Pass rate
70.0%
Below average — 2.6 pts behind the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 534 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £44–£110
2003 Citroen C2 MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 79,488 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
21.6% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2006 70.9% pass
- Avoid 2004 68.0% pass
Across the 8 years on record, a spread of 2.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 61.2%
- Typical mileage
- 79k mi
The 2003 Citroen C2 MOT pass rate is 70.0% of its MOT tests — 2.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 21.6% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Citroen C2 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Fewer problems with tyres
Tyres are 13.0% of this car’s recorded faults, against 19.8% nationally — the mirror image of the usual story on a car of this age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 32% 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 Citroen C2? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Citroen C2 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 2.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 61.2%. The median 2003 Citroen C2 in this dataset had covered 79,488 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 91% of tests, with a 70.4% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 71.5% of the time, April–September 67.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 5.43% of tests.
- 534 recorded tests behind this page.
- 70.0% overall pass rate, 61.2% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Citroen C2, the average is 69.8% — best year 2006 (70.9%), worst 2004 (68.0%).
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
- 534
- Typical mileage (median)
- 79,488 mi
- Make and model
- Citroen C2
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Coil Spring
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the C2 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 54% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (91% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the C2
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 101 | 74.3% |
| South West | 92 | 68.5% |
| North West | 74 | 68.9% |
| West Midlands | 72 | 65.3% |
| East of England | 53 | 75.5% |
| East Midlands | 44 | 70.5% |
| Wales | 39 | 64.1% |
| Yorkshire | 28 | 67.9% |
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 C2
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 C2
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 coil springs 5.4% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
-
Check the lights 5.2% of tests
“registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”
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 battery 5.1% of tests
“battery(ies) insecure”
Check the battery is secure and its terminals are clean and tight — a loose battery is a fail on its own, and a weak one shows up as slow cranking on a cold morning.
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 C2 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £44–£110 — and 32% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £44–£110
- 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
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 32%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 534 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 C2, side by side
8 model years on record, from 2003 to 2010. Across them the pass rate runs from 68.0% to 70.9% — a spread of 2.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2003 70.0%coil spring fractured or broken
- 2004 68.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 68.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 70.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 70.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 70.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 70.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 68.5% 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 Citroen C2 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
- Land Rover Freelander 70.0%
- Ford Mondeo 70.0%
- SEAT Ibiza 70.0%
- Peugeot 406 70.0%
- Peugeot 206 69.9%
- Skoda Fabia 70.1%
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 Citroen C2 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 1,624 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 | 358 | 21.60% | 20.98% | +0.62 |
| Brakes | 308 | 18.60% | 20.89% | −2.29 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 283 | 17.10% | 12.21% | +4.89 |
| Tyres | 215 | 13.00% | 19.76% | −6.76 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 140 | 8.50% | 5.57% | +2.93 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 122 | 7.40% | 5.52% | +1.88 |
| Visibility | 75 | 4.50% | 4.97% | −0.47 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 53 | 3.20% | 1.76% | +1.44 |
| Non-component advisories | 45 | 2.70% | 4.18% | −1.48 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 25 | 1.50% | 0.82% | +0.68 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 5.4% | £25–65 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.2% | £5–20 |
| Battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.1% | £60–140 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.1% | £5–25 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 4.1% | £180–450 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.9% | £80–200 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 3.6% | £18–45 |
| Service brake imbalance across an axle Brakes | Major | 3.6% | £45–110 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.4% | £18–45 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 3.4% | £8–22 |
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 | 18.4% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 15.9% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 15.2% | £200–700 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 14.6% | £45–110 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 9.7% | £45–120 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Advisory | 9.7% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 33 | 81.8% | 21,331 mi |
| 30-60k | 122 | 74.6% | 47,177 mi |
| 60-90k | 159 | 71.7% | 74,447 mi |
| 90-120k | 129 | 65.1% | 103,084 mi |
| 120k+ | 85 | 62.4% | 141,887 mi |
Source: 534 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 C2 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Citroen C2?
70.0% of the 534 2003 Citroen C2 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 61.2%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Citroen C2?
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (5.43%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (5.24%), battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier (5.06%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Citroen C2 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 81.8% of the time, falling to 62.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Citroen C2 in this dataset had covered 79,488 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2003 Citroen C2?
Petrol: 70.4% pass rate across 486 tests. Diesel: 66.7% pass rate across 48 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2003 Citroen C2 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 71.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 67.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.