 Ford Fiesta 1.0 Ecoboost ST-Line automatic. The Sync 3 system includes the Sat Nav, yet, even though it has WiFi it doesn’t update. Owner has tried downloading satnav updates to a USB to update but it doesn’t work. Sat nav goes blank, all roads disappear and he can only see the red arrow. This happens just about every day. The car has been back to the dealers and they have applied all available updates but confirm it’s not fixed until Ford provides a permanent fix. Owner having to try to use Apple Carplay and Google Maps.

  6. 22 Sep 2019

    Report of audible warning and light coming on in brand new Ford Fiesta 1.0 Ecoboost, then going off before driver can work out what it is for. It will be the petrol particulate filter warning which then self-cleans so the warning goes off.

  7. 6 Aug 2019

    Report of battery regularly going flat in a 2017 Ford Fiesta.

  8. 18 Jul 2019

    Strange issue reported with June 2018 Ford Fiesta 1.1 Titanium, bought used at 5199 miles in May 2019. Yellow spanner came up on the display (indicating a malfunction) and the engine lost power for about 5-6seconds, then regained full power, carried on for about a quarter of a mile and lost power again.

  9. 25 Jun 2019

    Report of stop-start function of new shape 2017 Fiesta 1.0litre Auto only cutting in on a couple of ocassions since purchase used 12 months previously. Back to the dealer twice but each time they say cannot find anything wrong with diagnostics. Owner says battery cannot be being charged sufficiently or is faulty otherwise the function would work. Does reasonable mileages and have had the battery go flat when car was unused for 4 days.

  10. 4 Jun 2019

    Complaint of 2017/67 Ford Fiesta refusing to unlock with the fob or the spare. Called AA who told her how to open the car manually with the hidden key, but that it's a known Fiesta fault where the keys forget the car and require a "software update". Both keys started working again. Supplying dealer said all they could do was replace both batteries and refused to acknowledge the fact that both keys miraculously started working again. Ford UK has denied any knowledge of an issue or a software update.

  11. 2 Apr 2019

    Report of 2017 new model Fiesta bought new in November 2017 running down its battery after having been left unused for 2-3 weeks.

  12. 21 Feb 2019

    Report of failure of the manual transmission of a 2018 Ford Fiesta 1.1 Zetec bought at 9 months old. On attempting to drive it home the new owner found he could not change gear. The car was then recovered by the AA, returned to the showroom and owner demanded a return of the vehicle and an immediate refund, which he eventually got in full. The Ford dealer subsequently informed him that this was, apparently, an occasional problem on Fiestas.

Source: honestjohn.co.uk · 13 reports indexed, top 12 shown

Buying or keeping a Fiesta?

Use the failure ranking as a pre-test checklist or a haggling lever. Treat the headline pass rate as a fleet-wide trend, not a guarantee on any individual car.

If you own a Fiesta and your last MOT looked nothing like the ranked failures above, that's normal — individual cars vary widely. The ranking shows the patterns testers flag most often across the country.