MOT cost .
Honda Civic
MOT 2023
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Honda

Civic

362,550 MOT tests analysed. lands in the middle of the pack — here's where Civics pass, fail, and end up on the retest sheet.

That's 3.2 points below the UK fleet average across our 1,988 tracked models — buyers should expect more first-time fails than the typical UK car.

Pass

72.5%

Pass-after-fix

6.2%

Fail

20.7%

Avg miles

90,859

Pass + Pass-after-fix + Fail = 100%

The picture

Civic at 72%: Rear Lamps and Steering Gaiters

Across 362,550 MOT tests and an average mileage of 90,859, the Honda Civic passes at 72.48% — decent but not class-leading. Rear registration plate lamp failures and deteriorated steering rack gaiters are the most cited reasons for an immediate fail. The 1.0 VTEC turbo petrol has a documented timing belt failure on record at 33,000 miles, with one owner also facing alternator failure at the same age and a quoted repair of £1,100. Oil dilution from short journeys is another known watch-point on this engine. Get a full inspection of the steering gaiters and confirm the 1.0's service history is complete before committing.

Top ten reasons for rejection.

  1. 01

    A rear registration plate lamp or light source missing or inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources

    18,739 occurrences · 5.2% of tests

  2. 02

    Steering rack gaiter or ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated

    18,622 occurrences · 5.1% of tests

  3. 03

    Headlamp reflector or lens slightly defective

    17,750 occurrences · 4.9% of tests

  4. 04

    A suspension joint dust cover severely deteriorated

    15,095 occurrences · 4.2% of tests

  5. 05

    The aim of a headlamp is not within limits laid down in the requirements

    13,212 occurrences · 3.6% of tests

  6. 06

    A lamp missing, inoperative or in the case of a multiple light source more than 1/2 not functioning

    12,298 occurrences · 3.4% of tests

  7. 07

    Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements

    10,345 occurrences · 2.9% of tests

  8. 08

    a brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm

    8,838 occurrences · 2.4% of tests

  9. 09

    Stop lamp missing, inoperative or in the case of a multiple light source more than 1/2 not functioning

    7,380 occurrences · 2.0% of tests

  10. 10

    A shock absorber damaged to the extent that it does not function or showing signs of severe leakage

    7,058 occurrences · 1.9% of tests

Counts cover Major and Dangerous defects logged at test. Advisory items excluded so this shows why a car was rejected, not just what the tester flagged in passing.

Worst-case fix budget · top 5 failures

£188–£675

If every one of this Civic's most-logged Major fails hit at the same MOT, that's the real-world UK garage range. Reality is usually one or two items, not all of them. Open the estimator →

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Tools that pre-empt a retest.

Picked against this car's top failure patterns. Affiliate links to Amazon UK — we earn a small cut at no cost to you. Disclosed up-front, doesn't shape the data.

Item 01 · Amazon UK

H7 / W21W bulb pack

A spare-bulb kit lives in the boot. Test morning is not the time to find your stop-lamp's gone.

Search Amazon UK

Item 02 · Amazon UK

Headlight restoration kit

Yellowed lenses fail the light-output test. A restoration kit lifts the haze in an afternoon for £20.

Search Amazon UK

Owner reports · Honest John

What owners actually report.

Verbatim faults logged by owners on honestjohn.co.uk over recent years. We didn't summarise — these are the words people typed in.

What's good

The Honda Civic is a really solid choice in the family hatchback class. It drives really well, the engines are perky yet efficient, it’s pretty affordable and full with clever safety kit

Recent owner-reported faults

  1. 10 Jun 2021

    Alternator failure on 2017 Honda Civic 1.0 petrol. Car has covered 33,000 miles and the owner has been quoted £1100 for the repair. The dealer has contacted Honda but no offer of financial assistance. Sigma-Aldrich Allylmagnesium Bromide Solution, CAS 1730-25-2, 1.0 m In Diethyl Ether 100 Ml(Prop-2-en-1-yl)magnesium bromide; 2-Propenylmagnesium bromide; Allyl magnesium bromide; Allylbromomagnesium; Allylmagnesiumbromide; Brom...Sigma-Aldrich

  2. 31 Mar 2021

    Report of oil dilution on 2019 Honda Civic 1.0 VTEC. Car recently showed a service indicator for an oil change. The dealer inspected the vehicle and stated that the cause was 'oil dilution' probably resulting from short, local journeys during the Covid period and charged £80 for an oil/filter change.

  3. 10 Jun 2020

    Report of a timing belt snapping on 2017 1.0 petrol Civic. Car had previously had two turbo failures. Engine replacement/repair covered by Honda warranty.

  4. 16 Mar 2020

    Report of sunroof rattle, which dealer is unable to fix. Vehicle also suffers from faulty adaptive cruise control and auto windscreen wiper system, with the dealer fitting a new c amera module under warranty.

  5. 2 Aug 2019

    Report of repeated problems with a/c of 2017 Honda Civic. Discharged itself. Owner took it into a Honda garage who said it was not under warranty for such issues. They said it had to be serviced regularly and charged £120 to re-gas the system. This failed again some days later. Since then they took it in for a week and did various other tests on it, saying they replaced something and to let them know if it had worked. Yet again it has failed. (Possibly due to R1234YF refrigerant.)

  6. 7 Jun 2019

    Report of poor paint on two successive Honda Civics, both silver: The first had so many problems that a local bodyshop could not rectify it satisfactorily so it went back to Swindon; the second, an April 2019 1.5 182 VTEC Turbo, has thin paint on the rear quarter, plus a problem spark plug, plus a failed instrument head.

  7. 24 Apr 2019

    Report of "continual whistle" from the air conditioning system of a June 2018 Honda Civic 1.5 VTEC Turbo. (This is a known fault and is fixed by replacing a pipe on the system - service bulletin number ST.09-001-00. See: 7-3-2019, 21-4-2017.) At 10 months old and 7500 miles the car has also developed a clutch judder when taking off in first gear and changing down from third gear into second gear. The dealer will investigate this at the same time as the aircon rectification.

  8. 10 Dec 2018

    Report of 2018 Honda Civic 1.0 VTEC having to go back to the dealer for faults to be fixed 5 times in its first year.

  9. 2 Nov 2018

    Report of two successive turbo failures on 2017 Honda Civic 1.0 VTEC. Honda Germany claims its related to the turbocharger only, but they are also on back order.

  10. 23 Apr 2018

    Squealing front brakes of 2017 Honda Civic 1.5 VTEC 180 (21-1-18) now acknowledged by Honda as an issue on some Civics and a fix is being worked on.

  11. 18 Apr 2018

    Complaint of numerous defects and irritations on new Honda Civic 1.5 VTEC Sport bought in July 2017: Alarm going off randomly; blisters and imperfections in paint; parking sensors and anti collision control issues; door seals coming off; seal around the spoiler coming out; scratched paintwork from dealership valet; noises from steering rack when on full lock.

  12. 30 Jan 2018

    Report of problem with intruder alarm of October 2017 Honda Civic 1.0 VTEC SR CVT. "The Intruder alarm siren goes off randomly and when it does there is no way of switching it off. This is being investigated at the dealership for the third time. The dealership is currently working with Honda UK Technical Department on the intruder alarm system but as yet they have not been able to find and fix the exact problem that is causing the siren to go off. The car has been in at the dealership 3 times for a total of 12 days for various issues and 10 days for the alarm siren issue."

Source: honestjohn.co.uk · 13 reports indexed, top 12 shown

Buying or keeping a Civic?

Use the failure ranking as a pre-test checklist or a haggling lever. Treat the headline pass rate as a fleet-wide trend, not a guarantee on any individual car.

If you own a Civic and your last MOT looked nothing like the ranked failures above, that's normal — individual cars vary widely. The ranking shows the patterns testers flag most often across the country.