Kia Optima MOT pass rates & common failures

Every completed first-attempt MOT on a Kia Optima in Great Britain in 2025 — 10,954 tests. Figures cover every Optima first-tested in 2025, all trims grouped. How the Optima ages, what it fails on, and what mileage is normal, computed directly from the official DVSA record of every test.

Pass rate 2025
78.5%
6.2 points above the class-4 average (72.3%); unadjusted for age — the age-matched comparison is below
Tests analysed
10,954
first tests, 2025
Arrived with a dangerous fault
8.8%
of Optima first tests; national 7.3%
Typical mileage at 10 years
86,250
middle half: 66,250–108,750 miles (2,500-mile-band midpoints)

How many Kia Optima cars are still on the road?

At the end of 2025, DVLA's register held 11,027 Kia Optima cars that were taxed or on SORN: 10,626 taxed and 401 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. Kia Optima vans, where they exist, are counted by DVLA as goods vehicles and are not in these figures.

Still taxed, end of 2025
10,626
96.4% of the 11,027 Optima cars taxed or on SORN; 19 model variants grouped
On SORN, end of 2025
401
declared off the road by their keepers — 3.6% of that total

How the numbers are moving

The number of taxed Optima cars peaked at 11,679 at the end of 2019 and has since fallen by 1,053 (9.0%) to 10,626 at the end of 2025. Cars on SORN went from 48 at the end of 2014 to 401 at the end of 2025, up 735.4%. 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 Optima cars, year by year

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

05k10k15k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Taxed Optima cars, year 2014: 2kTaxed Optima cars, year 2015: 3kTaxed Optima cars, year 2016: 4kTaxed Optima cars, year 2017: 7kTaxed Optima cars, year 2018: 10kTaxed Optima cars, year 2019: 12kTaxed Optima cars, year 2020: 12kTaxed Optima cars, year 2021: 12kTaxed Optima cars, year 2022: 11kTaxed Optima cars, year 2023: 11kTaxed Optima cars, year 2024: 11kTaxed Optima cars, year 2025: 11k11k
View this chart as a table
YearTaxed Optima cars
20142,350
20152,989
20164,140
20176,864
20189,714
201911,679
202011,656
202111,578
202211,424
202311,193
202410,978
202510,626

Optima 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.

01002003004005002014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Optima cars on SORN, year 2014: 48Optima cars on SORN, year 2015: 43Optima cars on SORN, year 2016: 111Optima cars on SORN, year 2017: 172Optima cars on SORN, year 2018: 146Optima cars on SORN, year 2019: 115Optima cars on SORN, year 2020: 161Optima cars on SORN, year 2021: 120Optima cars on SORN, year 2022: 161Optima cars on SORN, year 2023: 216Optima cars on SORN, year 2024: 285Optima cars on SORN, year 2025: 401401
View this chart as a table
YearOptima cars on SORN
201448
201543
2016111
2017172
2018146
2019115
2020161
2021120
2022161
2023216
2024285
2025401

Which model years survive

Taxed Optima cars at the end of 2025 by year of manufacture, and each year's share of the 10,626 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 Optima cars
20201221.1%
20191,57914.9%
20182,52823.8%
20173,14229.6%
20161,20111.3%
20155835.5%
20145715.4%
20133143.0%
20125665.3%
All other build years (one year, each under 1%)200.2%

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 OPTIMA 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 Optima ages

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

Kia OptimaAll cars
50%60%70%80%90%100%3579111315171920Vehicle age (years)Kia Optima, vehicle age 6: 80.6%Kia Optima, vehicle age 7: 82.5%Kia Optima, vehicle age 8: 80.7%Kia Optima, vehicle age 9: 80.5%Kia Optima, vehicle age 10: 72.6%Kia Optima, vehicle age 11: 67.5%Kia Optima, vehicle age 13: 61.5%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%Kia Optima 61.5%All cars 57.6%
View this chart as a table
Age (years)Optima testsOptima pass rateAll cars
61,67480.6%83.5%
72,63782.5%80.9%
83,21880.7%78.2%
91,23380.5%74.9%
1058372.6%71.9%
1155367.5%68.6%
1357761.5%63.5%

Better or worse than the average car?

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

Optima aheadOptima behind
-6-3+0+3+6Age 6: -2.9 points vs the average carAge 7: +1.6 points vs the average car7Age 8: +2.5 points vs the average carAge 9: +5.6 points vs the average car9Age 10: +0.7 points vs the average carAge 11: -1.1 points vs the average car11Age 13: -2.0 points vs the average car13Vehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)Gap (points)
6-2.9
7+1.6
8+2.5
9+5.6
10+0.7
11-1.1
13-2.0

The Optima fleet on the road, by age

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

01k2k3k4kAge 6: 1k6Age 7: 2kAge 8: 3k8Age 9: 1kAge 10: 58310Age 11: 553Age 13: 57713Vehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)First tests
61,674
72,637
83,218
91,233
10583
11553
13577

What an Optima fails on

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

Brakes32.0%
Tyres22.4%
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment13.3%
Suspension10.1%
Visibility7.5%
Steering5.3%
Noise, emissions and leaks4.2%
Body, chassis, structure2.4%

Share of all failure items, 2025 — the 8 biggest categories shown (97.1% of the items); smaller categories are not listed.

The advisories to watch

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

Tyres: 37.8% of advisories37.8%Brakes: 37.4% of advisories37.4%Suspension: 9.3% of advisories9.3%Non-component advisories: 6.5% of advisoriesIdentification of the vehicle: 3.0% of advisoriesNoise, emissions and leaks: 2.2% of advisories
TyresBrakesSuspensionNon-component advisoriesIdentification of the vehicleNoise, emissions and leaks
View this chart as a table
CategoryShare of advisories
Tyres37.8%
Brakes37.4%
Suspension9.3%
Non-component advisories6.5%
Identification of the vehicle3.0%
Noise, emissions and leaks2.2%

Petrol, diesel or hybrid Optima?

First-time pass rate for the two most-tested Optima 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: 77.9% of 9,973 tests77.9%Diesel9,973 testsHybrid electric: 86.3% of 895 tests86.3%Hybrid895 tests
View this chart as a table
FuelTestsPass rate
Diesel9,97377.9%
Hybrid electric89586.3%

What mileage is normal for an Optima?

Mileage recorded at test by vehicle age, 2025. The line is the typical (median) Optima; 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 Optima (median)
0k25k50k75k100k125k681013Vehicle age (years)Age 6: typical 66,250 miles (middle half 51,250–91,250)Age 7: typical 73,750 miles (middle half 56,250–96,250)Age 8: typical 81,250 miles (middle half 66,250–103,750)Age 9: typical 83,750 miles (middle half 63,750–108,750)Age 10: typical 86,250 miles (middle half 66,250–108,750)Age 11: typical 93,750 miles (middle half 73,750–118,750)Age 13: typical 101,250 miles (middle half 81,250–123,750)101k mi

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

View this chart as a table
Age (years)Lower quarterTypical (median)Upper quarter
651,25066,25091,250
756,25073,75096,250
866,25081,250103,750
963,75083,750108,750
1066,25086,250108,750
1173,75093,750118,750
1381,250101,250123,750

What fails at each age

The Optima'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.

BrakesTyresVisibilityLamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentNoise, emissions and leaksSuspensionSteeringEverything else
View this chart as a table
Age bandCategoryShare of the band's failure items
6-9 yrsBrakes36.9%
6-9 yrsTyres31.0%
6-9 yrsVisibility7.7%
6-9 yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment6.9%
6-9 yrsNoise, emissions and leaks5.3%
6-9 yrsEverything else12.2%
10-13 yrsBrakes32.4%
10-13 yrsSuspension20.6%
10-13 yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment12.2%
10-13 yrsTyres11.9%
10-13 yrsSteering11.1%
10-13 yrsEverything else11.8%

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.