All generations and engines together · 1,447 MOT tests in the 2025 data
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. 1,447 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 clutchless SensoDrive box (a manual gearbox with two robotic actuators instead of a clutch pedal) is known for actuator failure: violent judder on gearchanges followed by a refusal to select gears and a drop into limp mode. Neither actuator can be repaired, only replaced, and fault codes like clutch position adaptation errors or actuator motor faults turn up regularly on diagnostic checks. It can happen at any mileage once the unit is a few years old, and a replacement actuator runs to a few hundred pounds, more if both need doing.
Windows that jam, reverse on their own, or stop responding altogether are a persistent complaint, and it is not always a snapped cable. On these cars the window motor has a control module (Temic) bolted to it, and moisture getting into that module causes electrical faults with no obvious mechanical cause. If the motor tries to run and struggles, suspect the regulator or cable; if there is no sound at all, suspect the module. Repair is anywhere from an inexpensive regulator to a full window motor/module assembly.
An ABS light that comes on intermittently, especially in wet weather, is usually a wheel-speed sensor or its wiring corroding rather than a failed ABS pump or module. Owners report it clearing itself after cleaning the sensor and connector, only for it to return a few months later. It is not usually a big bill on its own, a sensor and some contact cleaner, but repeated corrosion in the same spot points to a loom that needs proper repair rather than a quick fix.
Owners and specialists both flag the petrol TU-engine head gasket and camshaft oil seal as slow, hard-to-pin-down oil leak points, sometimes described as an oil leak nobody can find until the car is up on a ramp. This lines up with the measured MOT signature for this class, where emissions and leak-related items are the standout fault category for superminis of this age, and a weeping gasket is exactly the kind of leak that eventually shows as an advisory or fail. A camshaft seal is a modest job, a head gasket is more, typically a few hundred pounds either way depending on labour access.
A common minor gripe: the heater fan only works on one speed (usually full blast) or stops altogether, traced to the blower resistor pack under the dash. Owners disagree on the cause, some blame debris and leaf litter getting drawn in and overheating the resistor, others just call it a wear part. Either way it is a cheap DIY-friendly fix, a resistor pack rather than a new blower motor.
The C2 was subject to a handful of official safety recalls in its first UK years: front suspension wishbone mounting bolts under-torqued (2008), an ABS control fault triggered by low battery voltage (2006), and a parking brake cable manufacturing defect (2009). These are old news on any car still on the road now, but worth checking the work was actually carried out, since an unfixed recall from a private seller is a real safety issue rather than folklore.
Built from the two sections above.
Same segment (Superminis), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.