Mazda CX-5 MOT pass rate & common failures

At a glance

Pass rate, adjusted for age and mileage

The CX-5 is 6.2 percentage points above the national pass rate once age and mileage are accounted for, which is well above average. The unadjusted figure is 80.5%; the difference is what the age and mileage of this model’s fleet was hiding.

DVSA recorded wording

Most common failure items

Share of failed Mazda CX-5 tests in which each item was recorded. One failed test often lists several items, so these do not sum to 100%.

1. 1.A brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm18.0%

   2,140 occurrencesBrake drum or shoe worn or contaminated explained

2. 2.A steering ball joint with excessive wear or free play16.1%

   1,917 occurrencesBall joint worn explained

3. 3.A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened15.4%

   1,829 occurrencesRoad spring broken or fractured explained

4. 4.A tyre seriously damaged11.6%

   1,376 occurrencesTyre damaged or deteriorated explained

5. 5.Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements11.2%

   1,330 occurrencesTyre worn close to the legal limit explained

6. 6.A suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn9.5%

   1,134 occurrencesSuspension arm bush worn explained

7. 7.Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the windscreen9.3%

   1,106 occurrencesWiper or washer not working properly explained

8. 8.A suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn5.0%

   595 occurrencesSuspension arm bush worn explained

9. 9.A suspension joint dust cover missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc4.5%

   534 occurrencesSuspension joint dust cover missing or split explained

10. 10.Brake pipe damaged or excessively corroded4.2%

    493 occurrencesBrake pipe corroded explained

Warnings without a failure

Most common advisories

Share of all Mazda CX-5 tests carrying each advisory. The denominator differs from the failure list above because an advisory can be issued on a car that passed.

1. 1.Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements20.2%

   14,676 testsTyre worn close to the legal limit explained

2. 2.A brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm15.1%

   10,958 testsBrake drum or shoe worn or contaminated explained

3. 3.A tyre seriously damaged13.3%

   9,684 testsTyre damaged or deteriorated explained

4. 4.Brake disc or drum excessively weakened, insecure or fractured12.8%

   9,266 testsBrake disc worn, pitted or scored explained

5. 5.A suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn9.4%

   6,865 testsSuspension arm bush worn explained

6. 6.Brake pipe damaged or excessively corroded5.3%

   3,827 testsBrake pipe corroded explained

7. 7.A suspension component excessively damaged or corroded4.4%

   3,223 testsSuspension mounting corroded or insecure explained

8. 8.Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt4.2%

   3,036 tests

The rest of the record

Everything else recorded on the Mazda CX-5

The 18 other defects testers recorded on this model, beyond the most common listed above. Each links to what it means and what it takes to put right.

• Lamp not working4.0%
• Steering rack gaiter split, damaged or missing3.8%
• Engine management light on, or not working3.6%
• Tyre ply or cord exposed, or the casing separating3.6%
• Shock absorber defective1.8%
• Tyre pressure monitoring system inoperative1.5%
• Brake binding or imbalanced across an axle1.4%
• Wheel nut, bolt or stud missing, loose or damaged1.4%
• Headlamp aim incorrect1.4%
• Direction indicator not working1.4%
• Emissions above the permitted limit1.3%
• Registration plate missing, insecure or illegible1.2%
• Seat belt damaged or not working properly1.1%
• Lamp of the wrong colour, position or intensity0.3%
• Brake hose deteriorated, damaged or chafing0.3%
• Exhaust leaking or insecure0.1%
• Brake fluid level below minimum0.1%
• Corrosion in a structural area0.1%

How wear changes the picture

CX-5 pass rate by age and registration year

How often the Mazda CX-5 passes at each age, with the years those cars were first registered. Tests are from 2025, so a car aged 3 to 5 was first used in 2020–2022.

Read this as an age curve rather than a verdict on particular model years. Nearly every car passes less often as it gets older, so a newer CX-5 outscoring an older one says more about wear than about how that year’s cars were built. Bands holding too few tests to be meaningful are omitted rather than shown as a rate.

What gets tested

The CX-5 fleet

Average mileage recorded at test

62,580

Across examples of every age, so this is a description of the fleet rather than an annual figure.

Fuel mix of tested cars

Diesel52.3%

Petrol47.7%

Compare within the range

Other Mazda models

• Mazda 2 — 69.8% adjusted
• Mazda 3 — 70.6% adjusted
• Mazda MX-5 — 77.2% adjusted
• Mazda 6 — 73.3% adjusted
• Mazda CX-3 — 83.5% unadjusted
• Mazda CX-30 — 91.3% unadjusted
• All Mazda models →

Similar test volumes

Compare against other makes

• Suzuki Vitara — 76.2% adjusted, ranked 94
• Fiat Ducato — 73.4% adjusted, ranked 129
• Mercedes-Benz B-Class — 73.3% adjusted, ranked 130
• Volvo XC90 — 77.6% adjusted, ranked 78

Common questions

Is the Mazda CX-5 reliable?

On MOT evidence the Mazda CX-5 is well above average. It passes 78.5% of tests once age and mileage are accounted for, against a national average of 72.3%. That figure covers 77% of the national age and mileage range, which is enough to quote but not to rank. This measures how often the car meets the MOT standard, not how often it breaks down or what a repair costs.

What is the most common MOT failure on a Mazda CX-5?

The item recorded most often is "a brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm", which appears in 18.0% of failed Mazda CX-5 tests. Because one failed test can list several items, these shares do not add up to 100%.

What do testers most often warn about on a Mazda CX-5?

The most common advisory is "Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements", noted on 20.2% of all Mazda CX-5 tests. An advisory is not a failure: it flags something that will likely need attention before the next test.

What mileage does a Mazda CX-5 usually have at its MOT?

The average odometer reading recorded at test is 62,580 miles. This is the mileage across all tested examples of every age, not an annual figure, so treat it as a description of the fleet rather than a target for one car.

Which Mazda CX-5 years are the most reliable?

Going by MOT pass rate, Mazda CX-5 cars first registered 2020–2022 do best at 89.0%, and those registered 2011–2013 do worst at 64.7%. But that ordering is mostly age, not build year: almost every model passes less often as it wears, so the newest cars top this list whatever they are. A specific year looking strong here means little on its own; the failure items above, and the individual car's own MOT history, tell you far more.

Does a Mazda CX-5 get harder to pass as it ages?

Yes. At 3 to 5 years old, 89.0% of Mazda CX-5 tests pass. By 12 to 14 years, that falls to 64.7%. Nearly every model follows this pattern, which is why comparing raw pass rates between models is misleading unless age is accounted for.

Are most Mazda CX-5 models petrol or diesel?

Of the Mazda CX-5 cars tested, 52% are diesel, 48% are petrol. Fuel type affects which items tend to fail, particularly emissions and exhaust components.

How this was worked out

Method and limits

Figures come from the DVSA anonymised MOT testing dataset, published under the Open Government Licence. Only class 4 initial tests are counted: retests are excluded so a car appears once, and abandoned tests are excluded entirely. The adjusted rate is directly standardised across twenty-five age and mileage bands and reweighted onto the national distribution, so this model is compared against cars that have lived a similar life rather than against a younger or lighter-used fleet.

An MOT measures whether a car met a legal standard on the day. It is not a breakdown record, a service history or a running-cost estimate, and a pass rate is a property of a fleet rather than a prediction about one car.

Further reading

Make sense of the numbers

• How to judge reliability from evidence rather than reputation
• What counts as high or low mileage for a car’s age
• The most common MOT failures and how to avoid them
• What to check before buying a used Mazda