SEAT Arona MOT pass rates & common failures

Every completed first-attempt MOT on a SEAT Arona in Great Britain in 2025 — 57,243 tests. Figures cover every Arona first-tested in 2025, all trims grouped. How the Arona ages, what it fails on, and what mileage is normal, computed directly from the official DVSA record of every test.

Pass rate 2025
84.2%
11.9 points above the class-4 average (72.3%); unadjusted for age — the age-matched comparison is below
Tests analysed
57,243
first tests, 2025
Arrived with a dangerous fault
5.5%
of Arona first tests; national 7.3%

How many SEAT Arona cars are still on the road?

At the end of 2025, DVLA's register held 82,115 SEAT Arona cars that were taxed or on SORN: 81,753 taxed and 362 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. SEAT Arona vans, where they exist, are counted by DVLA as goods vehicles and are not in these figures.

Still taxed, end of 2025
81,753
99.6% of the 82,115 Arona cars taxed or on SORN; 55 model variants grouped
On SORN, end of 2025
362
declared off the road by their keepers — 0.4% of that total

How the numbers are moving

The number of taxed Arona cars is still rising: 81,753 at the end of 2025, up 6,334 (8.4%) on the end of 2024, and the highest in the years shown. Cars on SORN went from 2 at the end of 2017 to 362 at the end of 2025, up 18000.0%. 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 Arona cars, year by year

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

020k40k60k80k100k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Taxed Arona cars, year 2014: 0Taxed Arona cars, year 2015: 0Taxed Arona cars, year 2016: 0Taxed Arona cars, year 2017: 638Taxed Arona cars, year 2018: 13kTaxed Arona cars, year 2019: 27kTaxed Arona cars, year 2020: 38kTaxed Arona cars, year 2021: 49kTaxed Arona cars, year 2022: 56kTaxed Arona cars, year 2023: 66kTaxed Arona cars, year 2024: 75kTaxed Arona cars, year 2025: 82k82k
View this chart as a table
YearTaxed Arona cars
20140
20150
20160
2017638
201812,819
201927,411
202037,610
202149,062
202255,984
202365,704
202475,419
202581,753

Arona 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.

01002003004002014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Arona cars on SORN, year 2014: 0Arona cars on SORN, year 2015: 0Arona cars on SORN, year 2016: 0Arona cars on SORN, year 2017: 2Arona cars on SORN, year 2018: 64Arona cars on SORN, year 2019: 160Arona cars on SORN, year 2020: 365Arona cars on SORN, year 2021: 232Arona cars on SORN, year 2022: 156Arona cars on SORN, year 2023: 251Arona cars on SORN, year 2024: 315Arona cars on SORN, year 2025: 362362
View this chart as a table
YearArona cars on SORN
20140
20150
20160
20172
201864
2019160
2020365
2021232
2022156
2023251
2024315
2025362

Which model years survive

Taxed Arona cars at the end of 2025 by year of manufacture, and each year's share of the 81,753 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 Arona cars
20256,5068.0%
20249,42511.5%
202310,15712.4%
20226,4067.8%
202111,61914.2%
202010,53612.9%
201914,59617.9%
201811,90114.6%
All other build years (one year, each under 1%)6070.7%

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 ARONA 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 Arona ages

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

SEAT AronaAll cars
50%60%70%80%90%100%3579111315171920Vehicle age (years)SEAT Arona, vehicle age 3: 89%SEAT Arona, vehicle age 4: 88.5%SEAT Arona, vehicle age 5: 87.1%SEAT Arona, vehicle age 6: 83.3%SEAT Arona, vehicle age 7: 76.4%SEAT Arona, vehicle age 8: 71.8%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%SEAT Arona 71.8%All cars 57.6%
View this chart as a table
Age (years)Arona testsArona pass rateAll cars
36,77489.0%88.5%
411,74188.5%87.2%
510,57187.1%86.0%
614,70983.3%83.5%
712,06476.4%80.9%
862571.8%78.2%

Better or worse than the average car?

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

Arona aheadArona behind
-8-4+0+4+8Age 3: +0.5 points vs the average car3Age 4: +1.3 points vs the average carAge 5: +1.1 points vs the average car5Age 6: -0.2 points vs the average carAge 7: -4.5 points vs the average car7Age 8: -6.4 points vs the average carVehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)Gap (points)
3+0.5
4+1.3
5+1.1
6-0.2
7-4.5
8-6.4

The Arona fleet on the road, by age

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

05k10k15k20kAge 3: 6k3Age 4: 11kAge 5: 10k5Age 6: 14kAge 7: 12k7Age 8: 6258Vehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)First tests
36,774
411,741
510,571
614,709
712,064
8625

What an Arona fails on

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

Brakes25.2%
Tyres25.0%
Steering17.5%
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment9.8%
Visibility8.6%
Suspension5.5%
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems3.2%
Noise, emissions and leaks2.8%

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 Arona, 2025 — the faults in the post.

Tyres: 45.1% of advisories45.1%Brakes: 39.3% of advisories39.3%Non-component advisories: 8.7% of advisories8.7%Suspension: 4.0% of advisoriesIdentification of the vehicle: 1.3% of advisoriesSteering: 0.5% of advisories
TyresBrakesNon-component advisoriesSuspensionIdentification of the vehicleSteering
View this chart as a table
CategoryShare of advisories
Tyres45.1%
Brakes39.3%
Non-component advisories8.7%
Suspension4.0%
Identification of the vehicle1.3%
Steering0.5%

Petrol, diesel or hybrid Arona?

First-time pass rate for the two most-tested Arona 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: 84.9% of 52,094 tests84.9%Petrol52,094 testsDiesel: 77.8% of 5,148 tests77.8%Diesel5,148 tests
View this chart as a table
FuelTestsPass rate
Petrol52,09484.9%
Diesel5,14877.8%

What mileage is normal for an Arona?

Mileage recorded at test by vehicle age, 2025. The line is the typical (median) Arona; 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 Arona (median)
0k25k50k75k3578Vehicle age (years)Age 3: typical 21,250 miles (middle half 16,250–28,750)Age 4: typical 28,750 miles (middle half 21,250–38,750)Age 5: typical 31,250 miles (middle half 23,750–43,750)Age 6: typical 38,750 miles (middle half 28,750–51,250)Age 7: typical 46,250 miles (middle half 33,750–58,750)Age 8: typical 48,750 miles (middle half 38,750–61,250)48k mi

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

View this chart as a table
Age (years)Lower quarterTypical (median)Upper quarter
316,25021,25028,750
421,25028,75038,750
523,75031,25043,750
628,75038,75051,250
733,75046,25058,750
838,75048,75061,250

What fails at each age

The Arona'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.

BrakesTyresVisibilitySeat belts and supplementary restraint systemsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSteeringSuspensionEverything else
View this chart as a table
Age bandCategoryShare of the band's failure items
3-5 yrsBrakes37.4%
3-5 yrsTyres31.2%
3-5 yrsVisibility8.2%
3-5 yrsSeat belts and supplementary restraint systems5.5%
3-5 yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment5.3%
3-5 yrsEverything else12.4%
6-9 yrsSteering28.9%
6-9 yrsTyres24.9%
6-9 yrsBrakes22.3%
6-9 yrsSuspension7.7%
6-9 yrsVisibility5.3%
6-9 yrsEverything else10.9%

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.