Toyota Aygo vs Volkswagen Up: the short answer
The Volkswagen Up wins this city-car MOT fight. In the 2024 public UK MOT record, the Up posted an
Pass-rate split
This is a better comparison than it first looks. The Aygo is the Toyota member of the old city-car family that also gave the market the Citroen C1 and Peugeot 107, then later the 108 relationship. The Volkswagen Up sat in its own small-car trio with the Skoda Citigo and Seat Mii. Both were sold as cheap, simple, easy-to-park answers to the same question.
The MOT record cuts through the brand folklore. Toyota has the stronger reliability reputation. Volkswagen has the nicer cabin reputation. Neither reputation replaces the actual test result.
The Aygo is the larger sample here by a long way:
The Up’s 82.43% pass rate is plainly stronger. The Aygo’s 79.07% is not bad for a cheap city car with a big older population, but it is behind. The Up also has a lower fail rate: 12.85% versus the Aygo’s 15.62%. The Aygo’s PRS rate is 4.79%, while the Up sits at 4.40%.
The Toyota badge still matters when you are pricing parts, reading owner history and judging how hard a car has been used. But on the MOT outcome itself, the Up has the cleaner 2024 record.
Where they fail
The Aygo’s failure list looks like a proper urban-life bill. Its top recorded refusal reasons are:
- Rear registration plate lamp or light source missing or inoperative: 8,228
- Headlamp reflector or lens slightly defective: 8,015
- Tyre tread depth below requirements: 7,280
- Significant brake effort recorded with no brake applied, indicating a binding brake: 6,922
- Load-bearing structure near a prescribed area significantly reduced or badly repaired: 6,809
That is not just “forgotten bulb” territory. The lamps are annoying but usually cheap. Tyres are expected on city cars that spend their lives bouncing off kerbs and running short trips. Binding brakes and structural corrosion language are the items that deserve respect. A cheap Aygo is only cheap if it is not hiding brake work and corrosion around mounting points.
The Volkswagen Up’s top failure reasons are different:
- Significant brake effort recorded with no brake applied, indicating a binding brake: 2,736
- Windscreen or window damaged or seriously discoloured: 2,523
- Tyre tread depth below requirements: 2,402
- Wiper blade missing or not clearing the windscreen: 2,166
- Suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn: 2,090
The Up’s list feels more like wear and neglect than deep rot at the very top. Binding brakes still lead, which is common enough on small cars that sit, do short journeys, and get washed less often than their owners think. Glass, tyres, wipers and suspension wear then fill the queue.
The buying lesson is simple. On an Aygo, do not let the Toyota badge talk you out of a proper underside check. Look hard at brake binding, corrosion wording, rear plate lamps, cloudy headlamps and tyre wear. On an Up, check the brakes first, then the screen, wipers, tyres and front suspension. A tidy interior is not evidence of a tidy MOT history.
Cohort tells
Age bands explain a lot of the result. The Aygo has a huge pre-2018 fleet because the name had been around for years by the time the 2024 test record was captured. The Up is also heavily pre-2018, but its older cohort performs better.
For pre-2018 cars, the Aygo recorded 318,956 tests with a 75.72% pass rate and 63,071 miles on average at test. The Up recorded 165,012 tests with an 81.16% pass rate and 53,376 miles on average. That is the killer split. The used cars most buyers will actually see are older, and the Up is 5.44 points stronger in that band.
The 2018-2020 band is much closer. The Aygo recorded 77,283 tests at 88.50%, with 26,277 miles on average. The Up recorded 27,738 tests at 89.32%, with 28,205 miles on average. The VW still leads, but by only 0.82 points. At that age, condition and history matter more than the badge fight.
The 2021+ band also favours the Up, but it needs a lighter touch. The Aygo has 25,836 tests at 92.20%, with 17,299 miles on average. The Up has only 1,598 tests at 93.24%, with 22,040 miles on average. The Up’s pass rate is higher, but the sample is much smaller because the model was near the end of its UK life.
So the proper cohort reading is this: the Up’s best argument is not the tiny new-car band. It is the big old-car band. Pre-2018 examples make up most of the real buying field, and there the Up is clearly ahead.
That does not make every old Up better than every old Aygo. It means the model-level odds are kinder to the Up. When you are staring at two cheap cars with similar price, mileage and history, the VW deserves the first look.
Mileage tells
The headline mileage figure is close, but not equal. The Aygo averaged 53,512 miles at test. The Up averaged 49,532 miles. That gives the VW a 3,980-mile advantage.
That is not enough to dismiss the pass-rate gap. A 4,000-mile average difference can help explain some wear, but it does not fully explain a 3.36-point lead across more than 600,000 tests. The Up is lower-mileage on average and passing more often. Both things are true.
The older cohort is more revealing. Pre-2018 Aygos averaged 63,071 miles. Pre-2018 Ups averaged 53,376 miles. That is a 9,695-mile gap. It matters. It suggests the Aygo’s older fleet has been used harder, kept longer, or pushed deeper into low-cost ownership.
But buyers do not get to buy a corrected statistical model. They buy a real car with real mileage on the clock. If the average Aygo in the record is turning up older and more worn, that is part of the ownership risk. Cheap city cars often have messy lives: learner use, short trips, missed maintenance, kerbed wheels, budget tyres, damp interiors, and annual repairs done only when the test forces the issue.
The 2018-2020 comparison is almost mileage-neutral. The Aygo averaged 26,277 miles and the Up averaged 28,205. The Up still passed slightly more often. That supports the idea that its win is not only a mileage story.
The 2021+ band is less useful for a hard rule because the Up sample is small, but it is still neat: the VW passed at 93.24% despite averaging more miles than the Aygo in that cohort. Again, do not overplay it. Just do not ignore it.
For a buyer, mileage should set suspicion, not decide the car. A 70,000-mile Aygo with clean brake history, dry structure and matching tyres can be better than a 45,000-mile Up with repeat brake binding and suspension advisories. The record gives the default lean. The individual MOT history gives the final answer.
The numbers we trust
The headline numbers are straightforward:
- Toyota Aygo: 422,075 tests, 79.07% pass rate, 53,512 average miles
- Volkswagen Up: 194,348 tests, 82.43% pass rate, 49,532 average miles
- Pass-rate gap: Volkswagen Up ahead by 3.36 percentage points
- Aygo pre-2018 cohort: 318,956 tests, 75.72% pass rate, 63,071 average miles
- Up pre-2018 cohort: 165,012 tests, 81.16% pass rate, 53,376 average miles
- Aygo 2018-2020 cohort: 77,283 tests, 88.50% pass rate, 26,277 average miles
- Up 2018-2020 cohort: 27,738 tests, 89.32% pass rate, 28,205 average miles
- Aygo 2021+ cohort: 25,836 tests, 92.20% pass rate, 17,299 average miles
- Up 2021+ cohort: 1,598 tests, 93.24% pass rate, 22,040 average miles
The public UK MOT record measures test outcomes, not repair bills. It does not tell you whether the owner fixed advisories early, whether a garage was generous, whether parts were fitted well, or whether a car has been serviced properly. It also does not price corrosion, brake work, tyres or suspension.
What it does do well is expose patterns. The Aygo has a weaker old-car pass rate, more average mileage, and top failures that include lamps, tyres, binding brakes and structure near important mounting areas. The Up has a better headline pass rate and a better old-car result, with its leading failures centred on binding brakes, glass, tyres, wipers and suspension wear.
The Aygo’s defence is still strong. It is simple, common, easy to understand, and backed by a vast pool of used examples. Parts availability is good. Many faults are cheap if caught early. A properly maintained Aygo can be exactly what people think it is: a low-drama city car.
The Up’s advantage is that it combines that small-car simplicity with a cleaner MOT record. It also tends to feel less flimsy, which does not win an MOT by itself, but often matches the way these cars age when cared for.
The most dangerous buy in this pair is not “the Aygo” or “the Up”. It is the cheap one with repeat advisories, tired tyres, brake imbalance, corrosion language, and a seller who says it only needs a bulb. Read the history. Look for the same fault families coming back year after year. Repeated brake binding, repeated tyre advisories and recurring suspension wear are not personality traits. They are bills waiting for the next owner.
Verdict
The Volkswagen Up wins. It has the better 2024 first-time MOT pass rate, the lower fail rate, the lower average mileage, and the much stronger pre-2018 cohort result. That older-car band is the one that matters most in the real used market, and the Up’s 81.16% result against the Aygo’s 75.72% is too clear to brush aside.
The Toyota Aygo is still a good cheap-city-car buy when the individual car is clean. Its reputation is not fake. But this comparison is about recorded MOT pattern, and the Toyota badge does not win this one.
On equal price, condition, history and mileage, take the Volkswagen Up. Buy the Aygo when it has the cleaner individual record: no corrosion wording, no repeat brake binding, decent tyres, clear lamps and proof that cheap ownership has not turned into neglected ownership.