Fiat 500L MOT pass rates & common failures

Every completed first-attempt MOT on a Fiat 500L in Great Britain in 2025 — 20,961 tests. Figures cover every 500L first-tested in 2025, all trims grouped. How the 500L ages, what it fails on, and what mileage is normal, computed directly from the official DVSA record of every test.

Pass rate 2025
61.3%
11.0 points below the class-4 average (72.3%); unadjusted for age — the age-matched comparison is below
Tests analysed
20,961
first tests, 2025
Arrived with a dangerous fault
9.2%
of 500L first tests; national 7.3%
Typical mileage at 10 years
66,250
middle half: 51,250–83,750 miles (2,500-mile-band midpoints)

How many Fiat 500L cars are still on the road?

At the end of 2025, DVLA's register held 17,622 Fiat 500L cars that were taxed or on SORN: 16,946 taxed and 676 on SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification — kept, but declared off the road by the keeper). The MOT figures above count tests; these count cars, across the whole United Kingdom, cars only. Fiat 500L vans, where they exist, are counted by DVLA as goods vehicles and are not in these figures.

Still taxed, end of 2025
16,946
96.2% of the 17,622 500L cars taxed or on SORN; 52 model variants grouped
On SORN, end of 2025
676
declared off the road by their keepers — 3.8% of that total

How the numbers are moving

The number of taxed 500L cars peaked at 18,907 at the end of 2021 and has since fallen by 1,961 (10.4%) to 16,946 at the end of 2025. Cars on SORN went from 333 at the end of 2014 to 676 at the end of 2025, up 103.0%. A car leaves the taxed count when it is scrapped, exported or declared off the road; the year-end counts do not say which.

Taxed 500L cars, year by year

Cars of this model taxed and on the road at the end of each year, 2014–2025.

05k10k15k20k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Taxed 500L cars, year 2014: 14kTaxed 500L cars, year 2015: 17kTaxed 500L cars, year 2016: 18kTaxed 500L cars, year 2017: 18kTaxed 500L cars, year 2018: 18kTaxed 500L cars, year 2019: 19kTaxed 500L cars, year 2020: 19kTaxed 500L cars, year 2021: 19kTaxed 500L cars, year 2022: 19kTaxed 500L cars, year 2023: 18kTaxed 500L cars, year 2024: 18kTaxed 500L cars, year 2025: 17k17k
View this chart as a table
YearTaxed 500L cars
201413,958
201516,889
201617,692
201717,611
201818,369
201918,741
202018,702
202118,907
202218,576
202318,226
202417,651
202516,946

500L cars on SORN, year by year

Cars of this model declared off the road at the end of each year, 2014–2025. Its own scale — SORN counts are a fraction of the taxed count.

02004006008002014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)500L cars on SORN, year 2014: 333500L cars on SORN, year 2015: 71500L cars on SORN, year 2016: 56500L cars on SORN, year 2017: 55500L cars on SORN, year 2018: 88500L cars on SORN, year 2019: 150500L cars on SORN, year 2020: 170500L cars on SORN, year 2021: 185500L cars on SORN, year 2022: 256500L cars on SORN, year 2023: 346500L cars on SORN, year 2024: 506500L cars on SORN, year 2025: 676676
View this chart as a table
Year500L cars on SORN
2014333
201571
201656
201755
201888
2019150
2020170
2021185
2022256
2023346
2024506
2025676

Which model years survive

Taxed 500L cars at the end of 2025 by year of manufacture, and each year's share of the 16,946 taxed in all. Every build year holding at least 1% has its own row; the rest share one. A build year's count depends on how many were sold that year as well as how many have lasted.

Year of manufacture Taxed, end of 2025Share of taxed 500L cars
20212251.3%
20202111.2%
20194332.6%
20186814.0%
20172351.4%
20151,4238.4%
20147,96047.0%
20135,71333.7%
All other build years (two years, each under 1%)650.4%

Population source: Department for Transport / DVLA vehicle licensing statistics, table VEH0124, updated 15 July 2026; counts of the cars on DVLA's register that were taxed or on SORN at the end of each year shown, United Kingdom, cars only, excluding cars recorded with no model name. SortedCars groups DVLA's model name 500L under this model. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. SortedCars is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, DVLA or the Department for Transport.

How the 500L ages

First-time pass rate by vehicle age, 500L vs all cars, 2025.

Fiat 500LAll cars
50%60%70%80%90%100%3579111315171920Vehicle age (years)Fiat 500L, vehicle age 7: 62.9%Fiat 500L, vehicle age 8: 62.3%Fiat 500L, vehicle age 9: 66.1%Fiat 500L, vehicle age 10: 62.4%Fiat 500L, vehicle age 11: 59.9%Fiat 500L, vehicle age 12: 60.1%All cars, vehicle age 3: 88.5%All cars, vehicle age 4: 87.2%All cars, vehicle age 5: 86%All cars, vehicle age 6: 83.5%All cars, vehicle age 7: 80.9%All cars, vehicle age 8: 78.2%All cars, vehicle age 9: 74.9%All cars, vehicle age 10: 71.9%All cars, vehicle age 11: 68.6%All cars, vehicle age 12: 65.8%All cars, vehicle age 13: 63.5%All cars, vehicle age 14: 61.2%All cars, vehicle age 15: 59.3%All cars, vehicle age 16: 58.3%All cars, vehicle age 17: 57.2%All cars, vehicle age 18: 57.4%All cars, vehicle age 19: 57%All cars, vehicle age 20: 57.6%Fiat 500L 60.1%All cars 57.6%
View this chart as a table
Age (years)500L tests500L pass rateAll cars
760162.9%80.9%
887962.3%78.2%
91,61266.1%74.9%
102,97662.4%71.9%
117,95559.9%68.6%
125,89360.1%65.8%

Better or worse than the average car?

The 500L's pass rate minus the all-cars pass rate at each age, in percentage points. Bars above zero: the 500L beats the average car of that age. Below zero: it trails.

500L behind
-20-10+0+10+20Age 7: -18.0 points vs the average car7Age 8: -15.9 points vs the average carAge 9: -8.8 points vs the average car9Age 10: -9.5 points vs the average carAge 11: -8.7 points vs the average car11Age 12: -5.7 points vs the average carVehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)Gap (points)
7-18.0
8-15.9
9-8.8
10-9.5
11-8.7
12-5.7

The 500L fleet on the road, by age

How many took a first MOT in 2025 at each age — the shape of the 500L fleet still in use.

02k4k6k8kAge 7: 6017Age 8: 879Age 9: 1k9Age 10: 2kAge 11: 7k11Age 12: 5k12Vehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)First tests
7601
8879
91,612
102,976
117,955
125,893

What a 500L fails on

Where the failure items land when a 500L fails or needs a fix at test, 2025. Use it as a pre-purchase checklist: these are the areas to look at first.

Suspension24.7%
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment19.8%
Brakes15.4%
Tyres12.1%
Steering9.4%
Noise, emissions and leaks6.4%
Visibility5.9%
Body, chassis, structure4.0%

Share of all failure items, 2025 — the 8 biggest categories shown (97.7% of the items); smaller categories are not listed.

The advisories to watch

Where testers most often write "keep an eye on this" for a 500L, 2025 — the faults in the post.

Tyres: 32.7% of advisories32.7%Brakes: 28.9% of advisories28.9%Suspension: 18.2% of advisories18.2%Non-component advisories: 7.9% of advisories7.9%Noise, emissions and leaks: 5.6% of advisoriesBody, chassis, structure: 3.0% of advisories
TyresBrakesSuspensionNon-component advisoriesNoise, emissions and leaksBody, chassis, structure
View this chart as a table
CategoryShare of advisories
Tyres32.7%
Brakes28.9%
Suspension18.2%
Non-component advisories7.9%
Noise, emissions and leaks5.6%
Body, chassis, structure3.0%

Petrol, diesel or hybrid 500L?

First-time pass rate for the two most-tested 500L fuel types, 2025, against the all-cars average. Fleet ages differ by fuel — newer fleets help the electrified bars.

50%60%70%80%90%100%all cars 72.3%Diesel: 60.4% of 13,967 tests60.4%Diesel13,967 testsPetrol: 63.0% of 6,990 tests63.0%Petrol6,990 tests
View this chart as a table
FuelTestsPass rate
Diesel13,96760.4%
Petrol6,99063.0%

What mileage is normal for a 500L?

Mileage recorded at test by vehicle age, 2025. The line is the typical (median) 500L; the shaded band holds the middle half. A car far outside the band, in either direction, is worth questions the recorded history can answer.

Typical 500L (median)
0k25k50k75k100k791112Vehicle age (years)Age 7: typical 41,250 miles (middle half 28,750–56,250)Age 8: typical 51,250 miles (middle half 36,250–66,250)Age 9: typical 56,250 miles (middle half 41,250–73,750)Age 10: typical 66,250 miles (middle half 51,250–83,750)Age 11: typical 78,750 miles (middle half 61,250–96,250)Age 12: typical 81,250 miles (middle half 63,750–98,750)81k mi

Mileage values are midpoints of 2,500-mile bands.

View this chart as a table
Age (years)Lower quarterTypical (median)Upper quarter
728,75041,25056,250
836,25051,25066,250
941,25056,25073,750
1051,25066,25083,750
1161,25078,75096,250
1263,75081,25098,750

What fails at each age

The 500L's failure mix by age band, 2025 — each band's top categories at their true share of that band's failure items; the pale remainder is everything else. How the mix shifts with age is the point of the chart.

SuspensionSteeringLamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentTyresBrakesEverything else
View this chart as a table
Age bandCategoryShare of the band's failure items
6-9 yrsSuspension27.3%
6-9 yrsSteering16.5%
6-9 yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment14.4%
6-9 yrsTyres13.8%
6-9 yrsBrakes12.0%
6-9 yrsEverything else16.0%
10-13 yrsSuspension28.1%
10-13 yrsBrakes18.4%
10-13 yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment12.9%
10-13 yrsTyres12.8%
10-13 yrsSteering9.9%
10-13 yrsEverything else17.9%

More vehicles we've checked

How these figures are computed. Every number on this page is calculated by SortedCars from the DVSA anonymised MOT results dataset (every MOT test in Great Britain — 2025 for single-year figures; trend figures state their span, currently 2023–2025). Where a figure comes from a sample or uses banded values (mileage is banded to 2,500 miles), the page says so beside the figure. Test class 4 only, first tests only — retests are excluded. Class 4 is the car MOT class and also covers car-derived vans, pickups and motorhomes tested to the same standard; where this page says "cars" it means class 4. Pass rate = passes ÷ (passes + failures + pass-after-rectification): a vehicle that failed and was fixed during the visit counts as a fail. Pass rates describe fleets, not individual machines: they reflect how cars were driven, maintained and used as well as how they were built, and beyond recorded mileage none of that is in the data. A well-kept example of a model with a weak average can still pass; a neglected example of a strong one can still fail. No figure is shown for any group with fewer than 500 tests. Alias spellings of a make in the DVSA file are counted under one make name, and all trims and variants of a model are grouped under one model name, using SortedCars' grouping tables. The taxed and SORN counts on this page are the one exception: they are not computed from MOT records but taken from the Department for Transport's vehicle licensing statistics (DfT/DVLA table VEH0124, updated 15 July 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0), which count the cars on DVLA's register that were taxed or on SORN at the end of each year shown, UK-wide, cars only. They describe a model as a whole, grouped under SortedCars' model names, and say nothing about any one car. “Dangerous” is DVSA's statutory defect category (in force since May 2018): a defect posing an immediate risk to road safety — driving the vehicle before repair is an offence. What these figures are for. These statistics are general information about groups of vehicles. They are not advice, a valuation or a recommendation to buy, avoid or price any particular vehicle, and no decision about one car should rest on them alone — check the car itself and its own records. We take care over the calculations, but we cannot guarantee they are complete, current or free of error, and we accept no liability for loss arising from reliance on them. This does not limit any liability that cannot lawfully be limited — see our Terms & Conditions. If you believe any figure on this page is inaccurate, contact us. SortedCars is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the DVSA or DVLA. DVSA publishes the raw test records; the statistics on this page are SortedCars' own calculations from them. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.