Performance by cohort

3 year bands · 2,488,311 tests

Pass rate climbs 17.4 points across the cohorts — newer Fiesta examples clear the test more reliably than the early cars.

Pre-2018 cohort 2,236,442

Pass

70.7%

Fail

22.6%

PRS

6.1%

Avg mileage at test

78,109 mi

2018–2020 cohort 245,203

Pass

87.2%

Fail

9.2%

PRS

3.3%

Avg mileage at test

36,101 mi

2021+ cohort 6,666

Pass

88.0%

Fail

5.9%

PRS

5.4%

Avg mileage at test

21,954 mi

Cohort = vehicle's first-registration year band. Same model, different generations of build.

Generations on file · 3

Ford Fiesta · UK market

Photos: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA / CC BY / public domain.

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.

ABI Insurance Group

Group 3–19

Below the fleet average — generally reasonable to insure. Lower groups cost less to insure; UK fleet average is around Group 22.

Source: ABI Group Rating Panel · administered by Thatcham Research · groups cover standard variants; performance trims may sit higher. Browse all insurance groups →

3–19

out of 50

Compare quotes →

Top ten reasons for rejection.

Filter failures:

Hide wear items to see the model's real defects.

01

A suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn

79,622 occurrences · 3.2% of tests
02

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

64,398 occurrences · 2.6% of tests
03

Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements

51,324 occurrences · 2.1% of tests
04

A steering ball joint with excessive wear or free play

48,181 occurrences · 1.9% of tests
05

A suspension joint dust cover severely deteriorated

43,969 occurrences · 1.8% of tests
06

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

42,814 occurrences · 1.7% of tests
07

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

39,696 occurrences · 1.6% of tests
08

A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened

37,185 occurrences · 1.5% of tests
09

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

35,753 occurrences · 1.4% of tests
10

A stub axle swivel pin and/or bush excessively worn

31,812 occurrences · 1.3% 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 →

Try the calculator

Build your own retest budget.

Year-band analysis

Best year to buy. Worst to avoid.

First-time MOT pass rate split by registration band. A 17.4-point gap between bands means the year you buy Ford Fiesta has a real effect on what turns up at the garage.

Best band to buy

88.0%

2021+ registration

the 2021-on band climbs to 88.0% — a 17.4-point improvement. Tests in this band average 21,954 miles — roughly 56K miles fewer on the clock than the older band. Failures here are mostly wear items: has a cut in excess of the…, tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm — the structural issues that drag down older examples don't appear in the top-10 for this band. Post-2020 examples are early in their MOT life and generally show the cleanest records.

Band to be cautious about

70.7%

Pre-2018 registration

On the older band (pre-2018), the data shows a 70.7% pass rate against a fleet average of 88.0% on the newer band. The main culprits logged at test: ball joint excessively worn, not working, and ball joint has excessive play. Average mileage on test for this band is 78,109 miles — high-mileage wear items are a recurring theme. Honest John records: "Report of reversing camera working only intermittently on a November 2017 Ford Fiesta 1.0 EcoBoost, despite going back to Ford dealer 3 times for a fix which included changing the…"

Best band to buy: 2021+ (88.0% first-time pass). Worst band to avoid: pre-2018 (70.7% pass). That's a 17.4-point spread across 2,236,442 older tests and 6,666 newer ones — year of build makes a material difference on this model.

Year-spread leaderboard →

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

My Motor World · affiliate

Parts & supplies for this fix

Affiliate links — small commission, no extra cost to you.

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£8.79

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£9.89

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£9.89

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£9.89

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Click Mechanic · affiliate

Book a mobile mechanic

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Fixed-price quotes upfront. No garage needed. Click Mechanic sends a vetted local mechanic to you — home, work, or roadside.

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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

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
6 Aug 2019
Report of battery regularly going flat in a 2017 Ford Fiesta.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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

Recall history

29 UK recalls on record.

The Fiesta has 29 official UK vehicle recalls covering defect details, remedies, and affected build dates.

See all recalls

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.