I’ve been shown some data from MOT testing centres under a freedom of information request that reveals which makes of vehicle are most likely to fail the road-worthiness examination because of sub-standard tyres.
As you know, tyres are the most important part of any car, the only contact with the road. As ever, rare offenders tend to be high-value cars with owners who have the budget and possibly company-subsidised ability to pay for main dealer servicing and parts. For some owners, tyres are a distress purchase and it is only when there is an MOT failure that they realise there is a problem. So which cars are least likely to have dodgy tyres?
Click here to buy your next used car from Autocar
Here’s some great news for Land Rover, a company that usually struggles when it comes to reliability surveys and stats. Top of the ‘least likely to fail its MOT on tyres’ list is the old Defender. I can vouch for the fact that owners become rather attached to them, hence the excellent showing where out of 81,316 MOT tests, just 1783 were failed on tyres (2.19%). I’ve been looking at some ex-army 110s and a specialist has a 1988 4000-miler for £9995 that should have some decent treads holding up its khaki bodywork.
Next up is the Suzuki Jimny. There seems to be a pattern emerging here with enthusiast owners and their 4x4s. Clearly, we should buy from them. Out of 62,861 MOT tests on the Jimny, there were 1400 tyre fails (2.23%). These are great little off-roaders – pretty much a micro-Defender – and prices have been on the up recently. A 2007 1.3 JLX+ with a full service history and 90,000 miles is yours for £4999.
More patterns for you, with the Suzuki Celerio in third place. After 21,574 tests, only 574 failed on tyres, a failure rate of 2.66%. It’s a small supermini-type car for old people to buy for cash and use to get cat food. They are cheap and I saw a 2015 SZ2 with 70k miles for just under £2000. Great little thing.
Nice to see (because you so rarely do) a Vauxhall Viva in at number four because after 29,057 tests, 832 failed, which is 2.86%. At least the tyres will be decent on what is another ‘matureownermobile’. A 2015 1.0 SL with 66,000 miles, a service history and even leather seats is £3700 at a dealer with a warranty.
Join the debate
Add your comment
Cars that have had multiple owners can indicate a long standing problem or general unreliability issues, but sometimes they just get passed around a family or group, so as long as it has full service history, it wouldn't put me off.
In the trade though, multi-owner cars are devalued, so never pay top price for one.
@ Deputy
True, also, offroaders tend to have all terrain tyres with deep tread, so the likelyhood of them being driven the additional miileage to become illegally bald is even less.
Or maybe, just maybe, owners of slow, noisy, bumpy older 4x4s don't do high mileages and therefore don't wear out tyres..... James, as an automotive writer, please do an automotive root cause analysis course and ask yourself 5 times, why....