All generations and engines together · 8,217 MOT tests in the 2025 data · typical mileage at age 7: 72k
Better than most saloons and estates, by age and by mileage. Watch suspension and emissions/leaks. A solid used buy, provided its MOT history has no repeating suspension advisories.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press, with how well each report stands up. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
The 1.5 TSI evo engine fitted to lower-power Arteons can judder and hop when pulling away in the first few minutes from cold, a fault that ran across the wider VW Group evo-engine family and eventually led to a software fix. Honest John's Arteon reports flagged "ongoing issues with the 1.5 TSI engine with no resolution from Volkswagen" as late as mid-2019. Where it's still present, a dealer software update, and sometimes an injector adaptation reset, cures it at no cost.
Honest John records an early Arteon 2.0 TDI needing a new EGR valve at just 12 months old after regular long-distance use. It's a single reported case rather than a proven pattern across many cars, but the EA288 diesel engine underneath is shared with the Passat and Tiguan, both of which have a known tendency towards EGR and DPF clogging on cars used mainly for short runs. Worth checking the service history closely on any diesel Arteon.
Road tests criticise the Arteon's ride for "transferring thumps into the cabin all too eagerly", especially on the 19-inch wheels fitted to R-Line trim, and owners separately report creaks and clonks developing from the front suspension with age. This lines up with the measured MOT data for this segment, where suspension is the standout fault category for saloons and estates, though the anecdotal reports don't pin down whether it's bushes, links or the springs and dampers themselves.
Owner reviews describe a scattergun list of niggles rather than one single fault: stop/start cutting the engine "whenever it fancies" mid-manoeuvre, and one owner reporting repeated AA callouts over three and a half years of ownership without a root cause ever being pinned down. It's the sort of intermittent electrical or software fault that's hard to diagnose and easy for a seller to wave away as "sorted now".
Most Arteons use a 7-speed wet-clutch DSG automatic shared across the VW Group range, which is less failure-prone than the older dry-clutch DQ200 box used elsewhere in the group. Even so, owners of automatic Arteons occasionally report a hesitant or jerky take-up from a standstill, particularly when cold or in slow traffic. It rarely leaves anyone stranded, but it's worth a proper test drive on the specific car. Manual Arteons aren't affected.
Ranked from this model’s own MOT record, then from what owners report.
Saveable checklistThe physical checks its own defect data says are worth your time, most telling first.
These judge the seller’s upkeep rather than the model, and they are where the haggling money is.
Drawn from the reports above rather than the MOT data. These are the model-specific ones.
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. 3,413 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.
Same segment (Saloons & estates), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.