VehicleScore research
Ford Fiesta: ball-joint comments in the MOT data
What does VehicleScore’s MOT history show on the Ford Fiesta? At ages 9–11 and 60,000–119,999 miles, ball-joint comments appeared on 29.4% of 22,248 Fiestas. Other vehicles in that slice were at 9.4%. The gap was already 12.0 percentage points at ages 6–8 in the same mileage band: 17.9% of 18,212 against 6.0%.
Ball-joint comments on the Fiesta
Age 6–8, 60–120k miles
Age 9–11, 60–120k miles
Age 12–14, 60–120k miles
54.8% of the ball-joint comments in the 9–11 slice were failures (4,830 of 8,813). At ages 6–8 the failure share was 55.3%. Roughly half the comments failed the test. The other half were advisory, minor or PRS. A buyer who treats 29.4% as a failure rate is reading the wrong column.
The rate is still high against the rest of the slice, and it is already visible before the car is a decade old. At ages 12–14 and the same mileage, 30.0% of 16,157 Fiestas had a ball-joint comment, against 11.4%.
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Check the MOT and history of the individual car. These percentages are the dataset, not the Fiesta on the driveway.
Bushes are high. Suspension arms, on the oldest cars, are low.
In the same 9–11 / 60,000–119,999 slice, suspension-bush comments appeared on 17.8% of Fiestas against 2.7% of other vehicles. Only 17.5% of those Fiesta bush comments were failures. The comment is common relative to other cars. The failure is not.
Suspension-arm comments go the other way once the Fiesta is old. At age 15 or over and 60,000–119,999 miles, 10.6% of 8,612 Fiestas had a suspension-arm comment, against 26.1% of other vehicles. The Fiesta is 15.5 percentage points lower, on a sample large enough for the intervals to separate. We have not turned that into a claim that Fiesta arms last longer. It is the comment rate in the slice, and it stops the ball-joint finding being read as “everything in the suspension is worse”.
Share of Fiesta vehicles in each age and mileage slice with at least one matching MOT comment. The comparison is other vehicles in the same slice, not the model itself. Failure share is the percentage of matched comments recorded as a fail. The rest are advisory, minor or PRS comments.
| Comment | Slice | Fiesta | Other vehicles | Gap | Comments that were failures |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint wear | Age 6–8, 60,000–119,999 miles | 17.9% 3,268 of 18,212 | 6.0% 498,794 vehicles | +12.0 pp | 55.3% 2,336 of 4,226 |
| Ball joint wear | Age 9–11, 60,000–119,999 miles | 29.4% 6,549 of 22,248 | 9.4% 489,583 vehicles | +20.0 pp | 54.8% 4,830 of 8,813 |
| Ball joint wear | Age 12–14, 60,000–119,999 miles | 30.0% 4,854 of 16,157 | 11.4% 314,611 vehicles | +18.7 pp | 47.5% 3,252 of 6,846 |
| Suspension bush issues | Age 9–11, 60,000–119,999 miles | 17.8% 3,962 of 22,248 | 2.7% 489,583 vehicles | +15.1 pp | 17.5% 1,118 of 6,391 |
| Suspension arm issues | Age 15 or over, 60,000–119,999 miles | 10.6% 913 of 8,612 | 26.1% 179,889 vehicles | -15.5 pp | 14.0% 227 of 1,617 |
The pass rate sits below the age band, and that is a different fact
The age-standardised pass rate is 75.8%, almost the same as the crude 75.7%, on 41,472 vehicles and 575,403 tests. Age mix does not explain the Fiesta’s position relative to the overall 78.5%. From ages 3–5 onward the Fiesta’s test pass rate is below the rate for all tests in the band: 71.6% against 75.0% at ages 9–11, for example.
Test pass rate by the vehicle’s age at the test. The comparison column is every pass/fail test in that age band, including Fiesta. A vehicle can appear in more than one band.
| Age at test | Vehicles | Tests | Fiesta | All tests in the band |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0–2 years | 31,407 | 36,232 | 87.0% | 87.4% |
| 3–5 years | 40,250 | 140,394 | 82.5% | 84.4% |
| 6–8 years | 39,029 | 143,630 | 76.1% | 79.3% |
| 9–11 years | 33,225 | 121,846 | 71.6% | 75.0% |
| 12–14 years | 22,555 | 79,488 | 69.1% | 72.3% |
| 15 or over years | 12,394 | 53,744 | 68.3% | 71.3% |
A lower pass rate is not a reliability score, and the ball-joint rate is not the pass rate. One car can fail on a lamp and never mention a ball joint. The useful check on a Fiesta of this age is the ball-joint line itself, including whether it was a failure and whether it came back at the next test.
The Focus, which shares a showroom with the Fiesta and does not share this ball-joint pattern, is covered separately: Ford Focus suspension-arm comments. The method for the comment rates is the same one used on common MOT problems.
Related VehicleScore research
Methodology
Snapshot 27 September 2026, job 2026-09-27.1. Fiesta means the resolved Ford Fiesta in VehicleScore’s model list. Issue comparisons exclude Fiestas from the baseline and require non-overlapping Wilson 95% intervals, at least 100 Fiestas in the slice and at least 200 other vehicles. Failure share uses the FAIL type only.
The age-standardised pass rate uses the age mix of tests in the whole dataset. Fiesta coverage is complete. Vehicle counts in the age table overlap, because a Fiesta is counted in each band where it had a test. The sample is vehicles checked through VehicleScore.