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2017 Audi S5 MOT pass rate

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Pass rate

92.6%

Above average — 6.6 pts ahead of the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.

Across 135 recorded tests.

Typical repair bill £42–£107

Which year to buy

  • Best 2017 92.6% pass · this year
  • Avoid 2007 80.8% pass

Across the 13 years on record, a spread of 11.8 points. See every year →

First-attempt pass
92.1%
Typical mileage
56k mi

The 2017 Audi S5 MOT pass rate is 92.6% of its MOT tests — 6.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 36.0% of what testers record.

MOT PASS RATES

The 2017 Audi S5 on the real record

92.6% of 2017 Audi S5 MOTs passed — 135 tests, 2023–2025

Pass rate

The answer from the DVSA's class-4 MOT records.

Expert verdict

Tyres: 1.8× the national share

Tyres make up 36.0% of everything recorded on the 2017 Audi S5, against 19.8% nationally — 16.2 points above. Check all four tyres yourself, including the inner shoulders, and look at the date stamp — a tyre can pass on tread and still be six years old.

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 S5? Get an email when these numbers change .

Every Audi S5 first registered in 2017 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.

How does the 2017 Audi S5 compare?

Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 6.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 92.1%. The median 2017 Audi S5 in this dataset had covered 55,607 mi.

Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 94.7% of the time, April–September 91.0%.

The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 2.96% of tests.

  • 135 recorded tests behind this page.
  • 92.6% overall pass rate, 92.1% on a first attempt.
  • Across every year of the Audi S5, the average is 85.9% — best year 2017 (92.6%), worst 2007 (80.8%).

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
135
Typical mileage (median)
55,607 mi
Make and model
Audi S5
Updated
2026-11-07

Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.

Top part to budget for

Windscreen

Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.

Does mileage affect the S5 MOT pass rate?

0-30k 93.3%
30-60k 91.0%
60-90k 93.5%
90-120k 100.0%

Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 83% so small gaps stay visible.

Where the Audi S5 is most common

Across all S5 model years on record (2007–2022): 3,499 Audi S5 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 6,410 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 105 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 Share of all Tests Pass rate
1 Birmingham (B) 105 3% 157 91.7%
2 Chelmsford (CM) 76 2.2% 142 88.0%
3 Reading (RG) 69 2% 140 88.6%
4 Glasgow (G) 66 1.9% 126 84.9%
5 Peterborough (PE) 63 1.8% 113 87.6%
6 Crawley (RH) 61 1.7% 118 84.7%
7 Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) 59 1.7% 115 85.2%
8 Sheffield (S) 58 1.7% 102 90.2%
9 Aberdeen (AB) 54 1.5% 133 81.2%
10 Nottingham (NG) 54 1.5% 103 87.4%
11 Leicester (LE) 54 1.5% 93 81.7%
12 Ashford (TN) 52 1.5% 124 80.6%
13 Derby (DE) 52 1.5% 86 86.0%
14 Coventry (CV) 51 1.5% 81 86.4%
15 Guildford (GU) 50 1.4% 103 93.2%
16 High Wycombe (HP) 49 1.4% 90 86.7%
17 Slough (SL) 49 1.4% 87 87.4%
18 Bristol (BS) 48 1.4% 117 76.1%
19 Northampton (NN) 48 1.4% 93 83.9%
20 Norwich (NR) 46 1.3% 101 82.2%

The twenty areas with the most Audi S5 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 S5

Region Tests Pass rate
East of England 33 84.8%
South East 26 100.0%
North West 20 90.0%

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 2017 S5

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.

Tyres 36.0%
+16.2 pts vs national national 19.8% Compare tyre prices
Suspension 21.0%
in line with the national share national 21.0% Price suspension parts
Brakes 20.0%
−0.9 pts vs national national 20.9% Price brakes parts
Advisories 7.0%
+2.8 pts vs national national 4.2% Price advisories parts
Show the other 6 fault categories
  • Visibility 5.0%
  • Lamps & electrics 4.0%
  • Emissions & leaks 3.0%
  • Road wheels 2.0%
  • Identification 1.0%
  • Seat belts 1.0%

Shares are of every item recorded on 2017 Audi S5 tests — a composition, so they add to 100% across all sections, not per test.

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 2017 S5

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.

  1. Check the windscreen 3.0% 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.

  2. Check the coil springs 2.2% 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.

  3. Check the lights 1.5% of tests

    “registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”

    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.

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 2017 S5 through its MOT

Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £42–£107 — and 16% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.

Average repair across the 10 common items
£42–£107
Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
£3–£12
Dearest common item: emissions not tested unable to be completed
£60–£250
Common items a careful owner can do at home
60%
Repairs that still cost under £30
16%

Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 135 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 S5, side by side

13 model years on record, from 2007 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 80.8% to 92.6% — a spread of 11.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.

  1. 2007 80.8% pins and bushes pin or bush…
  2. 2008 82.5% coil spring fractured or broken
  3. 2009 83.5% coil spring fractured or broken
  4. 2010 84.0% coil spring fractured or broken
  5. 2011 85.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
  6. 2012 86.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
  7. 2013 86.4% has ply or cords exposed
  8. 2014 88.7% windscreen damaged but not…
  9. 2017 92.6%
    windscreen damaged but not…
  10. 2018 92.2% windscreen damaged but not…
  11. 2020 88.6% has a cut in excess of the…
  12. 2021 90.8% has a cut in excess of the…
  13. 2022 92.5% 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 2017 Audi S5 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.

Compare 2017 with another year →

Compare two different cars instead →

Other 2017 cars with a similar record

Closest pass rates among 2017 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 2017 Audi S5 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 100 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
Tyres 36 36.00% 19.76% +16.24
Suspension 21 21.00% 20.98% +0.02
Brakes 20 20.00% 20.89% −0.89
Non-component advisories 7 7.00% 4.18% +2.82
Visibility 5 5.00% 4.97% +0.03
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 4 4.00% 12.21% −8.21
Noise, emissions and leaks 3 3.00% 5.52% −2.52
Road Wheels 2 2.00% 0.75% +1.25
Identification of the vehicle 1 1.00% 1.76% −0.76
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems 1 1.00% 0.82% +0.18

The exact failure items, in the tester's words

Share of the 135 tests on this vehicle that recorded each item
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost Part
Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility Minor 3.0% £80–200 Windscreen →
Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension Major 2.2% £25–65 Coil Spring →
Has ply or cords exposed Tyres Major 2.2% £45–95 Tyres →
Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres Major 1.5% £45–95 Tyres →
Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Minor 1.5% £5–20 Number Plate Lamp →
Emissions not tested unable to be completed Noise, emissions and leaks Major 0.74% £60–250 Emissions Repair →
Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres Major 0.74% £45–95 Tyres →
Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Rectified 0.74% £30–80 Headlight Alignment →
Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Rectified 0.74% £30–80 Headlight Alignment →
Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks Major 0.74% £3–12 Indicator Bulb →

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.

Items recorded as advisory on this vehicle
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres Advisory 8.9% £45–95
Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres Advisory 7.4% £45–95
Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes Advisory 6.7% £18–45
Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension Advisory 6.7% £40–150
Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes Advisory 4.4% £45–110
Mounting corroded and seriously weakened Suspension Advisory 4.4% £180–450

Pass rate by mileage

Mileage Tests Pass rate Median odometer
0-30k 15 93.3% 22,162 mi
30-60k 67 91.0% 48,342 mi
60-90k 46 93.5% 73,878 mi
90-120k 7 100.0% 98,430 mi

Source: 135 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.

2017 S5 MOT questions

What is the MOT pass rate for a 2017 Audi S5?

92.6% of the 135 2017 Audi S5 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 92.1%.

What are the most common MOT failures on a 2017 Audi S5?

The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.96%), coil spring fractured or broken (2.22%), has ply or cords exposed (2.22%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.

Does mileage affect the 2017 Audi S5 MOT pass rate?

Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.3% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 Audi S5 in this dataset had covered 55,607 mi.

Does the season affect the 2017 Audi S5 MOT pass rate?

Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 94.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 91.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.