200 million safety checks reveal critical car maintenance issues South Africans overlook

Car insurance platform MoneySuperMarket has trawled through more than 200 million UK vehicle safety inspection records, giving a glimpse at the faults most likely to trip up everyday motorists.

The data comes from the UK’s DVSA MOT database, covering more than 3 200 models from major global brands. While the study is UK-based, the issues highlighted are universal - tyres, brakes and basic maintenance items remain the weak points across almost every brand.

What fails most often?

Three faults dominate the failure list across all makes and models:

• Parking brake inefficiency.
• Tyres worn below the legal 1.6mm tread depth.
• Windshield washers are not supplying enough fluid.

These aren’t complex failures or hidden mechanical bugs. They’re basic, often overlooked issues that only get attention once a car is up on the lift. 

Parking brake effectiveness is a standout issue, partly because many drivers rely on flat parking surfaces or automatic transmissions to keep the car in place, masking a weak handbrake.

Wiper systems and washers also feature prominently - simple fixes, but easy to ignore until the test day.

What about SA?

It's important to understand that we have no such thing as an annual or even regular vehicle safety check. This undoubtedly contributes significantly to our diabolical road accident and death toll statistics and makes us feature regularly in the top five most dangerous countries to drive.

Once you have the licence papers and renew your licence every year, the vehicle could be in terrible shape, but you’re still good to go.

Organisations like the Automobile Association (AA) have been advocating for a change to the regulation, but to date, there has been no movement.

In an article we published earlier this year, the AA said: “Unlike countries such as the UK, which enforce annual MOT (Ministry of Transport) inspections, South Africa only requires motorists to renew their vehicle licence discs annually. Without mandatory roadworthiness checks for private vehicles, many unroadworthy cars remain on our roads unchecked.

"The AA advocates for annual vehicle roadworthiness inspections to ensure that vehicles remain safe over time.

"The AA is willing to work with the government on a plan that will enforce frequent, mandatory roadworthy inspections and help to combat any fraudulent activities that have been in the spotlight recently, where service providers approve vehicles that should be deemed unroadworthy.”

How the big brands compare

MoneySuperMarket’s deep dive allows a look at common patterns within the world’s biggest manufacturers. From Tesla to Toyota, familiar issues recur across drivetrains and model ranges.

Volkswagen: Volkswagen models frequently fall short on parking brake performance and front-tyre tread depth, especially in front-wheel-drive models like Polo and Golf that load the front axle under acceleration and braking.

Washer fluid flow is another recurring failure -usually down to owner oversight rather than vehicle design.

BMW: Most BMWs are rear-wheel drive, and the data reflects that. Their most common failures are rear-tyre tread below 1.6mm or cuts deep enough to expose ply, a known risk on powerful cars with evenly distributed weight. Parking brake performance also shows up regularly.

Audi: Front-tyre tread wear leads to Audi failures, likely due to the brand’s front-biased weight distribution and common FWD layouts. Cuts in low-profile tyres are frequent too - large alloys and thin sidewalls don’t offer much protection against curbs or potholes.

Kia: Kia owners tend to run tyres to the limit, with front-tyre wear the top failure point. Parking brake efficiency follows, while wipers not clearing the screen complete the top three.

Ford: Older Fords using cable-type parking brakes commonly fail due to handbrake inefficiency. With most models being FWD, front-tyre wear is the next major culprit, with thin brake pads rounding out the list.

Toyota: For Toyota, it’s also parking brake performance and front-tyre tread wear, joined by a frequent rear fog-light failure on the passenger side.

Hyundai: Hyundai follows similar trends: front tyres, parking brake performance, and front wipers not clearing effectively.

MG: MG owners often encounter imbalanced brakes across an axle, low front-tyre tread, and weak washer fluid output.

Mercedes-Benz: Parking brake performance tops the list, followed by rear-tyre wear and deep cuts affecting tyre integrity.

Tesla: Tesla’s failures are almost entirely tyre-related: low tread depth, tyre cuts, and TPMS malfunctions. EVs deliver instant torque and carry more weight than ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) rivals, which accelerates tyre wear and exposes sidewalls to more strain.

Takeaway: There are approximately 12 million registered motor vehicles in South Africa, which includes eight million passenger cars, light delivery trucks, taxis, and motorcycles. 

With none of them requiring any form of roadworthy tests beyond the initial registration, we can only guess as to how many millions of them would fail even the most basic test. 

The original report can be found here:  https://www.moneysupermarket.com/car-insurance/car-mot-fail-checker-statistics-report/