Pass rate
83.2%
Around average — 2.8 pts behind the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 11,480 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £25–£73
2017 Citroen C3 Picasso MOT pass rate
- 2017
- typical 41,067 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
29.5% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 85.5% pass
- Avoid 2009 69.0% pass
Across the 10 years on record, a spread of 16.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 80.0%
- Typical mileage
- 41k mi
The 2017 Citroen C3 Picasso MOT pass rate is 83.2% of its MOT tests — 2.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 29.5% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Brakes: 1.4× the national share
Brakes make up 29.5% of everything recorded on the 2017 Citroen C3 Picasso, against 20.9% nationally — 8.6 points above. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 66% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
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 C3 Picasso? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2017 Citroen C3 Picasso compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 2.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 80.0%. The median 2017 Citroen C3 Picasso in this dataset had covered 41,067 mi.
62% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 82.5% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 83.2% of the time, April–September 83.2%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 3.32% of tests.
- 11,480 recorded tests behind this page.
- 83.2% overall pass rate, 80.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Citroen C3 Picasso, the average is 81.7% — best year 2019 (85.5%), worst 2009 (69.0%).
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
- 11,480
- Typical mileage (median)
- 41,067 mi
- Make and model
- Citroen C3 Picasso
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the C3 Picasso MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 66% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (62% of tests).
Where the Citroen C3 Picasso is most common
Across all C3 Picasso model years on record (2009–2019): 8,523 Citroen C3 Picasso cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 23,166 tests. Portsmouth (PO) has the most, with 291 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 | Portsmouth (PO) | 291 | 84.1% |
| 2 | Brighton (BN) | 282 | 83.3% |
| 3 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 235 | 80.8% |
| 4 | Exeter (EX) | 207 | 80.1% |
| 5 | Truro (TR) | 203 | 73.0% |
| 6 | Ashford (TN) | 197 | 83.5% |
| 7 | Peterborough (PE) | 184 | 83.9% |
| 8 | Sheffield (S) | 184 | 83.3% |
| 9 | Gloucester (GL) | 177 | 83.0% |
| 10 | Cardiff (CF) | 175 | 81.4% |
| 11 | Plymouth (PL) | 172 | 82.2% |
| 12 | Birmingham (B) | 170 | 83.0% |
| 13 | Bristol (BS) | 163 | 82.8% |
| 14 | Yeovil (BA) | 145 | 81.1% |
| 15 | Nottingham (NG) | 144 | 82.2% |
| 16 | Norwich (NR) | 137 | 80.4% |
| 17 | Swansea (SA) | 133 | 81.9% |
| 18 | York (YO) | 132 | 78.2% |
| 19 | Ipswich (IP) | 123 | 87.0% |
| 20 | Wrexham (LL) | 113 | 82.8% |
The twenty areas with the most Citroen C3 Picasso 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 C3 Picasso
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 1,939 | 84.2% |
| South East | 1,740 | 83.9% |
| North West | 1,208 | 84.2% |
| Yorkshire | 1,144 | 82.9% |
| East of England | 1,064 | 87.0% |
| Scotland | 999 | 74.8% |
| West Midlands | 956 | 84.8% |
| North East | 770 | 81.3% |
| Wales | 765 | 82.2% |
| East Midlands | 706 | 84.3% |
| London | 186 | 86.6% |
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 2017 C3 Picasso
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 2017 C3 Picasso
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 3.3% 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 wipers and washers 1.1% of tests
“washers not working”
Run the wipers with the screen wet: they should clear it in one sweep without smearing or juddering. Top the washer bottle up and check both jets hit the screen.
-
Check the brakes 1.1% of tests
“brake discs significantly and obviously worn”
Look through the spokes of each wheel at the pad — less than 3mm of friction material, or a lip on the disc edge, is the usual failure. Check the handbrake holds on a slope with a few clicks, not at the top of its travel.
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 2017 C3 Picasso through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £25–£73 — and 66% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £25–£73
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot split or…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 66%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 11,480 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 C3 Picasso, side by side
10 model years on record, from 2009 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 69.0% to 85.5% — a spread of 16.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2009 69.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 69.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 73.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 76.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 79.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 82.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 81.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2016 82.2% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2017 83.2%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2019 85.5% headlamp not working on dipped…
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 2017 Citroen C3 Picasso 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 2017 cars with a similar record
- Fiat 500 83.2%
- Vauxhall Crossland 83.2%
- Skoda Rapid 83.3%
- Dacia Logan 83.1%
- Ford Grand C-Max 83.4%
- MG Gs 83.0%
Closest pass rates among 2017 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 2017 Citroen C3 Picasso 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 15,854 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 | 4,735 | 29.50% | 20.89% | +8.61 |
| Tyres | 4,145 | 25.80% | 19.76% | +6.04 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 2,303 | 14.40% | 12.21% | +2.19 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1,783 | 11.10% | 5.57% | +5.53 |
| Suspension | 715 | 4.50% | 20.98% | −16.48 |
| Visibility | 714 | 4.50% | 4.97% | −0.47 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 504 | 3.10% | 5.52% | −2.42 |
| Non-component advisories | 494 | 3.10% | 4.18% | −1.08 |
| Road Wheels | 321 | 2.00% | 0.75% | +1.25 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 140 | 0.90% | 0.82% | +0.08 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.3% | £5–20 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.2% | £80–250 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.0% | £3–12 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.8% | £45–95 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.6% | £3–12 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.5% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.3% | £5–25 |
| Washers not working Visibility | Major | 1.1% | £5–15 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Major | 1.1% | £45–110 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.1% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 19.2% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 13.5% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 10.6% | £45–95 |
| Exhaust system system insecure Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 8.4% | £45–120 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.1% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 5.2% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 3,184 | 87.8% | 21,299 mi |
| 30-60k | 6,058 | 82.7% | 43,696 mi |
| 60-90k | 1,865 | 78.9% | 70,588 mi |
| 90-120k | 312 | 74.0% | 100,369 mi |
| 120k+ | 60 | 81.7% | 142,209 mi |
Source: 11,480 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.
2017 C3 Picasso MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2017 Citroen C3 Picasso?
83.2% of the 11,480 2017 Citroen C3 Picasso tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 80.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2017 Citroen C3 Picasso?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (3.32%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (3.21%), stop lamp not working (2.04%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2017 Citroen C3 Picasso MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 87.8% of the time, falling to 81.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 Citroen C3 Picasso in this dataset had covered 41,067 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2017 Citroen C3 Picasso?
Diesel: 82.5% pass rate across 7,090 tests. Petrol: 84.4% pass rate across 4,390 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2017 Citroen C3 Picasso MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 83.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 83.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.