Ford Escort MOT pass rates & common failures

Every completed first-attempt MOT on a Ford Escort in Great Britain in 2025 — 9,565 tests. Figures cover every Escort first-tested in 2025, all trims grouped. How the Escort ages, what it fails on, and what mileage is normal, computed directly from the official DVSA record of every test.

Pass rate 2025
79.6%
7.3 points above the class-4 average (72.3%); unadjusted for age — the age-matched comparison is below
Tests analysed
9,565
first tests, 2025
Arrived with a dangerous fault
4.0%
of Escort first tests; national 7.3%

How many Ford Escort cars are still on the road?

At the end of 2025, DVLA's register held 48,578 Ford Escort cars that were taxed or on SORN: 13,021 taxed and 35,557 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. Ford Escort vans, where they exist, are counted by DVLA as goods vehicles and are not in these figures.

Still taxed, end of 2025
13,021
26.8% of the 48,578 Escort cars taxed or on SORN; 192 model variants grouped
On SORN, end of 2025
35,557
declared off the road by their keepers — 73.2% of that total

How the numbers are moving

The number of taxed Escort cars peaked at 32,134 at the end of 2014 and has since fallen by 19,113 (59.5%) to 13,021 at the end of 2025. Cars on SORN went from 32,192 at the end of 2014 to 35,557 at the end of 2025, up 10.5%. 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 Escort cars, year by year

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

010k20k30k40k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Taxed Escort cars, year 2014: 32kTaxed Escort cars, year 2015: 24kTaxed Escort cars, year 2016: 19kTaxed Escort cars, year 2017: 15kTaxed Escort cars, year 2018: 14kTaxed Escort cars, year 2019: 13kTaxed Escort cars, year 2020: 13kTaxed Escort cars, year 2021: 13kTaxed Escort cars, year 2022: 13kTaxed Escort cars, year 2023: 13kTaxed Escort cars, year 2024: 13kTaxed Escort cars, year 2025: 13k13k
View this chart as a table
YearTaxed Escort cars
201432,134
201524,281
201618,990
201715,488
201813,822
201913,093
202012,570
202113,014
202213,059
202312,733
202413,075
202513,021

Escort 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 — for this model, cars on SORN outnumber taxed ones.

010k20k30k40k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Escort cars on SORN, year 2014: 32kEscort cars on SORN, year 2015: 34kEscort cars on SORN, year 2016: 35kEscort cars on SORN, year 2017: 36kEscort cars on SORN, year 2018: 36kEscort cars on SORN, year 2019: 36kEscort cars on SORN, year 2020: 37kEscort cars on SORN, year 2021: 36kEscort cars on SORN, year 2022: 36kEscort cars on SORN, year 2023: 36kEscort cars on SORN, year 2024: 35kEscort cars on SORN, year 2025: 36k36k
View this chart as a table
YearEscort cars on SORN
201432,192
201533,651
201635,004
201736,351
201836,302
201936,263
202036,545
202136,024
202235,984
202336,140
202435,288
202535,557

Which model years survive

Taxed Escort cars at the end of 2025 by year of manufacture, and each year's share of the 13,021 taxed in all. Every build year holding at least 1% has its own row; the rest share one. 2,318 taxed Escort cars have no recorded year of manufacture and are not in the table, so the rows add up to 10,703. 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 Escort cars
20001791.4%
19982361.8%
19972962.3%
19962972.3%
19952221.7%
19941621.2%
19931701.3%
19921311.0%
19904433.4%
19894513.5%
19882682.1%
19871581.2%
19851911.5%
19841881.4%
19833702.8%
19822261.7%
19812371.8%
19801,30810.0%
19791,1658.9%
19788046.2%
19775514.2%
19765984.6%
19754733.6%
19743232.5%
19731501.2%
19723002.3%
19711581.2%
All other build years (31 years, each under 1%)6485.0%

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 ESCORT 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.

What an Escort fails on

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

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment22.4%
Suspension19.6%
Brakes18.6%
Body, chassis, structure12.7%
Noise, emissions and leaks8.8%
Visibility6.7%
Tyres3.9%
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems3.7%

Share of all failure items, 2025 — the 8 biggest categories shown (96.3% of the items); smaller categories are not listed.

The advisories to watch

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

Suspension: 29.7% of advisories29.7%Brakes: 23.2% of advisories23.2%Tyres: 13.8% of advisories13.8%Body, chassis, structure: 11.3% of advisories11.3%Noise, emissions and leaks: 8.9% of advisories8.9%Non-component advisories: 4.6% of advisories
SuspensionBrakesTyresBody, chassis, structureNoise, emissions and leaksNon-component advisories
View this chart as a table
CategoryShare of advisories
Suspension29.7%
Brakes23.2%
Tyres13.8%
Body, chassis, structure11.3%
Noise, emissions and leaks8.9%
Non-component advisories4.6%

Petrol, diesel or hybrid Escort?

First-time pass rate for the two most-tested Escort 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%Petrol: 81.1% of 8,595 tests81.1%Petrol8,595 testsDiesel: 66.0% of 965 tests66.0%Diesel965 tests
View this chart as a table
FuelTestsPass rate
Petrol8,59581.1%
Diesel96566.0%

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.