Mazda 5 MOT failures and reliability

In 2023 the Mazda 5 took 12,356 MOT tests in Britain and passed 53% of them first time, below the national average of 71% for all cars. The figures below come from the DVSA's record of every test, so they show what testers actually found on these cars rather than what owners report.

MOT tests in 2023: 12,356
First-time pass rate: 53%
All cars: 71%

What the 5 fails on

Share of tests with at least one failure in each area, against the figure for all cars.

Suspension24.2% (all cars 9.0%)
Lights and electrics20.0% (all cars 11.3%)
Body and structure10.6% (all cars 3.5%)
Tyres10.4% (all cars 6.4%)
Brakes10.4% (all cars 6.8%)
Exhaust and emissions9.8% (all cars 3.1%)
Visibility6.8% (all cars 4.8%)
Seat belts and airbags2.1% (all cars 1.0%)

Most common failure items

Share of tests on which each item was recorded.

Position lamp: not working 7.2%
Suspension arms, ball joint: ball joint excessively worn 6.6%
Suspension arms, pins and bushes: pin or bush excessively worn 5.2%
Linkage ball joints: ball joint excessively worn 4.3%
Brake pads: less than 1.5 mm thick 4.3%
Joints: constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt 4.3%
Exhaust system: has a major leak of exhaust gases 4.1%
Catalyst emissions: Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits 3.9%

Most common advisories

Tread depth: worn close to legal limit/worn on edge 26.2%
Brake discs: worn, pitted or scored, but not seriously weakened 14.2%
Suspension arms, pins and bushes: pin or bush worn but not resulting in excessive movement 13.6%
Brake pads: wearing thin 12.8%
Sub-frame: corroded but not seriously weakened 10.2%
Linkage ball joints: ball joint has slight play 8.8%
Exhaust system: has a minor leak of exhaust gases 8.1%
Tyres, condition: slightly damaged/cracking or perishing 7.5%

Pass rate by year of registration

Older cars fail more often whatever the model, so compare a car with others of the same age.

First registered	Tests	Pass rate
2006	901	47%
2007	2,010	44%
2008	2,317	48%
2009	1,518	49%
2010	1,576	53%
2011	864	58%
2012	837	61%
2013	778	64%
2014	587	66%
2015	701	71%

Typical mileage by age

Average odometer reading at the MOT, by the car's age in years at the test.

Age at test	Average mileage
8 years	68,853 miles
9 years	78,796 miles
10 years	85,958 miles
11 years	93,340 miles
12 years	97,946 miles
13 years	99,347 miles
14 years	101,529 miles
15 years	109,319 miles
16 years	114,974 miles
17 years	113,470 miles
18 years	111,207 miles

Check a particular 5

Model figures tell you what to look out for. To see one car's own MOT history, mileage and tax, enter its registration.

Other Mazda models

Source: Department for Transport, Anonymised MOT tests and results, 2023, cars and light vans, normal tests only. Pass rates are first-time passes; a pass after repair at the test station counts as a fail. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.