Makes / Volkswagen / 412
412
Volkswagen · on record 1994 to 2025
The Volkswagen 412 belongs to an earlier naming era, when model numbers often described engine size, market position or a factory series rather than a modern family name. These Type 4 models were Volkswagen's largest air cooled passenger cars, offered as saloons and estates with rear engines before the company moved to the front drive Passat era. A surviving 412 is now chiefly a historic vehicle, sustained by restoration, club knowledge and owners prepared to maintain machinery far beyond its original everyday life.
GROWING
Red List classification, from population, five year trajectory and survival against peak. Reviewed each census.
49
licensed vehicles
2025 census
2025 census
40.2% of the peak fleet remains licensed
25
declared SORN
total surviving
peak 122 in 1994 · +1 vehicles a year, five year trend
Population history
Licensed and SORN vehicles at each census. The filters below apply to the family population, MOT and registration figures. They do not alter the generation history above.
Licensed
SORN
Latest census observation
Inside the surviving fleet
AutoCensus parses every DVLA variant description, so the fleet can be read by fuel and specification rather than as one number.
First registrations by year
When surviving examples first joined the British fleet.
Recent UK first registrations
This family is no longer sold new. These figures are imports and historic vehicles joining the British register for the first time.
MOT reliability
DVSA test results for this family, 2013 to 2025.
Pass rate by year
| Failure reason | Failures | Share of all tests |
|---|---|---|
| Windscreen or window damaged or seriously discoloured but not adversely affecting driver's view | 6 | 5.2% |
| A wiper blade insecure, missing or in such a condition that it does not clear the windscreen effectively to give the driver an adequate view of the road (through the windscreen) to the left and right sides of the vehicle, as well as to the front | 6 | 5.2% |
| Emissions levels exceed default limits | 4 | 3.4% |
| Brake pipe damaged or excessively corroded | 4 | 3.4% |
| The strength or continuity of the load bearing structure within 30cm of any seat belt anchorage (a 'prescribed area') is significantly reduced or inadequately repaired | 4 | 3.4% |
| A tyre valve seriously damaged or misaligned likely to cause sudden deflation of the tyre | 3 | 2.6% |
| A wheel bearing with excessive play | 3 | 2.6% |
| Significant braking effort recorded on a road wheel, even though the brake is not applied, indicating that a brake is binding | 3 | 2.6% |
Counted across every recorded test, 2013 to 2025. Advisories are excluded.
Where the 412 remains
Based on MOT test locations, 2025. Test location is a proxy: a vehicle is counted where it was last tested, not where it is kept.
| Postcode area | Vehicles tested | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| LE | 2 | 50% |
| LA | 1 | 100% |
| TN | 1 | 100% |
| CB | 1 | 100% |
How this record was calculated
LATEST CENSUS2025
POPULATION SOURCEDVLA VEH0220 annual
HISTORY SOURCEDVLA VEH0120 GB · to 2013
MOT SOURCEDVSA results · to 2025
FAMILY DEFINITIONVOLKSWAGEN 412
PROCESSED20 Sep 2026
Full methodology
Population history combines DVLA VEH0120 Q4 census observations through 2013 with the annual VEH0220 census from 2014 onward. Figures before 2014 cover Great Britain only. Historical VEH0120 is used only when its overlapping UK observations reconcile to the current canonical family definition. Vehicles are grouped into this family using the DVLA GenModel together with durable routing rules for known inconsistencies.
Variant figures are parsed from raw DVLA model descriptions and the original string is always retained. Configuration is only assigned where the model description explicitly identifies it; a blank configuration is not treated as a two door Wrangler. Blank transmission fields are shown as manual because DVLA records the field for automatic vehicles.
MOT figures count tests, not vehicles, and geographic figures count each vehicle at its most recent test location. The decline projection is a straight line fitted to the latest five years and is illustrative only.