Pass rate
95.4%
Above average — 22.5 pts ahead of the 72.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 65 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £36–£94
2002 Caterham Super MOT pass rate
- 2002
- typical 18,951 mi
Only 65 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
34.6% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2007 95.5% pass
- Avoid 2003 83.8% pass
Across the 12 years on record, a spread of 11.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 95.2%
- Typical mileage
- 19k mi
The 2002 Caterham Super MOT pass rate is 95.4% of its MOT tests — 22.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 34.6% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Caterham Super does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.6× the national share
Suspension accounts for 34.6% of everything recorded on the 2002 Caterham Super, against 21.0% nationally — 13.6 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 72.9% and this one manages 95.4% — 22.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 30% 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 Super? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2002 Caterham Super compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.9%, so this figure is 22.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 95.2%. The median 2002 Caterham Super in this dataset had covered 18,951 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 4.62% of tests.
- 65 recorded tests behind this page.
- 95.4% overall pass rate, 95.2% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Caterham Super, the average is 92.0% — best year 2007 (95.5%), worst 2003 (83.8%).
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
- 65
- Typical mileage (median)
- 18,951 mi
- Make and model
- Caterham Super
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
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 Super MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 83% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Super
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 23 | 91.3% |
| South West | 16 | 93.8% |
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 2002 Super
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 2002 Super
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 windscreen 4.6% 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 lights 1.5% of tests
“headlamp aim too high”
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 suspension joints 1.5% of tests
“track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or 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.
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 2002 Super through its MOT
Across the 8 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £36–£94 — and 30% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 8 common items
- £36–£94
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp all not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 75%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 30%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 65 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 Super, side by side
12 model years on record, from 2001 to 2012. Across them the pass rate runs from 83.8% to 95.5% — a spread of 11.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2001 91.1% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2002 95.4%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2003 83.8% catalyst emissions lambda reading…
- 2004 90.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2005 84.6% position lamp not working
- 2006 94.1% catalyst emissions lambda reading…
- 2007 95.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2008 93.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2009 93.7% headlamp aim too low
- 2010 93.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2011 91.8% steering rack gaiter damaged or…
- 2012 94.2% steering rack gaiter damaged or…
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 2002 Caterham Super 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 2002 cars with a similar record
- BMW M3 86.7%
- Porsche 911 85.5%
- Mercedes-Benz Sl 85.2%
- Honda S2000 84.6%
- Mercedes-Benz Slk 81.2%
- BMW Z3 80.7%
Closest pass rates among 2002 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 2002 Caterham Super 8 failure items · 6 advisories · 7 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 26 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 | 9 | 34.60% | 20.98% | +13.62 |
| Tyres | 5 | 19.20% | 19.76% | −0.56 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 5 | 19.20% | 12.21% | +6.99 |
| Visibility | 3 | 11.50% | 4.97% | +6.53 |
| Brakes | 2 | 7.70% | 20.89% | −13.19 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 1 | 3.80% | 5.52% | −1.72 |
| Steering | 1 | 3.80% | 2.57% | +1.23 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.6% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.5% | £30–80 |
| Pedal anti-slip provision missing Brakes | Major | 1.5% | £45–110 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.5% | £3–15 |
| Side repeaters missing Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.5% | £5–25 |
| Stop lamp all not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.5% | £3–12 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 1.5% | £18–45 |
| Wheel bearings rough when rotated Suspension | Major | 1.5% | £20–55 |
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 | 6.2% | £45–95 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 3.1% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 3.1% | £40–150 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 1.5% | £18–45 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 1.5% | £200–700 |
| Individual direction indicators incorrect colour Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Advisory | 1.5% | £3–12 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 42 | 97.6% | 13,991 mi |
| 30-60k | 23 | 91.3% | 37,744 mi |
Source: 65 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.
2002 Super MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2002 Caterham Super?
95.4% of the 65 2002 Caterham Super tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.9% for cars first used in 2002. First-attempt pass rate: 95.2%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2002 Caterham Super?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (4.62%), headlamp aim too high (1.54%), pedal anti-slip provision missing (1.54%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2002 Caterham Super MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 97.6% of the time, falling to 91.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2002 Caterham Super in this dataset had covered 18,951 mi.