Repair costs · Honda Civic

Honda Civic headlight unit replacement: MOT fails on these items more often than other cars of the same age

At MOT, the Honda Civic fails on items fixed by headlight unit replacement at least 2.1 times as often as cars of the same ages and fuel. From 1,140,581 MOT tests at 23 ages (3 to 25 years), DVSA data 2022 to 2025.

MOT data updated 28 September 2026

Honda Civic, at least, per 100 MOTs (n=1,140,581)0.71

Cars of the same ages and fuel, per 100 MOTs0.34

Times as often≥ 2.1

Ages compared23

What this shows

These are MOT fail items that headlight unit replacement fixes, as testers found them on the day of the test. Repairs done between MOTs never show up in MOT data, and mileage is not taken into account, so this is not how often owners pay for the repair.

By age

Fail items fixed by headlight unit replacement, per 100 MOT tests, against cars of the same age and the same fuel mix. The model figure is a floor: DVSA data lists each model’s 25 most recorded items per age, and an item outside that list is counted as zero. The comparison figure is a ceiling: an item too rare to be listed for a fuel is counted at its highest possible value.

Honda Civic: ages with at least 1,000 tests.
Age	Honda Civic per 100	Same age and fuel per 100	Tests (n)
3 years	0	0.004	25,317
4 years	0	0.004	37,328
5 years	0	0.005	46,919
6 years	0	0.006	57,431
7 years	0	0.008	59,711
8 years	0	0.010	60,576
9 years	0	0.015	61,332
10 years	0	0.022	58,492
11 years	0	0.037	54,791
12 years	0	0.066	57,965
13 years	0	0.11	63,504
14 years	0.96	0.18	74,100
15 years	1.39	0.32	88,735
16 years	1.64	0.53	86,175
17 years	1.78	0.79	76,146
18 years	1.81	0.99	62,744
19 years	1.61	1.08	47,645
20 years	1.33	1.05	40,289
21 years	1.48	0.94	31,448
22 years	1.52	0.84	21,226
23 years	1.48	0.69	14,519
24 years	0	0.49	8,811
25 years	0	0.33	5,377

How we decide: a page exists only when the main generation’s rate, weighted to its own mix of ages and fuels, is at least 1.5 times the rate of cars of the same ages and fuel, from at least 50,000 tests at 3 or more ages, with at least 100 expected items.

Read this with care. A fail rate is not a measure of build quality. How far cars are driven, how they are used and how well owners maintain them all change it, and wear items such as tyres and brake pads are common fails. Compare a model only with cars of the same age. Methodology and limits.

What garages charge

Prices are national. They are not specific to the Honda Civic.

No public source records the price of this whole job, and the time it takes varies from car to car, so we do not publish a single figure. Garages charge by the hour, so ask for a quote that lists labour time and parts. The rates below are what UK garages charge per hour.

Local garage labour, per hour (65 shops)£78

Local garage, middle half£70 to £96

Main dealer labour, per hour (62 shops)£156

Main dealer, middle half£144 to £174

Median hourly rate charged for car repairs, from 1,058 local garage and 953 main dealer price quotes collected by the ONS, September 2025 to August 2026. The same shops are priced each month, so the number of shops is the real sample.

Headlight unit replacement: garage rates and all models

MOT defects this repair fixes

Headlamp lens seriously defective0.15 per 100, all cars

Other models that fail on these items more often

Model	Times as often	Tests (n)
Mazda 2	at least 3.2	509,644
Nissan Note	at least 2.3	620,623
Honda Accord	at least 2.1	111,371
Mitsubishi Outlander	at least 1.9	305,188
Toyota Yaris	at least 1.8	1,812,318
Ford C-Max	at least 1.8	527,219
Honda CR-V	at least 1.7	806,907
Honda Jazz	at least 1.6	1,350,206
Toyota Corollafirst used before 2019	at least 1.6	238,334
Ford Fusion	at least 1.5	220,682

Looking at a Honda Civic?

These figures describe all cars, not any one car. Found one you might buy? See what the VetTheCar Buying Report would tell you.

See an example report MOT fail rates by model All free tools

Source

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data, class 4 normal MOT tests, 2022 to 2025, and the MOT inspection manual published on GOV.UK. Prices: ONS consumer price inflation price quotes, September 2025 to August 2026, UK.

MOT data updated 28 September 2026. Prices updated 22 September 2026.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by DVSA or the Office for National Statistics. How we calculate these figures · Data sources