All generations and engines together · 30,567 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 48k
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. 14,446 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 1.0 and 1.2 PureTech petrol runs its timing belt in an oil bath instead of a chain. Skip an oil change or do mostly short journeys and fuel dilutes the oil, the belt swells and sheds rubber, and the debris wrecks the oil pump and often the whole engine. Some failures have turned up well under 60,000 miles, and Stellantis was pushed into a compensation scheme for wet-belt failures and engine damage between January 2022 and December 2024, alongside a 10-year extended warranty on the fix. A written-off engine runs £2,000-4,000-plus to replace.
Two separate official recalls apply to this model. A 2025 recall covers around 1,100 UK cars (C3, C3 Aircross and electric versions) built with a brake pedal box out of specification, with a risk of losing braking, owners are given a courtesy car while it's fixed. Older cars can also fall under the wider Citroen/Stellantis Takata airbag stop-drive recall that grounded tens of thousands of UK cars. Neither costs the owner anything once flagged, but a car that's slipped through unrepaired is a real safety risk.
The 1.5 BlueHDi's diesel particulate filter and AdBlue injector can both clog on cars used mainly for short, low-speed runs, typically from around 40,000 miles. Symptoms are a DPF warning light, flat performance, and eventually an AdBlue fault that can stop the engine restarting. A forced regeneration or new AdBlue injector is £150-600; a replacement DPF runs £700-1,500. Doesn't apply to the petrol PureTech cars.
Owners of the EAT8 automatic report a pause or slight jerk moving off and shifting from first to second at low speed, sometimes with a shudder from the torque converter in stop-start traffic. Mostly this is just how the gearbox behaves and a TCU software update or fluid change often calms it, but on a tired car it can be the start of valve body or converter wear. Doesn't apply to manual cars.
The central touchscreen, covering climate, radio and nav, is reported to freeze, blank out, or stop responding, occasionally losing climate control mid-drive. One Honest John owner had an official Citroen incident report logged for a demist-related fault that a dealer still couldn't permanently fix. Turns up anywhere from new to around 30,000 miles; no recall exists, just repeated dealer visits and, sometimes, a unit swap for £200-500 out of warranty.
Owners have reported rust appearing earlier than you'd expect, including one Honest John report of a corroded rear brake at just 12,000 miles on a car barely a year old. Worth checking brake pipes, the rear subframe and rear wheel arch seams, especially on cars kept outside or used for lots of short trips. Corrosion is also the standout defect in the measured MOT data for this segment, so this is one bit of forum folklore that lines up with the hard numbers, though the DVSA figures don't say whether it's brakes, sills or something else underneath.
Built from the two sections above.
Same segment (Small SUVs), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.