All generations and engines together · 36,020 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 51k
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. 27,283 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.
A small number of owners report the steering wheel suddenly locking mid-turn, in one case on a roundabout in a 500X that was only four months old with 3,200 miles on it. It comes with a cluster of other symptoms at the same time: every warning light on the dash lighting up, the engine refusing to switch off, and the electronic handbrake seizing on. It reads as an electrical or software fault rather than a worn steering rack, and no dealer fix or recall was confirmed in what we could find, but it lines up with steering being the fault that shows up most in this model's real MOT data.
Owners describe the engine dying unexpectedly while the dashboard still shows it running, so the car won't restart, with the electronic parking brake locking on at the same time. Dealers have thrown repeated software updates at it, but reports don't show a permanent fix, and it isn't tied to a specific mileage or age band in what we found. No manufacturer bulletin or recall for this was confirmed.
A handful of owners report the engine flooding and refusing to start after the car has been left for a couple of weeks or more, in one case needing months for the dealer to source parts for a strip-down. It's not clear from the reports whether this is a genuine fuel-system quirk or just a couple of unlucky cars, so treat it as a possible pattern rather than a certainty. Worth asking how long a used example has been sitting on a forecourt unsold.
The automatic 500X has been criticised as slow and hesitant when you ask it to drop a gear, for example when pulling out to overtake, making it feel more sluggish than the petrol or diesel engines underneath it. This is a driveability complaint rather than a documented failure pattern in the sources checked, but it's worth feeling for on a test drive since it's the main automatic-specific gripe owners and reviewers raise. Manual cars aren't affected.
Beyond the steering and cutout incidents, owners report warning lights such as the anti-lock brake symbol popping up at startup for no traceable reason and then clearing on their own. It fits a wider pattern: Auto Express's Driver Power satisfaction survey placed Fiat 23rd of 30 manufacturers, with its own review flagging quality and dealer service as weak points for the brand. No single component is being blamed, more a spread of small electrical gremlins across the car's life.
Built from the two sections above.
Same segment (Small SUVs), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.