Mercedes-Benz V-Class MOT pass rates & common failures

Every completed first-attempt MOT on a Mercedes-Benz V-Class in Great Britain in 2025 — 14,071 tests. Figures cover every V-Class first-tested in 2025, all trims grouped. How the V-Class ages, what it fails on, and what mileage is normal, computed directly from the official DVSA record of every test.

Pass rate 2025
82.1%
9.8 points above the class-4 average (72.3%); unadjusted for age — the age-matched comparison is below
Tests analysed
14,071
first tests, 2025
Arrived with a dangerous fault
6.9%
of V-Class first tests; national 7.3%
Typical mileage at 10 years
138,750
middle half: 96,250–208,750 miles (2,500-mile-band midpoints)

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

At the end of 2025, DVLA's register held 15,571 Mercedes-Benz V-Class cars that were taxed or on SORN: 14,350 taxed and 1,221 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 V-Class vans, where they exist, are counted by DVLA as goods vehicles and are not in these figures.

Still taxed, end of 2025
14,350
92.2% of the 15,571 V-Class cars taxed or on SORN; 47 model variants grouped
On SORN, end of 2025
1,221
declared off the road by their keepers — 7.8% of that total

How the numbers are moving

The number of taxed V-Class cars is still rising: 14,350 at the end of 2025, up 1,179 (9.0%) on the end of 2024, and the highest in the years shown. Cars on SORN went from 497 at the end of 2014 to 1,221 at the end of 2025, up 145.7%. 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 V-Class 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 V-Class cars, year 2014: 2kTaxed V-Class cars, year 2015: 3kTaxed V-Class cars, year 2016: 4kTaxed V-Class cars, year 2017: 6kTaxed V-Class cars, year 2018: 7kTaxed V-Class cars, year 2019: 9kTaxed V-Class cars, year 2020: 9kTaxed V-Class cars, year 2021: 10kTaxed V-Class cars, year 2022: 11kTaxed V-Class cars, year 2023: 12kTaxed V-Class cars, year 2024: 13kTaxed V-Class cars, year 2025: 14k14k
View this chart as a table
YearTaxed V-Class cars
20141,848
20152,720
20164,017
20175,667
20187,367
20199,050
20209,388
202110,206
202210,676
202311,783
202413,171
202514,350

V-Class 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.

05001k2k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)V-Class cars on SORN, year 2014: 497V-Class cars on SORN, year 2015: 608V-Class cars on SORN, year 2016: 699V-Class cars on SORN, year 2017: 802V-Class cars on SORN, year 2018: 884V-Class cars on SORN, year 2019: 995V-Class cars on SORN, year 2020: 1kV-Class cars on SORN, year 2021: 1kV-Class cars on SORN, year 2022: 1kV-Class cars on SORN, year 2023: 1kV-Class cars on SORN, year 2024: 1kV-Class cars on SORN, year 2025: 1k1k
View this chart as a table
YearV-Class cars on SORN
2014497
2015608
2016699
2017802
2018884
2019995
20201,306
20211,057
20221,043
20231,109
20241,147
20251,221

Which model years survive

Taxed V-Class cars at the end of 2025 by year of manufacture, and each year's share of the 14,350 taxed in all. Every build year holding at least 1% has its own row; the rest share one. 1 taxed V-Class car has no recorded year of manufacture and is not in the table, so the rows add up to 14,349. 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 V-Class cars
20251,55010.8%
20241,44510.1%
20231,2118.4%
20225483.8%
20214573.2%
20207885.5%
20192,12514.8%
20181,95613.6%
20171,86513.0%
20161,3109.1%
20158746.1%
All other build years (14 years, each under 1%)2201.5%

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 names V CLASS, V 300, V 220 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 V-Class ages

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

Mercedes-Benz V-ClassAll cars
50%60%70%80%90%100%3579111315171920Vehicle age (years)Mercedes-Benz V-Class, vehicle age 3: 85.1%Mercedes-Benz V-Class, vehicle age 4: 83.5%Mercedes-Benz V-Class, vehicle age 5: 82.6%Mercedes-Benz V-Class, vehicle age 6: 84.5%Mercedes-Benz V-Class, vehicle age 7: 82.6%Mercedes-Benz V-Class, vehicle age 8: 78.5%Mercedes-Benz V-Class, vehicle age 9: 79.4%Mercedes-Benz V-Class, vehicle age 10: 80.3%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 V-Class 80.3%All cars 57.6%
View this chart as a table
Age (years)V-Class testsV-Class pass rateAll cars
361985.1%88.5%
457783.5%87.2%
593882.6%86.0%
62,90184.5%83.5%
72,40282.6%80.9%
82,27378.5%78.2%
91,57579.4%74.9%
101,00780.3%71.9%

Better or worse than the average car?

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

V-Class aheadV-Class behind
-10-5+0+5+10Age 3: -3.4 points vs the average car3Age 4: -3.7 points vs the average carAge 5: -3.4 points vs the average car5Age 6: +1.0 points vs the average carAge 7: +1.7 points vs the average car7Age 8: +0.3 points vs the average carAge 9: +4.5 points vs the average car9Age 10: +8.4 points vs the average carVehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)Gap (points)
3-3.4
4-3.7
5-3.4
6+1.0
7+1.7
8+0.3
9+4.5
10+8.4

The V-Class fleet on the road, by age

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

07501k2k3kAge 3: 6193Age 4: 577Age 5: 9385Age 6: 2kAge 7: 2k7Age 8: 2kAge 9: 1k9Age 10: 1k10Vehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)First tests
3619
4577
5938
62,901
72,402
82,273
91,575
101,007

What a V-Class fails on

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

Suspension26.1%
Tyres24.9%
Brakes18.1%
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment9.2%
Visibility7.1%
Noise, emissions and leaks4.7%
Body, chassis, structure3.9%
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems1.9%

Share of all failure items, 2025 — the 8 biggest categories shown (95.9% of the items); smaller categories are not listed.

The advisories to watch

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

Tyres: 42.1% of advisories42.1%Brakes: 29.7% of advisories29.7%Suspension: 14.6% of advisories14.6%Non-component advisories: 5.2% of advisoriesNoise, emissions and leaks: 2.6% of advisoriesBody, chassis, structure: 2.3% of advisories
TyresBrakesSuspensionNon-component advisoriesNoise, emissions and leaksBody, chassis, structure
View this chart as a table
CategoryShare of advisories
Tyres42.1%
Brakes29.7%
Suspension14.6%
Non-component advisories5.2%
Noise, emissions and leaks2.6%
Body, chassis, structure2.3%

What mileage is normal for a V-Class?

Mileage recorded at test by vehicle age, 2025. The line is the typical (median) V-Class; 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 V-Class (median)
0k25k50k75k100k125k150k175k200k225k357910Vehicle age (years)Age 3: typical 33,750 miles (middle half 21,250–58,750)Age 4: typical 41,250 miles (middle half 26,250–61,250)Age 5: typical 61,250 miles (middle half 38,750–88,750)Age 6: typical 88,750 miles (middle half 51,250–138,750)Age 7: typical 88,750 miles (middle half 53,750–146,250)Age 8: typical 108,750 miles (middle half 66,250–176,250)Age 9: typical 123,750 miles (middle half 81,250–191,250)Age 10: typical 138,750 miles (middle half 96,250–208,750)138k mi

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

View this chart as a table
Age (years)Lower quarterTypical (median)Upper quarter
321,25033,75058,750
426,25041,25061,250
538,75061,25088,750
651,25088,750138,750
753,75088,750146,250
866,250108,750176,250
981,250123,750191,250
1096,250138,750208,750

What fails at each age

The V-Class'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.

TyresBrakesSuspensionVisibilityLamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentNoise, emissions and leaksBody, chassis, structureEverything else
View this chart as a table
Age bandCategoryShare of the band's failure items
3-5 yrsTyres46.0%
3-5 yrsBrakes20.2%
3-5 yrsSuspension13.0%
3-5 yrsVisibility10.9%
3-5 yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment2.1%
3-5 yrsEverything else7.8%
6-9 yrsSuspension32.8%
6-9 yrsTyres26.8%
6-9 yrsBrakes19.6%
6-9 yrsVisibility5.1%
6-9 yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment4.3%
6-9 yrsEverything else11.4%
10-13 yrsSuspension32.2%
10-13 yrsBrakes22.1%
10-13 yrsTyres21.8%
10-13 yrsVisibility5.8%
10-13 yrsNoise, emissions and leaks5.6%
10-13 yrsEverything else12.5%
14+ yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment21.0%
14+ yrsSuspension21.0%
14+ yrsBrakes19.2%
14+ yrsBody, chassis, structure12.6%
14+ yrsTyres7.5%
14+ yrsEverything else18.7%

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.