Pass rate
88.3%
Above average — 15.0 pts ahead of the 73.3% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 282 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £41–£117
2001 Audi RS4 MOT pass rate
- 2001
- 2 trims combined
- typical 112,733 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
23.3% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2012 92.2% pass
- Avoid 2008 84.3% pass
Across the 9 years on record, a spread of 7.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 87.8%
- Typical mileage
- 113k mi
The 2001 Audi RS4 MOT pass rate is 88.3% of its MOT tests — 15.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 23.3% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Body & chassis: 2.2× the national share
Body & chassis accounts for 12.1% of everything recorded on the 2001 Audi Rs4, against 5.6% nationally — 6.5 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 23.3%, but at 21.0% nationally that one is ordinary. Look underneath for corrosion near the jacking points and suspension mounts; surface rust is normal, flaking metal is not.
- 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 73.3% and this one manages 88.3% — 15.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Based on a small sample. 282 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 RS4? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Audi RS4 first registered in 2001 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2001 Audi RS4 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.3%, so this figure is 15.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 87.8%. The median 2001 Audi RS4 in this dataset had covered 112,733 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 89.6% of the time, April–September 87.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Position lamp not working", noted on 3.55% of tests.
- 282 recorded tests behind this page.
- 88.3% overall pass rate, 87.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Audi RS4, the average is 87.3% — best year 2012 (92.2%), worst 2008 (84.3%).
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
- 282
- Typical mileage (median)
- 112,733 mi
- Make and model
- Audi RS4
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Headlight Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the RS4 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 75% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Audi RS4 is most common
Across all RS4 model years on record (2000–2015): 2,238 Audi RS4 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 4,382 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 90 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) | 90 | 96.3% |
| 2 | Guildford (GU) | 75 | 85.3% |
| 3 | Bradford (BD) | 72 | 93.1% |
| 4 | Reading (RG) | 52 | 84.3% |
| 5 | Crawley (RH) | 49 | 88.9% |
| 6 | Aberdeen (AB) | 46 | 83.9% |
| 7 | Slough (SL) | 46 | 91.3% |
| 8 | Sheffield (S) | 39 | 88.9% |
| 9 | Northampton (NN) | 38 | 89.4% |
| 10 | Oxford (OX) | 38 | 90.0% |
| 11 | Luton (LU) | 37 | 96.8% |
| 12 | High Wycombe (HP) | 35 | 90.9% |
| 13 | Ashford (TN) | 35 | 87.0% |
| 14 | Leeds (LS) | 34 | 81.7% |
| 15 | Nottingham (NG) | 31 | 91.8% |
| 16 | Chelmsford (CM) | 30 | 84.4% |
| 17 | Chester (CH) | 29 | 91.4% |
| 18 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 29 | 94.2% |
| 19 | Colchester (CO) | 28 | 93.2% |
| 20 | Hounslow (TW) | 28 | 84.5% |
The twenty areas with the most Audi RS4 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 RS4
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 77 | 92.2% |
| East of England | 40 | 92.5% |
| Yorkshire | 34 | 85.3% |
| Scotland | 25 | 76.0% |
| North West | 24 | 91.7% |
| West Midlands | 22 | 86.4% |
| South West | 22 | 81.8% |
| East Midlands | 17 | 88.2% |
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 2001 RS4
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 2001 RS4
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 lights 3.5% of tests
“position lamp not working”
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 2.8% 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 coil springs 2.5% 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.
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 2001 RS4 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £41–£117 — and 39% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £41–£117
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp with a multiple light source up to…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot split or…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 39%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 282 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 RS4, side by side
9 model years on record, from 2000 to 2015. Across them the pass rate runs from 84.3% to 92.2% — a spread of 7.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 89.9% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2001 88.3%position lamp not working
- 2006 86.4% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2007 85.4% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2008 84.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 92.2% headlamp not working on dipped…
- 2013 89.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2014 90.6% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2015 89.3% has a cut in excess of the…
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 2001 Audi RS4 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 2001 cars with a similar record
- Porsche 911 86.3%
- Jaguar XK8 80.6%
- Porsche Boxster 80.5%
- Mercedes-Benz Slk 80.3%
- BMW Z3 79.5%
- Subaru Impreza 79.3%
Closest pass rates among 2001 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 2001 Audi RS4 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 348 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 | 83 | 23.30% | 20.98% | +2.32 |
| Brakes | 81 | 22.80% | 20.89% | +1.91 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 51 | 14.30% | 12.21% | +2.09 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 43 | 12.10% | 5.57% | +6.53 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 31 | 8.70% | 5.52% | +3.18 |
| Tyres | 27 | 7.60% | 19.76% | −12.16 |
| Visibility | 14 | 3.90% | 4.97% | −1.07 |
| Non-component advisories | 7 | 2.00% | 4.18% | −2.18 |
| Road Wheels | 6 | 1.70% | 0.75% | +0.95 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 5 | 1.40% | 0.82% | +0.58 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.5% | £5–25 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 2.8% | £80–250 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.8% | £80–200 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 2.5% | £25–65 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 2.5% | £80–250 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.1% | £5–20 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 1.8% | £45–110 |
| Stop lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.8% | £3–12 |
| Headlamp levelling device inoperative Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.4% | £5–25 |
| Parking brake performance inoperative on one side Brakes | Major | 1.4% | £60–150 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 8.5% | £45–110 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 6.7% | £40–150 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 6.4% | £180–450 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 6.0% | £200–700 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 4.6% | £45–95 |
| Exhaust system system insecure Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 4.3% | £45–120 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 6 | 100.0% | 16,587 mi |
| 30-60k | 4 | 100.0% | 59,785 mi |
| 60-90k | 57 | 96.5% | 79,514 mi |
| 90-120k | 101 | 88.1% | 105,066 mi |
| 120k+ | 114 | 83.3% | 155,159 mi |
Source: 282 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.
2001 RS4 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2001 Audi RS4?
88.3% of the 282 2001 Audi RS4 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.3% for cars first used in 2001. First-attempt pass rate: 87.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2001 Audi RS4?
The three most recorded items are position lamp not working (3.55%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (2.84%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.84%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2001 Audi RS4 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 83.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2001 Audi RS4 in this dataset had covered 112,733 mi.
Does the season affect the 2001 Audi RS4 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 89.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 87.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.