Pass rate
64.3%
Below average — 8.6 pts behind the 72.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 56 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £36–£103
2002 Citroen Xsara Picasso MOT pass rate
- 2002
- typical 132,766 mi
Only 56 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
Brakes
22.3% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2010 75.0% pass
- Avoid 2002 64.3% pass · this year
Across the 9 years on record, a spread of 10.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 45.9%
- Typical mileage
- 133k mi
The 2002 Citroen Xsara Picasso MOT pass rate is 64.3% of its MOT tests — 8.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 22.3% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Citroen Xsara Picasso does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Fewer problems with tyres
Tyres are 10.0% of this car’s recorded faults, against 19.8% nationally — the mirror image of the usual story on a car of this age.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 72.9%; this one manages 64.3% — 8.6 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 24% 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 Xsara Picasso? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2002 Citroen Xsara Picasso compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.9%, so this figure is 8.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 45.9%. The median 2002 Citroen Xsara Picasso in this dataset had covered 132,766 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 55% of tests, with a 71.0% pass rate.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 8.93% of tests.
- 56 recorded tests behind this page.
- 64.3% overall pass rate, 45.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Citroen Xsara Picasso, the average is 68.2% — best year 2010 (75.0%), worst 2002 (64.3%).
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
- 56
- Typical mileage (median)
- 132,766 mi
- Make and model
- Citroen Xsara Picasso
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
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 Xsara Picasso MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 51% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (55% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Xsara Picasso
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 35 | 62.9% |
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 2002 Xsara 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 2002 Xsara 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 8.9% 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 exhaust and emissions 7.1% of tests
“exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases”
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.
-
Check the windscreen 7.1% 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.
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 Xsara Picasso through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £36–£103 — and 24% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £36–£103
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot split or…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 24%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 56 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 Xsara Picasso, side by side
9 model years on record, from 2002 to 2010. Across them the pass rate runs from 64.3% to 75.0% — a spread of 10.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2002 64.3%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2003 70.9% position lamp not working
- 2004 66.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 67.6% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2006 68.5% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2007 67.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 69.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 65.6% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2010 75.0% prescribed areas prescribed area…
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 Citroen Xsara 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 2002 cars with a similar record
- Vauxhall Combo 66.5%
- Volkswagen Beetle 67.0%
- Ford Ka 67.2%
- Volkswagen Polo 68.7%
- Honda Accord 68.7%
- Vauxhall Corsa 68.8%
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 Citroen Xsara 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 203 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 | 47 | 22.30% | 20.89% | +1.41 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 34 | 16.10% | 12.21% | +3.89 |
| Suspension | 31 | 14.70% | 20.98% | −6.28 |
| Tyres | 21 | 10.00% | 19.76% | −9.76 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 19 | 9.00% | 5.57% | +3.43 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 13 | 6.20% | 5.52% | +0.68 |
| Visibility | 11 | 5.20% | 4.97% | +0.23 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 10 | 4.70% | 0.82% | +3.88 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 9 | 4.30% | 1.76% | +2.54 |
| Non-component advisories | 8 | 3.80% | 4.18% | −0.38 |
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 | 8.9% | £5–20 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 7.1% | £45–120 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 7.1% | £80–250 |
| Prescribed areas prescribed area strength or continuity significantly reduced Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 7.1% | £40–120 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 7.1% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 5.4% | £30–80 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 5.4% | £5–25 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 5.4% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 3.6% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 3.6% | £18–45 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 30.4% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 23.2% | £45–95 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Advisory | 16.1% | £20–80 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 14.3% | £18–45 |
| Flexible brake hoses ferrule excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 12.5% | £25–70 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 12.5% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 3 | 100.0% | 16,686 mi |
| 30-60k | 2 | 100.0% | 55,754 mi |
| 60-90k | 18 | 61.1% | 73,178 mi |
| 120k+ | 32 | 59.4% | 158,649 mi |
Source: 56 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 Xsara Picasso MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2002 Citroen Xsara Picasso?
64.3% of the 56 2002 Citroen Xsara Picasso tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.9% for cars first used in 2002. First-attempt pass rate: 45.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2002 Citroen Xsara Picasso?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (8.93%), exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases (7.14%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (7.14%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2002 Citroen Xsara Picasso MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 59.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2002 Citroen Xsara Picasso in this dataset had covered 132,766 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2002 Citroen Xsara Picasso?
Petrol: 71.0% pass rate across 31 tests. Diesel: 56.0% pass rate across 25 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.