Ford has defended the Transit Connect’s record after the BBC revealed it had the highest MoT failure rate for cars and vans.

For vehicles first used in 2004, the van had the highest failure rate at 30.5%, followed by the Renault Megane at 28.1% and the Ford Transit at 26.3%. The Toyota Corolla had the lowest failure rate with just 11.2%.

However, the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency had resisted publishing the data, saying it might be confusing.

Ford was similarly critical, saying there were some “misleading factors and crucial bits of information missing”.

“The MoT is an annual roadworthiness test and takes no account of how and when the owner maintains and services the vehicle,” explained a Ford spokesman. “It also takes no account of mileage and as we are very predominant in the fleet sector, especially with Transit we see very high mileages on these vehicles.

“You also have to remember that Transits are work vehicles and so there is no personal attachment between the driver and the vehicle which there often is between drivers who own their vehicle.”

He added: “We track our vehicles very accurately to see how they perform in the real world and we benchmark this against how other manufacturers’ vehicles are performing and we know ours are performing extremely well. The Transit wouldn’t still be the country’s favourite van if they didn’t.”

The MoT data relates to tests carried out in 2007 and was obtained after a Freedom of Information request from the BBC.

However, VOSA had also argued that publication would breach the commercial confidentiality of the manufacturers.

But publication was ordered by the Information Commissioner in December, who said that disclosure of the information was in the public interest.