All generations and engines together · 4,910 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 54k
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 4,570 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
The 1.4 T-Jet turbo can drop into limp mode, lose boost entirely, or occasionally overboost, usually with no warning beyond a flat pedal or an engine light. It's put down to a failing boost control solenoid or a sticking wastegate rather than anything more serious with the turbo itself. No recall or manufacturer bulletin covers it, and it can turn up at any age or mileage.
Long-running complaint about knocking and clunking over bumps, usually blamed on the front anti-roll bar drop links and bushes wearing out faster than a normal Fiat 500 because of the Abarth's stiffer, lowered sports suspension. That matches this model's measured MOT data, where suspension is the standout defect category for the segment, so the forum chatter and the numbers agree on where the money goes. It's a frequent MOT advisory long before it's an outright failure.
Manual cars are reported to get through clutches and dual-mass flywheels faster than a normal city car, with judder pulling away, rattling at idle, or slipping under hard load. Owners and buying guides both put it down to the car being driven the way it's meant to be driven, and it tends to show up from around 40,000 miles on hard-used examples. A clutch and flywheel replacement is a four-figure job at a garage, not something covered by any bulletin.
A grab-bag of small electrical faults keeps coming up: dashboard warning lights with no obvious cause, ABS sensor failures that can fail an MOT outright, condensation in the rear light clusters, and central locking that stops working on one or more doors. None of it is linked to a single part or a manufacturer fix, it reads more like general age-related wiring and connector wear than one design flaw.
The electric 500e only reached UK buyers from 2024, so there isn't the years of forum history or Honest John owner reviews that the petrol car has. The one detailed write-up found flags battery-management warning lights, colder-weather range dropping below the claimed figure, and infotainment touchscreen glitches, but that's a single source, not a confirmed pattern, and there's no recall or TSB on record. Treat battery health and range as an unknown to check yourself rather than a settled fault.
Built from the two sections above.
Same segment (City cars), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.