Mercedes-Benz GLB MOT pass rates & common failures

Every completed first-attempt MOT on a Mercedes-Benz GLB in Great Britain in 2025 — 12,353 tests. Figures cover every GLB first-tested in 2025, all trims grouped. How the GLB ages, what it fails on, and what mileage is normal, computed directly from the official DVSA record of every test.

Pass rate 2025
90.0%
17.7 points above the class-4 average (72.3%); unadjusted for age — the age-matched comparison is below
Tests analysed
12,353
first tests, 2025
Arrived with a dangerous fault
3.3%
of GLB first tests; national 7.3%

How many Mercedes-Benz GLB cars are still on the road?

At the end of 2025, DVLA's register held 23,288 Mercedes-Benz GLB cars that were taxed or on SORN: 22,654 taxed and 634 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. Mercedes-Benz GLB vans, where they exist, are counted by DVLA as goods vehicles and are not in these figures.

Still taxed, end of 2025
22,654
97.3% of the 23,288 GLB cars taxed or on SORN; 28 model variants grouped
On SORN, end of 2025
634
declared off the road by their keepers — 2.7% of that total

How the numbers are moving

The number of taxed GLB cars is still rising: 22,654 at the end of 2025, up 3,286 (17.0%) on the end of 2024, and the highest in the years shown. Cars on SORN went from 49 at the end of 2020 to 634 at the end of 2025, up 1193.9%. 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 GLB cars, year by year

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

05k10k15k20k25k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Taxed GLB cars, year 2014: 0Taxed GLB cars, year 2015: 0Taxed GLB cars, year 2016: 0Taxed GLB cars, year 2017: 0Taxed GLB cars, year 2018: 0Taxed GLB cars, year 2019: 0Taxed GLB cars, year 2020: 3kTaxed GLB cars, year 2021: 7kTaxed GLB cars, year 2022: 12kTaxed GLB cars, year 2023: 15kTaxed GLB cars, year 2024: 19kTaxed GLB cars, year 2025: 23k23k
View this chart as a table
YearTaxed GLB cars
20140
20150
20160
20170
20180
20190
20203,339
20216,608
202211,521
202315,365
202419,368
202522,654

GLB 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)GLB cars on SORN, year 2014: 0GLB cars on SORN, year 2015: 0GLB cars on SORN, year 2016: 0GLB cars on SORN, year 2017: 0GLB cars on SORN, year 2018: 0GLB cars on SORN, year 2019: 0GLB cars on SORN, year 2020: 49GLB cars on SORN, year 2021: 482GLB cars on SORN, year 2022: 565GLB cars on SORN, year 2023: 561GLB cars on SORN, year 2024: 569GLB cars on SORN, year 2025: 634634
View this chart as a table
YearGLB cars on SORN
20140
20150
20160
20170
20180
20190
202049
2021482
2022565
2023561
2024569
2025634

Which model years survive

Taxed GLB cars at the end of 2025 by year of manufacture, and each year's share of the 22,654 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 GLB cars
20253,65016.1%
20243,76016.6%
20234,01917.7%
20224,90221.6%
20213,82416.9%
20202,49911.0%

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 GLB CLASS 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 GLB ages

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

Mercedes-Benz GLBAll cars
50%60%70%80%90%100%3579111315171920Vehicle age (years)Mercedes-Benz GLB, vehicle age 3: 90.9%Mercedes-Benz GLB, vehicle age 4: 89.3%Mercedes-Benz GLB, vehicle age 5: 88.2%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%Mercedes-Benz GLB 88.2%All cars 57.6%
View this chart as a table
Age (years)GLB testsGLB pass rateAll cars
35,28990.9%88.5%
44,10889.3%87.2%
52,60188.2%86.0%

Better or worse than the average car?

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

GLB ahead
-4-2+0+2+4Age 3: +2.4 points vs the average car3Age 4: +2.1 points vs the average carAge 5: +2.2 points vs the average car5Vehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)Gap (points)
3+2.4
4+2.1
5+2.2

The GLB fleet on the road, by age

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

01k3k4k6kAge 3: 5k3Age 4: 4kAge 5: 2k5Vehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)First tests
35,289
44,108
52,601

What a GLB fails on

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

Tyres42.3%
Brakes17.7%
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment14.8%
Visibility9.7%
Suspension4.3%
Identification of the vehicle3.9%
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems3.0%
Noise, emissions and leaks1.6%

Share of all failure items, 2025 — the 8 biggest categories shown (97.3% of the items); smaller categories are not listed.

The advisories to watch

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

Tyres: 53.1% of advisories53.1%Brakes: 27.9% of advisories27.9%Non-component advisories: 14.3% of advisories14.3%Suspension: 3.0% of advisoriesIdentification of the vehicle: 0.9% of advisoriesVisibility: 0.2% of advisories
TyresBrakesNon-component advisoriesSuspensionIdentification of the vehicleVisibility
View this chart as a table
CategoryShare of advisories
Tyres53.1%
Brakes27.9%
Non-component advisories14.3%
Suspension3.0%
Identification of the vehicle0.9%
Visibility0.2%

Petrol, diesel or hybrid GLB?

First-time pass rate for the two most-tested GLB 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: 90.6% of 7,443 tests90.6%Petrol7,443 testsDiesel: 89.0% of 4,894 tests89.0%Diesel4,894 tests
View this chart as a table
FuelTestsPass rate
Petrol7,44390.6%
Diesel4,89489.0%

What mileage is normal for a GLB?

Mileage recorded at test by vehicle age, 2025. The line is the typical (median) GLB; 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 GLB (median)
0k25k50k75k35Vehicle age (years)Age 3: typical 26,250 miles (middle half 18,750–33,750)Age 4: typical 33,750 miles (middle half 26,250–43,750)Age 5: typical 43,750 miles (middle half 33,750–53,750)43k mi

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

View this chart as a table
Age (years)Lower quarterTypical (median)Upper quarter
318,75026,25033,750
426,25033,75043,750
533,75043,75053,750

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.