Pass rate
92.5%
Above average — 19.4 pts ahead of the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 53 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £60–£187
2008 Caterham Seven MOT pass rate
- 2008
- typical 21,871 mi
Only 53 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
Suspension
47.5% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £40–£65 for Shock absorber leaking. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2008 92.5% pass · this year
- Avoid 2007 90.3% pass
Across the 3 years on record, a spread of 2.2 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 91.8%
- Typical mileage
- 22k mi
The 2008 Caterham Seven MOT pass rate is 92.5% of its MOT tests — 19.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 47.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Caterham Seven does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 2.3× the national share
Suspension accounts for 47.5% of everything recorded on the 2008 Caterham Seven, against 21.0% nationally — 26.5 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 92.5% — 19.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 9% 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 Caterham Seven? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2008 Caterham Seven compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, so this figure is 19.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 91.8%. The median 2008 Caterham Seven in this dataset had covered 21,871 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt", noted on 3.77% of tests.
- 53 recorded tests behind this page.
- 92.5% overall pass rate, 91.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Caterham Seven, the average is 91.6% — best year 2008 (92.5%), worst 2007 (90.3%).
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
- 53
- Typical mileage (median)
- 21,871 mi
- Make and model
- Caterham Seven
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Steering Rack
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Seven MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 79% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Seven
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 21 | 100.0% |
| South West | 15 | 86.7% |
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 Seven
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 Seven
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 steering 3.8% of tests
“steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt”
With the wheels straight, rock the steering wheel gently with the engine off — more than about an inch of free play before the wheels move is worth investigating. Split rack gaiters are cheap to replace and commonly recorded.
-
Check the suspension joints 1.9% of tests
“ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated”
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.
-
Check the exhaust and emissions 1.9% 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 2008 Seven through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £60–£187 — and 9% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £60–£187
- Cheapest common item: position lamp not working
- £5–£25
- Dearest common item: catalytic converter missing where one was…
- £120–£400
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 40%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 9%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 53 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 Seven, side by side
3 model years on record, from 2007 to 2011. Across them the pass rate runs from 90.3% to 92.5% — a spread of 2.2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2007 90.3% headlamp aim too low
- 2008 92.5%steering rack gaiter missing or…
- 2011 92.2% reversing lamps inoperative
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 Caterham Seven 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
- Bentley Continental 91.4%
- Porsche 911 91.0%
- BMW M3 90.0%
- Porsche Boxster 89.4%
- Audi A8 87.0%
- Mercedes-Benz Sl 86.7%
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 Caterham Seven 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 8 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 40 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 | 19 | 47.50% | 20.98% | +26.52 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 5 | 12.50% | 5.52% | +6.98 |
| Tyres | 4 | 10.00% | 19.76% | −9.76 |
| Steering | 4 | 10.00% | 2.57% | +7.43 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 4 | 10.00% | 1.76% | +8.24 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 2 | 5.00% | 12.21% | −7.21 |
| Brakes | 1 | 2.50% | 20.89% | −18.39 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1 | 2.50% | 5.57% | −3.07 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 3.8% | £120–300 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.9% | £18–45 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.9% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.9% | £60–250 |
| Catalytic converter missing where one was fitted as standard Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.9% | £120–400 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.9% | £30–80 |
| Other body component component damaged and likely to cause injury Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.9% | £80–250 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.9% | £5–25 |
| Registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements Identification of the vehicle | Major | 1.9% | £20–80 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 1.9% | £30–75 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wheel bearings has excessive play Suspension | Advisory | 15.1% | £20–55 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 7.5% | £45–95 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 5.7% | £18–45 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Advisory | 5.7% | £20–80 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 5.7% | £30–75 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 1.9% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 44 | 93.2% | 19,281 mi |
| 30-60k | 8 | 87.5% | 34,783 mi |
Source: 53 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 Seven MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2008 Caterham Seven?
92.5% of the 53 2008 Caterham Seven tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 91.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2008 Caterham Seven?
The three most recorded items are steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (3.77%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (1.89%), catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits (1.89%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2008 Caterham Seven MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.2% of the time, falling to 87.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2008 Caterham Seven in this dataset had covered 21,871 mi.