Pass rate
71.8%
Below average — 0.8 pts behind the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 202 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £40–£108
2003 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 91,732 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
27.8% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £35–£75 for Suspension pin or bush excessively worn. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2001 74.6% pass
- Avoid 2006 67.5% pass
Across the 8 years on record, a spread of 7.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 62.3%
- Typical mileage
- 92k mi
The 2003 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser MOT pass rate is 71.8% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.8% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.3× the national share
Suspension accounts for 27.8% of everything recorded on the 2003 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser, against 21.0% nationally — 6.8 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.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 26% 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.
- Based on a small sample. 202 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 0.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 62.3%. The median 2003 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser in this dataset had covered 91,732 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 83% of tests, with a 70.7% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 67.8% of the time, April–September 77.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp lens slightly defective", noted on 9.90% of tests.
- 202 recorded tests behind this page.
- 71.8% overall pass rate, 62.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser, the average is 71.4% — best year 2001 (74.6%), worst 2006 (67.5%).
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
- 202
- Typical mileage (median)
- 91,732 mi
- Make and model
- Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Headlight Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Pt Cruiser MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 57% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (83% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Pt Cruiser
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 54 | 72.2% |
| East of England | 47 | 63.8% |
| London | 18 | 88.9% |
| North West | 18 | 61.1% |
| Yorkshire | 18 | 88.9% |
| South West | 16 | 68.8% |
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 2003 Pt Cruiser
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 2003 Pt Cruiser
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 9.9% of tests
“headlamp lens slightly defective”
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 7.4% 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.
-
Check corrosion 5.0% of tests
“component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength”
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 2003 Pt Cruiser through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £40–£108 — and 26% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £40–£108
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: component mounting prescribed areas…
- £180–£450
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 26%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 202 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 Pt Cruiser, side by side
8 model years on record, from 2001 to 2008. Across them the pass rate runs from 67.5% to 74.6% — a spread of 7.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2001 74.6% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2002 74.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2003 71.8%headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2004 73.5% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2005 70.2% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2006 67.5% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2007 72.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 72.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
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 2003 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser 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 2003 cars with a similar record
- Honda Civic 71.7%
- Mitsubishi L200 71.7%
- Toyota Celica 71.7%
- Suzuki Ignis 71.7%
- Ford Fusion 71.9%
- Ford Ranger 71.9%
Closest pass rates among 2003 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 2003 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser 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 827 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 | 233 | 27.80% | 20.98% | +6.82 |
| Brakes | 179 | 21.40% | 20.89% | +0.51 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 104 | 12.40% | 12.21% | +0.19 |
| Tyres | 72 | 8.60% | 19.76% | −11.16 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 68 | 8.10% | 5.52% | +2.58 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 65 | 7.80% | 5.57% | +2.23 |
| Steering | 48 | 5.70% | 2.57% | +3.13 |
| Non-component advisories | 26 | 3.10% | 4.18% | −1.08 |
| Visibility | 19 | 2.30% | 4.97% | −2.67 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 13 | 1.60% | 0.82% | +0.78 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 9.9% | £5–25 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 7.4% | £18–45 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 6.4% | £18–45 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 5.0% | £180–450 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.5% | £30–80 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.5% | £80–200 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 4.0% | £40–150 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.5% | £5–20 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 3.0% | £18–45 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.0% | £45–120 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 32.7% | £40–150 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 26.2% | £25–65 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 22.8% | £45–110 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 22.8% | £200–700 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 15.8% | £80–180 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 13.4% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 6 | 66.7% | 22,708 mi |
| 30-60k | 20 | 80.0% | 52,170 mi |
| 60-90k | 67 | 76.1% | 75,978 mi |
| 90-120k | 66 | 65.2% | 102,878 mi |
| 120k+ | 39 | 71.8% | 149,393 mi |
Source: 202 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.
2003 Pt Cruiser MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser?
71.8% of the 202 2003 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 62.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser?
The three most recorded items are headlamp lens slightly defective (9.90%), track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt (7.43%), track rod end ball joint has excessive play (6.44%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 66.7% of the time, falling to 71.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser in this dataset had covered 91,732 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2003 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser?
Petrol: 70.7% pass rate across 167 tests. Diesel: 77.1% pass rate across 35 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2003 Chrysler Jeep Pt Cruiser MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 67.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 77.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.