Pass rate
94.4%
Above average — 3.7 pts ahead of the 90.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 54 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £112–£272
2020 Audi S8 MOT pass rate
- 2020
- typical 26,506 mi
Only 54 tests of this exact model and year are in the DVSA data, below the 100 we ask for before a page goes in the index. The figures are still shown, because they are the only ones there are.
Most common fault
Tyres
70.0% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2020 94.4% pass · this year
- Avoid 2002 78.8% pass
Across the 5 years on record, a spread of 15.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 94.1%
- Typical mileage
- 27k mi
The 2020 Audi S8 MOT pass rate is 94.4% of its MOT tests — 3.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 70.0% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Audi S8 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 3.5× the national share
Tyres make up 70.0% of everything recorded on the 2020 Audi S8, against 19.8% nationally — 50.2 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.
- 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 90.7% and this one manages 94.4% — 3.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 0% 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 S8? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2020 Audi S8 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 90.7%, so this figure is 3.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 94.1%. The median 2020 Audi S8 in this dataset had covered 26,506 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Chassis condition is fractured and structural rigidity is significantly reduced", noted on 1.85% of tests.
- 54 recorded tests behind this page.
- 94.4% overall pass rate, 94.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Audi S8, the average is 86.0% — best year 2020 (94.4%), worst 2002 (78.8%).
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
- 54
- Typical mileage (median)
- 26,506 mi
- Make and model
- Audi S8
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Corrosion Welding Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the S8 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 83% so small gaps stay visible.
What fails a 2020 S8
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 2020 S8
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 corrosion 1.9% of tests
“chassis condition is fractured and structural rigidity is significantly reduced”
Look under the sills, around the jacking points and where the suspension mounts meet the body. Flaking, holed or crumbly metal fails; a brown stain on sound metal does not.
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 2020 S8 through its MOT
Across the 2 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £112–£272 — and 0% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 2 common items
- £112–£272
- Cheapest common item: has a cut in excess of the requirements deep…
- £45–£95
- Dearest common item: chassis condition is fractured
- £180–£450
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 0%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 54 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 S8, side by side
5 model years on record, from 2002 to 2020. Across them the pass rate runs from 78.8% to 94.4% — a spread of 15.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2002 78.8% position lamp with a multiple…
- 2006 90.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2007 82.7% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2008 88.9% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2020 94.4%chassis condition is fractured…
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 2020 Audi S8 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 2020 cars with a similar record
- SEAT Ateca Xperience 94.4%
- Mazda Cx-30 94.3%
- Volvo XC40 R-Design B4 94.3%
- Volvo XC40 Inscription B4 94.6%
- Toyota YARIS 94.1%
- Jaguar I-Pace 94.1%
Closest pass rates among 2020 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 2020 Audi S8 2 failure items · 5 advisories · 4 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 10 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 | 7 | 70.00% | 19.76% | +50.24 |
| Brakes | 1 | 10.00% | 20.89% | −10.89 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1 | 10.00% | 5.57% | +4.43 |
| Non-component advisories | 1 | 10.00% | 4.18% | +5.82 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chassis condition is fractured and structural rigidity is significantly reduced Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.9% | £180–450 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.9% | £45–95 |
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 cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 3.7% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 1.9% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 1.9% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.9% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 35 | 91.4% | 19,301 mi |
| 30-60k | 19 | 100.0% | 40,413 mi |
Source: 54 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.
2020 S8 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2020 Audi S8?
94.4% of the 54 2020 Audi S8 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 90.7% for cars first used in 2020. First-attempt pass rate: 94.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2020 Audi S8?
The three most recorded items are chassis condition is fractured and structural rigidity is significantly reduced (1.85%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.85%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2020 Audi S8 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.4% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2020 Audi S8 in this dataset had covered 26,506 mi.