MOT cost .
Vauxhall Corsa
MOT 2023
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Vauxhall

Corsa

1,130,185 MOT tests analysed. lands in the middle of the pack — here's where Corsas pass, fail, and end up on the retest sheet.

That's 5.7 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

70.0%

Pass-after-fix

6.3%

Fail

23.1%

Avg miles

67,004

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

The picture

Corsa's 70% Pass Rate Hides Spring Problem

Only 70 out of every 100 Corsas pass first time — the second-worst rate among mainstream superminis. Fractured springs account for a significant share of those failures, and owners have flagged repeated coil pack issues costing upwards of £250 a fix. The 1.4 torque converter auto has also earned a reputation for dropping into limp mode without warning, requiring an engine restart to clear.

At an average test mileage of 67,004, most Corsas are still in relatively light use when these problems surface. Factor in the cost of suspension work before buying used, and budget for coil pack replacement on higher-mileage 1.4 petrol units.

Top ten reasons for rejection.

  1. 01

    A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened

    73,995 occurrences · 6.5% of tests

  2. 02

    Steering rack gaiter or ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated

    56,401 occurrences · 5.0% of tests

  3. 03

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

    47,146 occurrences · 4.2% of tests

  4. 04

    Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements

    27,210 occurrences · 2.4% of tests

  5. 05

    A shock absorber damaged to the extent that it does not function or showing signs of severe leakage

    23,026 occurrences · 2.0% of tests

  6. 06

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

    22,794 occurrences · 2.0% of tests

  7. 07

    Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the windscreen

    22,561 occurrences · 2.0% of tests

  8. 08

    Steering rack gaiter or ball joint dust cover missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc

    20,653 occurrences · 1.8% of tests

  9. 09

    Engine MIL illuminated indicating a malfunction

    19,719 occurrences · 1.7% of tests

  10. 10

    A headlamp or light source missing, inoperative or more than ½ not functioning in the case of LED

    17,842 occurrences · 1.6% 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 4 failures

£228–£610

If every one of this Corsa'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.

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.

Recent owner-reported faults

  1. 6 Feb 2019

    Report of repeated failures of coil packs on a 2015 Vauxhall Corsa 'Limited Edition'. First coil pack failed in 2017. Coil pack failed again in January 2019. Dearer wants to charge £250 to replace the coil packs.

  2. 5 Jan 2019

    Report of 2014 Vauxhall Corsa 1.4 torque converter automatic randomly going into limp mode (yellow symbol appear on dash of car with spanner in) and hardly move. Car regularly driven about town. If driver turned the engine off then restarted the fault would clear and the car drove normally. Owner took it twice to supplying Vauxhall dealer but diagnostic tests couldn’t find a stored fault. They replaced an ignition coil and a spark plug. The fault continues to happen intermittently (weeks in between or once 3 times in 1 day). Vauxhall dealer recommended an independent member of http://www.fer.co.uk /

  3. 8 Oct 2018

    Report of driver's information screen of new 2018 Vauxhall Corsa 1.4 Turbo randomly going blank. This displays individual pressures of each of the four wheels and autumn condensation might be affecting the TPMS and hence the info screen.

  4. 7 Sep 2018

    Report of repeated fault with engines in 25,000 mile March 2016 Vauxhall Corsa 1.0T, thought to be LSPI (Low Speed Pre-Ignition Detonation). Since February 2016 Vauxhall dealer has: Replaced spark plugs and leads - Fault returned; Stripped engine, replaced pistons, conrods and bearings - Fault returned, engine failed; Replaced engine - (Vauxhall Exchange Engine). This engine failed before it left the workshop. Stripped the replacement engine reported back to Vauxhall and is now fitting a second replacement engine. Owner thinks that the Exchange engines are re-conditioned, not new, are already faulty and may have damage in the actual block. He thinks that after suffering LSPI the block may have stress fractures that are not detected or repaired and only the internal components are replaced. This may be the reason the 1st replacement engine failed before leaving the workshop.

  5. 20 Feb 2018

    Report of timing chain of 2015 Vauxhall Corsa 1.3 CDTI failing at 60,000 miles. But car was a used buy so no record of how it had been maintained.

  6. 21 Sep 2017

    Report of vibration from doors, dashboard and hatchback of pre-registered Vauxhall Corsa bought in June 2017. Has been in for repair 3 times where the doors have been packed then both doors replaced and the dash taken off. The dealer stated they would replace the car if he wasnt happy with it. These vibrations were still there after the works carried out. Owner then told its a characteristic. Dealer then emailed to state it would not replace the car under rejection and neither would Vauxhall support it.

  7. 2 Jul 2017

    Report of clutch failing on 2015 Vauxhall Corsa 1.2SXi at 10,250 miles.

Source: honestjohn.co.uk · 7 reports indexed

Buying or keeping a Corsa?

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 Corsa 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.