Pass rate
90.0%
Above average — 17.8 pts ahead of the 72.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 231 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £20–£53
2004 Aston Martin Vanquish MOT pass rate
- 2004
- typical 26,193 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
25.9% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2018 98.3% pass
- Avoid 2001 86.2% pass
Across the 15 years on record, a spread of 12.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 89.4%
- Typical mileage
- 26k mi
The 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish MOT pass rate is 90.0% of its MOT tests — 17.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 25.9% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Aston Martin Vanquish does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Steering: 3.0× the national share
Steering accounts for 7.7% of everything recorded on the 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish, against 2.6% nationally — 5.1 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 25.9%, but at 21.0% nationally that one is ordinary. Ask for the steering to be checked for play with the wheels on the ground, not on a jack.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 72.2% and this one manages 90.0% — 17.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 21% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
Written from this page's own figures: fault shares against the national composition, the like-for-like pass rate, and the priced repair list. How these are worked out
Watching a Aston Martin Vanquish? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.2%, so this figure is 17.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 89.4%. The median 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish in this dataset had covered 26,193 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 87.6% of the time, April–September 91.5%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt", noted on 2.60% of tests.
- 231 recorded tests behind this page.
- 90.0% overall pass rate, 89.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Aston Martin Vanquish, the average is 94.1% — best year 2018 (98.3%), worst 2001 (86.2%).
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
This page's data
- Tests analysed
- 231
- Typical mileage (median)
- 26,193 mi
- Make and model
- Aston Martin Vanquish
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Vanquish MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 79% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Vanquish
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 101 | 86.1% |
| South West | 27 | 88.9% |
| East Midlands | 22 | 86.4% |
| East of England | 20 | 95.0% |
| West Midlands | 17 | 100.0% |
Regions come from the postcode area recorded at the test station. Areas on region borders are assigned to the region with the majority of their population.
What fails a 2004 Vanquish
Everything a tester recorded on this vehicle, grouped into the inspection sections that produced it. The notch on each bar is the national share, so you can see at a glance whether this car is unusual or just ordinary.
A test can record several items, so these percentages do not add up to 100%. The exact strings, with prices, are in the full DVSA record at the bottom of this page.
Before your test
Three checks worth doing on a 2004 Vanquish
These are not generic tips — they are the faults recorded most often on this exact model, rewritten as things you can check yourself. All three take about ten minutes and cost nothing.
-
Check the suspension joints 2.6% of tests
“linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt”
With the car parked on level ground, rock the top of each front wheel in and out while someone watches the suspension arm. Clunks, or rubber boots split and greasy, are what testers record here.
-
Check the lights 2.6% of tests
“malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction”
Switch everything on and walk round the car: both headlamps on dip and main, every indicator, both brake lights, reverse, fog and the two number-plate lamps. A bulb is a few pounds and a five-minute job.
-
Check the windscreen 1.3% of tests
“windscreen damaged”
Check the driver’s side of the screen within the swept area for chips and cracks; anything larger than 10mm in the driver’s central view is a fail. Most chips can be resin-repaired for far less than a new screen.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
What it costs to get a 2004 Vanquish through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £20–£53 — and 21% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £20–£53
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 21%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 231 MOT tests on this vehicle. They exclude diagnostics, retest fees and garage labour where the part is a DIY fit, and they are not figures from the DVSA dataset. Older and higher-mileage examples cost more than the average. How these estimates are built → · All MOT repair costs → · Cheapest cars to put through a test →
Every year of the Vanquish, side by side
15 model years on record, from 2001 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 86.2% to 98.3% — a spread of 12.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2001 86.2% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2002 90.5% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2003 89.4% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2004 90.0%linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2005 92.3% ball joint dust cover no longer…
- 2006 87.4% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2007 89.8% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2012 91.9% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 95.6% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2014 95.5% rbt (sp) efficiency less than 50%…
- 2015 96.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 95.2% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2017 95.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 98.3% headlamp aim too high
- 2019 97.8% headlamp aim too high
Colour is the pass rate on a fixed scale, so a block means the same thing on any model. Each year links to its own page with the full fault breakdown.
Compare the 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish with another year
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Other 2004 cars with a similar record
- Bentley Continental 89.2%
- BMW M3 88.2%
- Porsche 911 87.2%
- Mercedes-Benz Sl 86.7%
- Honda S2000 86.7%
- Mercedes-Benz S-Class 83.1%
Closest pass rates among 2004 cars with at least 2,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. See the full rankings: best and worst MOT pass rates.
The full DVSA record for the 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 10 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 142 individual items recorded on this vehicle, and the same share across all cars nationally. A single test can record several items, so a row is not a percentage of tests.
| Category | Items | This car | Nationally | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 37 | 25.90% | 20.98% | +4.92 |
| Tyres | 27 | 18.90% | 19.76% | −0.86 |
| Brakes | 19 | 13.30% | 20.89% | −7.59 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 16 | 11.20% | 12.21% | −1.01 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 14 | 9.80% | 5.52% | +4.28 |
| Steering | 11 | 7.70% | 2.57% | +5.13 |
| Visibility | 7 | 4.90% | 4.97% | −0.07 |
| Non-component advisories | 5 | 3.50% | 4.18% | −0.68 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 4 | 2.80% | 1.76% | +1.04 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 2 | 1.40% | 5.57% | −4.17 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 2.6% | £18–45 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.6% | £3–12 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 2.2% | £18–45 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 2.2% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £18–45 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 1.3% | £18–45 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover excessively damaged or deteriorated so that it no longer prevents the ingress of… Steering | Major | 1.3% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.3% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp aim too far to the left Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.87% | £30–80 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.87% | £5–20 |
Severity is as recorded: Major and Dangerous fail the test outright; Minor and Advisory do not. Costs are estimates from typical UK parts prices — see how they are built.
What testers noted without failing the car
Advisories are the early warnings — the same parts a year or two before they fail. Reading them is how you tell a car that has been maintained from one that has been patched.
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 5.6% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 4.3% | £45–95 |
| Anti-roll bar corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 2.2% | £12–30 |
| Service brake imbalance across an axle Brakes | Advisory | 2.2% | £45–110 |
| Shock absorbers has an excessively worn bush Suspension | Advisory | 2.2% | £30–75 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 1.7% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 138 | 87.7% | 18,762 mi |
| 30-60k | 86 | 93.0% | 41,290 mi |
| 60-90k | 7 | 100.0% | 69,438 mi |
Source: 231 recorded tests on this vehicle-year. Every row above is recomputed from the same DVSA extract as the rest of the page — see the methodology.
2004 Vanquish MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish?
90.0% of the 231 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.2% for cars first used in 2004. First-attempt pass rate: 89.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish?
The three most recorded items are linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (2.60%), malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (2.60%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (2.16%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 87.7% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish in this dataset had covered 26,193 mi.
Does the season affect the 2004 Aston Martin Vanquish MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 87.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 91.5%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.