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Honda Insight

What 1,160 MOT tests in 2025 say about buying one used — and, just as important, what they cannot tell you.

Our verdict
Looks solid

Judged against every other electric car of the same age — aged 13 to 14 — this one passes its MOT first time 68.4% of the time, against 66.0% for the electric fleet. That is 2.4 points better, and it is a real gap rather than an age effect: we weighted the comparison so both sides have the same age mix. Against the petrol and hybrid versions of the same nameplate it is a wash at matched ages: 68.7% versus 68.6%. And whatever the MOT record says, it tells you nothing about the battery — no record does. Only a physical test measures that.

Based on 1,160 MOT tests · DVSA anonymised MOT test data, 2023–2025 · built 27 August 2026

At a glance

Pass rate, age for age
68.4%
electric fleet 66.0%
Raw pass rate, 2025
70.3%
all ages · 1,160 tests
Median mileage, newest year shown
not enough data
Pass rate over three years
2023 69.2% → 2024 67.6% → 2025 70.3%
2023 → 2025
DVSA anonymised MOT test data, 2023–2025 · electric only UNVERIFIED — warranty table not yet built

Battery and warranty

Nothing here until it is sourced

Battery warranty terms per model year — years, mileage cap, capacity-retention threshold, and whether it transfers to a second owner — have to be traced to the manufacturer’s own published documentation, row by row, and dated. That table has not been built.

UNVERIFIED — blocks publication

What we will never do

We will not sell you a battery state-of-health figure we have not measured. Ours would be a guess, so we are not selling it. Where a physical test is worth its roughly £100, we will say so plainly.

The MOT record

60%70%71.0%69.4%131415Vehicle age at test (years)
Pass rate by vehicle age. Ages with fewer than 500 tests are not shown. DVSA anonymised MOT test data, 2023–2025
See the numbers
AgePass rateTests
13 yrs71.0%911
14 yrs66.2%1,058
15 yrs69.4%746

Electric versus petrol, like for like

This nameplate is sold with petrol and electric versions. Everyone else quotes the blended figure for both together, which is mostly a statement about age — the electric ones are all recent cars. Weighted so both sides carry the same age mix, ages 13 to 15:

VersionPass rate, age-matchedTests
Insight electric 68.7%2,715
Insight, all fuel types 68.6%
DVSA anonymised MOT test data, 2023–2025 Age-standardised by us · method in the footer

The un-weighted comparison would read 67.6% for the nameplate overall. We do not publish that number against an electric figure, because the gap it shows is mostly the age difference between the two groups rather than anything about the cars.

Where it gets expensive

The fall between 13 and 14 years is the one to notice. The pass rate drops from 71.0% to 66.2% in a single year of age — 4.8 points, the steepest step anywhere on the chart above. That is 911 tests against 1,058, so it is not a small-sample artefact.

Read it as a maintenance cliff rather than a design fault: it is the age at which the consumable parts on this model come due together. If you are looking at one approaching 14 years old, budget for it, or use it to negotiate.

What gets flagged

Advisory and failure items for this model are not published yet. The item-level data needs the DVSA test-item files joined to this model’s electric tests, and the figures that exist elsewhere blend petrol and electric versions of this nameplate together — which would be misleading here.

UNVERIFIED — item-level data not yet built

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