Fiat 500 common problems: worn suspension, low miles and the MOT record

01

Is the Fiat 500 worse than average at the MOT?

Overall, yes: 34.0% of the 500's tests in October 2025 were first-time fails, while the rate across all 3,205,764 car and light van tests that month was 28.6%. But the overall figure hides a turning point, and the age bands show where it falls.

Young 500s beat the average: the three-to-five-year-olds managed a fail rate of 11.2%, under the 12.8% recorded for all cars that age. From six years on the 500 falls behind, and stays behind:

Two bands held most of the cars: 9,885 tests on 500s aged nine to 11, and 10,371 on those aged 12 to 14.

Method in brief: the figures are our own count of DVSA's anonymised MOT results for October 2025, which DVSA makes available under the Open Government Licence. Retests are excluded, and a first-time fail covers both an outright fail and a pass that needed repairs at the test centre. Our guide to the most common MOT failures gives the full method and compares the 14 models tested most often.

02

Why does the suspension dominate a 500's failure list?

A single failed MOT can record several failure items, and items fixed at the test centre during the test still count. Put each item into its area of the car and the pattern is hard to miss:

Nearly a third of the 500's failure items concern the suspension, where for cars in general it is about a fifth. Every other big area, from lights to tyres, came in a little under the national share, and steering barely registered: 1.1%, against 3.7%.

03

Fiat 500 MOT failures: what are the commonest items?

The eight items below failed 500s most often. The first column shortens DVSA's wording, and the last explains it with the help of the MOT inspection manual:

Four of the top six are suspension faults, two of them on the shock absorbers, and only headlamp aim breaks the run. After those eight come four more:

• Tyre cords on show or damaged: 3.1%, graded dangerous
• A headlamp missing or dead: 3.0%
• Handbrake too weak on the roller test: 2.9%
• Exhaust leaking badly, or insecure: 2.9%

04

Which advisories should worry a Fiat 500 buyer?

An advisory marks a part that passed but is wearing, damaged or corroding, and DVSA pairs each standard advisory with the defect it can turn into. These eight were given to 500s most often:

The next four were an engine oil leak, not excessive (3.5%); sub-frame rust, not serious (3.5%); brake pads wearing thin (2.9%); and greasy or rusty brake pipes (1.8%).

Springs show an odd split. Rust on a coil spring was the second most frequent advisory on 500s, while springs that had actually broken or weakened stayed off the 12 most common failure items. So a corrosion note is a prompt to look under the car and ask what, if anything, has been done since.

For how advisories relate to minor, major and dangerous defects, see MOT advisories explained.

05

Does low mileage protect a Fiat 500 from MOT failure?

Not on this evidence. The 500 is a low-mileage car, and its average reading sat well below the national figure in each age band:

Even so, it is the 500 that fails more often from six years old. Rubber bushes, springs and dampers age and corrode as well as wearing with use, so a modest odometer reading says little about the state of the suspension.

Nearly every 500 tested was a petrol car (98.9%), with 1.1% diesel and 0.1% hybrid. First registrations ran from 1963 to 2025, most often 2014, 2015 and 2013, and cars recorded as a 500C are included.

However few miles the odometer shows, inspect the suspension of a 500 you are thinking of buying.

06

Buying a used Fiat 500: what should you check?

Start with its record. Typing the registration into our free car check look-up brings up its full MOT history: results, failures, advisories and mileage, test by test. In the two or three most recent tests, look for notes about coil springs, dampers, and pins or bushes. A seller who says those parts were replaced should be able to show a bill.

Then spend the viewing on the parts the figures single out:

Uneven tyre wear has a cause: the Highway Code links it to brake or suspension faults and to wheels out of alignment. For the drive itself, the test drive checklist covers what to listen and feel for.

The rest of the viewing, from the logbook and VIN to the bodywork, is in our used car checklist.

07

How do you find out whether a Fiat 500 has an open recall?

A recall is a manufacturer's fix for a serious safety problem, and GOV.UK says owners do not usually pay for the repair or the parts. A recent MOT pass tells you nothing either way, so check the actual car by its registration.

Our free look-up gives DVSA's recall status for the registration in one of four words (outstanding, all fixed, none found, not available). You can also put the registration into the recall checker on GOV.UK. An open recall is the seller's to sort out, so ask for it to be done before money changes hands.

08

Should the MOT figures put you off a used Fiat 500?

The data favours young cars. At three to five years old the 500 failed first time less often than average, 11.2% against 12.8%; after that it trailed cars of its own age, and the gap was largest in the nine-to-eleven band.

Most of the difference is ordinary wear in suspension, dampers and tyres, exactly the things an MOT history, a torch underneath and a test drive will show you before you pay. As for the engine, clutch and gearbox, they fall outside the MOT altogether, GOV.UK says, so judge them from the service record and an independent mechanic's report.

Finance still owed and insurance write-offs are invisible in MOT records too. Our finance check looks for any agreement still recorded against it, as part of the Premium report (£7.99) with the write-off and stolen checks.

Between two 500s, prefer the one whose recent tests are free of suspension notes over the one with the same worn bushes advised three years running. The model average cannot tell you that; the car's own history can.