Pass rate
80.0%
Around average — 6.9 pts ahead of the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 614 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £52–£157
2008 Audi Q5 MOT pass rate
- 2008
- typical 129,404 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
29.9% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £35–£75 for Suspension pin or bush excessively worn. What fitting it takes →
7.7 pts down across model years — 8.3% in 2009, 0.6% in 2020.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 97.0% pass
- Avoid 2009 78.0% pass
Across the 16 years on record, a spread of 19 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 76.0%
- Typical mileage
- 129k mi
The 2008 Audi Q5 MOT pass rate is 80.0% of its MOT tests — 6.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 29.9% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.4× the national share
Suspension accounts for 29.9% of everything recorded on the 2008 Audi Q5, against 21.0% nationally — 8.9 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
- 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 73.1% and this one manages 80.0% — 6.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 15% 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 Audi Q5? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2008 Audi Q5 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, so this figure is 6.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 76.0%. The median 2008 Audi Q5 in this dataset had covered 129,404 mi.
94% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 80.0% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 79.7% of the time, April–September 80.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated", noted on 7.33% of tests.
- 614 recorded tests behind this page.
- 80.0% overall pass rate, 76.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Audi Q5, the average is 87.6% — best year 2023 (97.0%), worst 2009 (78.0%).
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
- 614
- Typical mileage (median)
- 129,404 mi
- Make and model
- Audi Q5
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Body Panel Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Q5 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 71% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (94% of tests).
Where the Audi Q5 is most common
Across all Q5 model years on record (2008–2023): 172,363 Audi Q5 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 358,898 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 4,806 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham (B) | 4,806 | 90.0% |
| 2 | Leicester (LE) | 3,967 | 86.2% |
| 3 | Peterborough (PE) | 3,492 | 89.2% |
| 4 | Reading (RG) | 3,142 | 87.8% |
| 5 | Sheffield (S) | 3,129 | 89.7% |
| 6 | Glasgow (G) | 3,017 | 86.4% |
| 7 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 3,008 | 88.0% |
| 8 | Chelmsford (CM) | 2,897 | 89.3% |
| 9 | Nottingham (NG) | 2,808 | 86.1% |
| 10 | Guildford (GU) | 2,779 | 86.0% |
| 11 | Kingston upon Thames (KT) | 2,522 | 88.9% |
| 12 | High Wycombe (HP) | 2,372 | 89.0% |
| 13 | Coventry (CV) | 2,341 | 88.2% |
| 14 | Manchester (M) | 2,305 | 88.9% |
| 15 | Derby (DE) | 2,229 | 88.6% |
| 16 | Hounslow (TW) | 2,228 | 89.8% |
| 17 | Cardiff (CF) | 2,216 | 86.1% |
| 18 | Ashford (TN) | 2,204 | 87.9% |
| 19 | Aberdeen (AB) | 2,170 | 83.1% |
| 20 | Gloucester (GL) | 2,058 | 86.8% |
The twenty areas with the most Audi Q5 cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
Regional pass rates for the Q5
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 138 | 76.8% |
| South West | 88 | 79.5% |
| East of England | 73 | 86.3% |
| West Midlands | 59 | 78.0% |
| North West | 57 | 78.9% |
| Yorkshire | 47 | 76.6% |
| Scotland | 45 | 75.6% |
| East Midlands | 34 | 91.2% |
| Wales | 32 | 84.4% |
| London | 25 | 80.0% |
| North East | 16 | 81.3% |
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 2008 Q5
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 2008 Q5
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 coil springs 4.2% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
-
Check the windscreen 3.6% 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.
-
Check the suspension joints 3.1% of tests
“ball joint excessively worn”
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.
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 2008 Q5 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £52–£157 — and 15% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £52–£157
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 15%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 614 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 Q5, side by side
16 model years on record, from 2008 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 78.0% to 97.0% — a spread of 19 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2008 80.0%joints constant velocity boot…
- 2009 78.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2010 79.2% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2011 80.8% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2012 83.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2013 85.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2014 86.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 86.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 88.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 86.3% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2018 90.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 92.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 93.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2021 92.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2022 94.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2023 97.0% windscreen damaged but not…
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 2008 Audi Q5 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 2008 cars with a similar record
- Toyota Prius 80.2%
- Nissan Elgrand 80.2%
- Subaru Impreza 79.8%
- Lexus IS220 80.3%
- BMW X5 80.5%
- BMW 520 79.5%
Closest pass rates among 2008 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 2008 Audi Q5 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 1,169 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 | 352 | 29.90% | 20.98% | +8.92 |
| Brakes | 196 | 16.60% | 20.89% | −4.29 |
| Tyres | 193 | 16.40% | 19.76% | −3.36 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 127 | 10.80% | 5.57% | +5.23 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 95 | 8.10% | 12.21% | −4.11 |
| Non-component advisories | 64 | 5.40% | 4.18% | +1.22 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 48 | 4.10% | 5.52% | −1.42 |
| Visibility | 43 | 3.70% | 4.97% | −1.27 |
| Steering | 37 | 3.10% | 2.57% | +0.53 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 14 | 1.20% | 1.76% | −0.56 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 7.3% | £80–250 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 6.2% | £80–250 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 4.2% | £25–65 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.6% | £80–200 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.1% | £18–45 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.8% | £5–20 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.1% | £3–12 |
| Door condition cannot be opened from outside the vehicle Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.6% | £80–250 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.3% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £40–150 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 20.4% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 19.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 12.5% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 7.7% | £45–110 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 7.5% | £18–45 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 6.3% | £180–450 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 15 | 80.0% | 44,302 mi |
| 60-90k | 59 | 81.4% | 76,620 mi |
| 90-120k | 152 | 79.6% | 108,197 mi |
| 120k+ | 387 | 80.1% | 149,400 mi |
Source: 614 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.
2008 Q5 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2008 Audi Q5?
80.0% of the 614 2008 Audi Q5 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 76.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2008 Audi Q5?
The three most recorded items are joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (7.33%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (6.19%), coil spring fractured or broken (4.23%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2008 Audi Q5 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 80.0% of the time, falling to 80.1% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2008 Audi Q5 in this dataset had covered 129,404 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2008 Audi Q5?
Diesel: 80.0% pass rate across 576 tests. Petrol: 78.9% pass rate across 38 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2008 Audi Q5 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 79.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 80.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.