Pass rate
90.1%
Above average — 17.6 pts ahead of the 72.5% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 3,461 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £42–£134
2006 Bentley Continental MOT pass rate
- 2006
- typical 61,140 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
28.3% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 97.2% pass
- Avoid 2004 89.2% pass
Across the 21 years on record, a spread of 8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 89.4%
- Typical mileage
- 61k mi
The 2006 Bentley Continental MOT pass rate is 90.1% of its MOT tests — 17.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 28.3% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Brakes: 1.4× the national share
Brakes make up 28.3% of everything recorded on the 2006 Bentley Continental, against 20.9% nationally — 7.4 points above. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.
- 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 72.5% and this one manages 90.1% — 17.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
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 Bentley Continental? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2006 Bentley Continental compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.5%, so this figure is 17.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 89.4%. The median 2006 Bentley Continental in this dataset had covered 61,140 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 90.2% of the time, April–September 90.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction", noted on 2.20% of tests.
- 3,461 recorded tests behind this page.
- 90.1% overall pass rate, 89.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Bentley Continental, the average is 93.1% — best year 2022 (97.2%), worst 2004 (89.2%).
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
- 3,461
- Typical mileage (median)
- 61,140 mi
- Make and model
- Bentley Continental
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Indicator Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Continental MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 77% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Bentley Continental is most common
Across all Continental model years on record (2000–2022): 23,629 Bentley Continental cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 42,935 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 898 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) | 898 | 94.5% |
| 2 | Warrington (WA) | 783 | 93.9% |
| 3 | Kingston upon Thames (KT) | 740 | 92.9% |
| 4 | Leicester (LE) | 696 | 94.5% |
| 5 | Chelmsford (CM) | 678 | 93.5% |
| 6 | London (SW) | 641 | 89.7% |
| 7 | Leeds (LS) | 577 | 97.5% |
| 8 | Crawley (RH) | 575 | 93.8% |
| 9 | Ashford (TN) | 525 | 93.4% |
| 10 | Enfield (EN) | 456 | 96.5% |
| 11 | High Wycombe (HP) | 430 | 94.7% |
| 12 | Southampton (SO) | 416 | 90.7% |
| 13 | Bristol (BS) | 416 | 93.2% |
| 14 | Reading (RG) | 410 | 94.7% |
| 15 | Peterborough (PE) | 392 | 94.8% |
| 16 | Gloucester (GL) | 384 | 93.9% |
| 17 | Derby (DE) | 382 | 93.6% |
| 18 | Sheffield (S) | 369 | 94.9% |
| 19 | St Albans (AL) | 362 | 94.0% |
| 20 | London (NW) | 322 | 92.6% |
The twenty areas with the most Bentley Continental 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 Continental
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 954 | 90.1% |
| East of England | 451 | 90.5% |
| West Midlands | 350 | 87.7% |
| North West | 274 | 90.9% |
| South West | 266 | 89.1% |
| Yorkshire | 259 | 93.1% |
| London | 249 | 89.2% |
| East Midlands | 246 | 90.2% |
| Scotland | 200 | 90.5% |
| North East | 109 | 90.8% |
| Wales | 103 | 89.3% |
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 2006 Continental
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 2006 Continental
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 2.2% 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 1.4% 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 exhaust and emissions 0.9% of tests
“catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits”
Listen for a blow at idle and have someone rev it gently. Then look at the tailpipe smoke: blue is oil, white when warm is coolant, black is over-fuelling. Any of those and the emissions test is the least of it.
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 2006 Continental through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £42–£134 — and 36% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £42–£134
- 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
- 40%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 36%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 3,461 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 Continental, side by side
21 model years on record, from 2000 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 89.2% to 97.2% — a spread of 8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 91.5% battery(ies) insecure but not…
- 2001 96.1% headlamp not working on dipped…
- 2004 89.2% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2005 90.2% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2006 90.1%malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2007 92.1% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2008 91.4% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2009 93.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 91.6% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2011 92.1% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2012 93.4% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2013 93.9% reversing lamps inoperative
- 2014 94.9% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2015 95.6% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2016 95.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 96.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2018 96.1% has a bulge, caused by separation…
- 2019 96.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 96.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2021 95.5% has a bulge, caused by separation…
- 2022 97.2% 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 2006 Bentley Continental 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 2006 cars with a similar record
- Porsche 911 88.6%
- Aston Martin V8 Vantage 91.8%
- Porsche Boxster 85.8%
- Mercedes-Benz Sl 85.4%
- Porsche Cayman 83.8%
- Mercedes-Benz S-Class 83.6%
Closest pass rates among 2006 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 2006 Bentley Continental 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 2,552 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | 737 | 28.30% | 20.89% | +7.41 |
| Tyres | 609 | 23.40% | 19.76% | +3.64 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 306 | 11.80% | 12.21% | −0.41 |
| Suspension | 298 | 11.40% | 20.98% | −9.58 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 235 | 9.00% | 5.52% | +3.48 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 118 | 4.50% | 5.57% | −1.07 |
| Visibility | 100 | 3.80% | 4.97% | −1.17 |
| Non-component advisories | 66 | 2.50% | 4.18% | −1.68 |
| Steering | 44 | 1.70% | 2.57% | −0.87 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 39 | 1.50% | 1.76% | −0.26 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.2% | £3–12 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 1.5% | £80–250 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.4% | £80–200 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.2% | £45–95 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.2% | £5–20 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.92% | £60–250 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 0.81% | £40–150 |
| Side repeaters with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.78% | £3–15 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds default limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.69% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.66% | £60–250 |
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 | 9.3% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 6.0% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 5.7% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 4.0% | £40–150 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 3.8% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 1.6% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 368 | 95.4% | 20,351 mi |
| 30-60k | 1,296 | 92.4% | 46,058 mi |
| 60-90k | 1,242 | 87.2% | 73,338 mi |
| 90-120k | 441 | 88.2% | 102,587 mi |
| 120k+ | 112 | 85.7% | 138,756 mi |
Source: 3,461 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.
2006 Continental MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2006 Bentley Continental?
90.1% of the 3,461 2006 Bentley Continental tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.5% for cars first used in 2006. First-attempt pass rate: 89.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2006 Bentley Continental?
The three most recorded items are malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (2.20%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (1.53%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.39%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2006 Bentley Continental MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 95.4% of the time, falling to 85.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2006 Bentley Continental in this dataset had covered 61,140 mi.
Does the season affect the 2006 Bentley Continental MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 90.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 90.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.