Mercedes-Benz S Class

Carmotiq aggregates official DVSA MOT records for the Mercedes-Benz S Class at make-and-model level — every test in the dataset for this registration band, not a single GOV.UK history lookup. Of 37,782 tests, 90.7% pass outright, which sits comfortably for a five-to-ten-year-old luxury saloon. Yet nearly 30,000 defect notes accompany those results, and the split is telling: owner maintenance dominates at 17,727 entries, wear-and-tear contributes 5,890, systemic issues 1,109, and a further 4,863 fall outside those three buckets.

For a buyer weighing a used S Class against its showroom reputation, the actionable detail is where those notes concentrate. Tyres — worn to the legal limit or feathered on the edge — appear 9,394 times, making basic tyre care the clearest forecourt check. Systemic entries remain a smaller share but cluster around warning-lamp and monitoring faults: engine management indicators (298 notes across two codes), tyre-pressure monitoring (92), and supplementary restraint system warnings (76). Year-on-year, owner-maintenance notes climb sharply as the fleet ages — from 105 in 2017 to 2,916 in 2022 — while wear-and-tear entries follow the same curve. Luxury reviews emphasise comfort and technology; the MOT record says conditional pass rates hold up, but only if previous keepers stayed on top of tyres, fluids, and warning-lamp faults before test day.

This report describes model-level MOT trends, not the condition of any individual vehicle.

Two identical Mercedes-Benz S Class models can have very different maintenance histories.

Use it to understand common patterns before inspecting a specific car — then check that car’s own MOT history.

We group recorded DVSA defect wording into four research categories to help identify whether issues are more likely to reflect routine maintenance, expected wear, recurring model patterns or miscellaneous inspection outcomes.

Owner maintenance

Defects often linked to day-to-day upkeep — tyres, lamps, washers and other items a careful owner can usually prevent or fix promptly.

Wear & tear

Age- and mileage-related deterioration that accumulates with normal use, even when a car has been looked after.

Systemic

Recurring wording and patterns across the model fleet that may point to design, component or known-model tendencies rather than one careless owner.

Other

Inspection outcomes that do not sit cleanly in the three groups above, including mixed or less classifiable defect notes.

Dataset: 37,782 official UK DVSA MOT tests · 29,589 defect notes · 2016–2021 registrations · United Kingdom · snapshot 26 September 2026 · aggregated model-level MOT analysis.

• 1Inspect all four tyres for edge wear and tread depth — tyre defects account for 9,394 recorded notes, the single largest item in the dataset.
• 2With the engine running, confirm the engine management, SRS, tyre-pressure and stability-control warning lamps all behave normally before you drive.
• 3Check the windscreen washer works and headlamp aim looks correct — both appear repeatedly in maintenance-related MOT notes.
• 4Look for advisory mentions on shock absorbers and brake discs, which are the most common wear-related items as these cars move through their second MOT cycle.