Kia Picanto vs Volkswagen Up

The Volkswagen Up has the better MOT record of the two — 11.9% fail rate versus 19.0% for the Kia Picanto across comparable years. The biggest single difference is brakes, where the Picanto records failures noticeably more often.

19.0%
Picanto fail rate
11.9%
Up fail rate
7.12pp
Difference

Side by side

MOT figures compared
MetricKia PicantoVolkswagen Up
MOT tests analysed1,074,971676,096
Pass rate81.0%88.1%
Fail rate19.0%11.9%
Fail rate compared (lower is better) Kia Picanto 19.0% Volkswagen Up 11.9%
Overall MOT fail rate across comparable model years.

Where they differ

Failure-area share, by category
CategoryPicantoUp
Brakes8.3%3.7%
Suspension5.8%2.1%
Lighting & signalling7.4%5.4%
Tyres5.3%3.4%
Visibility5.3%3.6%

Methodology & source. Dataset: DVSA MOT testing data (2021,2022,2023,2024,2025). Data last updated 2026-07-27. Figures reflect MOT-testable defects only — read the methodology for how these are calculated and what they don't measure.

See the full data