Nissan Micra vs Honda Jazz: the short answer
The Honda Jazz is the cleaner MOT bet here. In the 2024 public UK MOT record it posted a 77.11% pass rate from 526,817 tests. The Nissan Micra managed 70.69% from 430,570 tests. That is not a tiny rounding error. It is a 6.42-point gap across nearly a million combined tests.
The Micra is still a sensible cheap runabout. It is easy to park, simple to understand, and usually bought for exactly the right job: short trips, school runs, second-car duty, first-car duty, and low-stress commuting. But MOT data is not sentimental. It shows the Micra carrying more age-related suspension, lamp, wiper and tyre pain than the Jazz.
The Jazz has its own list of irritations. Headlamp condition is right at the top. Rear registration plate lamps, steering gaiters and worn brake pads are common enough to matter. Older Jazz examples are not magical. They rust, wear brakes, lose parking brake efficiency and pick up the same small-car neglect as everything else.
Still, the Jazz has the stronger record. It passes more often, it does so at slightly higher average mileage, and its 2018-2020 cohort is especially strong. If you are buying a daily-driver supermini and care about MOT odds more than purchase price, the Honda starts ahead.
Pass-rate split
The headline split is simple: Jazz 77.11%, Micra 70.69%.
That means the Jazz is not merely winning because of a tiny sample. It had 526,817 tests in the 2024 dataset. The Micra had 430,570. Both cars are common enough for the numbers to mean something. These are not obscure imported oddities with a few hundred records skewed by enthusiast ownership.
The Micra had 304,364 passes, 95,875 failures and 28,003 PRS results. The Jazz had 406,225 passes, 90,754 failures and 26,855 PRS results. That is the bit that should catch your eye: the Jazz had almost 96,000 more tests than the Micra, yet fewer recorded failures.
That difference changes the buying conversation. A cheap Micra can still be the right car if it has a clean recent MOT, decent tyres, fresh wipers, no suspension knocks and an owner who kept on top of small jobs. But if you are choosing blind from two similar adverts, the Jazz deserves the first call.
The gap is also wide enough that you should resist the lazy “Japanese small cars are all the same” take. They are not the same in this dataset. The Honda is comfortably ahead.
Where they fail
The Micra’s top failure reasons read like a city car that has absorbed years of kerbs, potholes, supermarket ramps and minimal pre-test prep.
The top Micra failure RFRs are:
- Suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn: 14,069
- Headlamp reflector or lens slightly defective: 11,919
- Headlamp aim not within requirements: 9,870
- Lamp missing or inoperative: 9,591
- Wiper blade missing or not clearing the windscreen: 9,526
That is a very practical shopping list. On a used Micra, you want to listen for front-end knocks, look for uneven tyre wear, check the lamps properly, and make sure the wipers are not smeary rubbish fitted five winters ago.
The Jazz list is different. Still small-car stuff, but with a stronger lighting and brake flavour.
The top Jazz failure RFRs are:
- Headlamp reflector or lens slightly defective: 22,757
- Rear registration plate lamp missing or inoperative: 16,053
- Steering rack gaiter or ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated: 13,664
- Lamp missing or inoperative: 11,750
- Brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm: 11,225
The Jazz headlamp number is high. That does not make it a bad car, but it does mean buyers should check cloudy lenses, poor beam pattern and aim. Do it at dusk if you can. A five-minute look at the front of the car tells you more than the usual advert line about “drives superb”.
The strongest criticism of the Micra is not one catastrophic defect. It is the spread. Suspension, lamps, wipers, springs, tyres and number plate lights all appear high in the list. That points to a car where cheap ownership can turn into a cluster of little MOT jobs.
Cohort tells
Age matters more than badge. That is obvious, but the cohort split shows how quickly the story changes.
For pre-2018 cars, the Micra passed at 68.94% from 389,136 tests. The Jazz passed at 75.54% from 474,775 tests. That is the core used-market battleground, because many affordable examples now sit in this older band. The Honda keeps a clear lead there.
For 2018-2020 cars, the Micra improves to 85.49% from 30,423 tests. The Jazz jumps to 91.43% from 51,809 tests. That is an excellent showing for the Jazz and a good one for the Micra. If your budget reaches into this age band, both cars become much less risky, but the Honda still has the better MOT record.
The 2021+ band needs more care. The Micra has 11,011 tests and a 91.75% pass rate. The Jazz has only 233 tests and an 86.27% pass rate. That small Jazz sample is not a fair stick to beat the car with. It reflects model timing and test eligibility more than a settled reliability pattern.
The useful buying lesson is this: if you are comparing two older cars, the Jazz advantage is real. If you are comparing late examples, condition and history come roaring back into the decision. A neglected newer car can still be worse than a cherished older one.
Mileage tells
Average mileage is close enough to make the comparison fair. The Micra averaged 64,769 miles at test. The Jazz averaged 65,885 miles. So the Jazz did not win by being a much lower-mileage fleet. It actually averaged 1,116 miles more.
That matters. Mileage can distort MOT comparisons badly. A car used gently as a local runabout will often look better than one hammered along motorways, even if the underlying design is no better. Here, the two models sit in the same broad mileage zone, and the Jazz still passes more often.
The cohort mileage split adds texture. Pre-2018 Micras averaged 68,886 miles, while pre-2018 Jazzes averaged 70,390. Again, the Jazz is carrying slightly more mileage and still posting a better pass rate. For 2018-2020 cars the Micra averaged 29,389 miles, while the Jazz averaged 24,851. In that newer used band, the Jazz has both the better pass rate and lower average mileage, so check prices carefully. The market often knows.
The odd-looking figure is the 2021+ Jazz average of 42,858 miles from only 233 tests. That sample is too small to build a sweeping claim around. Treat it as a flag, not a verdict. The 2021+ Micra sample is much larger, with 11,011 tests and an average of 17,592 miles.
Mileage also changes what you inspect. At 40,000 miles, you are thinking tyres, brake pads, wipers, lamps and early suspension wear. At 70,000 miles, you still check all that, but you add more patience around corrosion, springs, worn joints, brake pipes and tired rubber parts.
The numbers we trust
This comparison uses official UK records from the 2024 MOT dataset held locally for each model. The model files are nissan__micra.json and honda__jazz.json. The figures used here are test count, pass count, fail count, PRS count, pass rate, average mileage at test, top failure RFRs and cohort splits by first-use year band.
The strongest claims are the model-level pass rates and the older cohort comparison, because the sample sizes are large. The Micra has 430,570 tests. The Jazz has 526,817. The pre-2018 cohorts are even more relevant to typical used buyers, with 389,136 Micra tests and 474,775 Jazz tests.
The weakest claim area is the 2021+ Jazz cohort. A 233-test sample is not useless, but it is not strong enough to carry a firm buying verdict by itself. That is why the decision here leans on the full model sample, the pre-2018 band and the 2018-2020 band.
Related reading matters if you are checking a specific car rather than comparing models on paper.
And if you want another common supermini benchmark, the Fiesta is the natural third name to bring into the conversation.
The practical method is blunt. Read the MOT history before you travel. Look for repeated advisories, not just the latest pass. Repeated suspension advisories on a Micra should change your offer. Repeated lamp, brake or steering gaiter notes on a Jazz should do the same. A pass with a long advisory list is not the same thing as a clean car.