Pass rate
66.5%
Below average — 5.9 pts behind the 72.4% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 155 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £51–£138
2005 Daewoo Kalos MOT pass rate
- 2005
- typical 58,614 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
26.9% 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 2003 68.5% pass
- Avoid 2005 66.5% pass · this year
Across the 3 years on record, a spread of 2 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 54.4%
- Typical mileage
- 59k mi
The 2005 Daewoo Kalos MOT pass rate is 66.5% of its MOT tests — 5.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.9% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.3× the national share
Suspension accounts for 26.9% of everything recorded on the 2005 Daewoo Kalos, against 21.0% nationally — 5.9 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.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 72.4%; this one manages 66.5% — 5.9 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- Based on a small sample. 155 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 Daewoo Kalos? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2005 Daewoo Kalos compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.4%, so this figure is 5.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 54.4%. The median 2005 Daewoo Kalos in this dataset had covered 58,614 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 63.4% of the time, April–September 74.4%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength", noted on 11.61% of tests.
- 155 recorded tests behind this page.
- 66.5% overall pass rate, 54.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Daewoo Kalos, the average is 67.9% — best year 2003 (68.5%), worst 2005 (66.5%).
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
- 155
- Typical mileage (median)
- 58,614 mi
- Make and model
- Daewoo Kalos
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Corrosion Welding Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Kalos MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 50% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Kalos
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 41 | 61.0% |
| South East | 30 | 76.7% |
| East Midlands | 20 | 80.0% |
| North West | 18 | 66.7% |
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 2005 Kalos
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 2005 Kalos
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 corrosion 11.6% 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.
-
Check the lights 9.7% 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 9.0% of tests
“pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn”
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 2005 Kalos through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £51–£138 — and 37% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £51–£138
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: component mounting prescribed areas…
- £180–£450
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 37%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 155 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 Kalos, side by side
3 model years on record, from 2003 to 2005. Across them the pass rate runs from 66.5% to 68.5% — a spread of 2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2003 68.5% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2004 67.8% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2005 66.5%component mounting prescribed…
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 2005 Daewoo Kalos 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 2005 cars with a similar record
- Ford Galaxy 67.0%
- Chevrolet Matiz 65.9%
- Ford Ka 67.3%
- Kia Sportage 67.3%
- Vauxhall Meriva 67.6%
- Suzuki Alto 67.7%
Closest pass rates among 2005 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 2005 Daewoo Kalos 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 567 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 | 157 | 26.90% | 20.98% | +5.92 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 98 | 16.80% | 12.21% | +4.59 |
| Brakes | 86 | 14.80% | 20.89% | −6.09 |
| Tyres | 69 | 11.80% | 19.76% | −7.96 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 44 | 7.50% | 5.52% | +1.98 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 32 | 5.50% | 5.57% | −0.07 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 23 | 3.90% | 1.76% | +2.14 |
| Steering | 22 | 3.80% | 2.57% | +1.23 |
| Visibility | 21 | 3.60% | 4.97% | −1.37 |
| Non-component advisories | 15 | 2.60% | 4.18% | −1.58 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 11.6% | £180–450 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 9.7% | £5–25 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 9.7% | £3–12 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 9.0% | £40–150 |
| Battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 7.1% | £60–140 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 7.1% | £5–20 |
| Prescribed areas prescribed area strength or continuity significantly reduced Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 5.2% | £40–120 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 4.5% | £18–45 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 4.5% | £18–45 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 3.2% | £80–250 |
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 | 31.6% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 16.8% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 15.5% | £45–95 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 14.2% | £80–180 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Advisory | 13.6% | £20–80 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 11.6% | £200–700 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 9 | 88.9% | 22,988 mi |
| 30-60k | 72 | 70.8% | 48,677 mi |
| 60-90k | 41 | 58.5% | 74,342 mi |
| 90-120k | 27 | 63.0% | 102,466 mi |
| 120k+ | 3 | 66.7% | 134,678 mi |
Source: 155 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.
2005 Kalos MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2005 Daewoo Kalos?
66.5% of the 155 2005 Daewoo Kalos tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.4% for cars first used in 2005. First-attempt pass rate: 54.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2005 Daewoo Kalos?
The three most recorded items are component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (11.61%), headlamp lens slightly defective (9.68%), malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (9.68%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2005 Daewoo Kalos MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.9% of the time, falling to 66.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2005 Daewoo Kalos in this dataset had covered 58,614 mi.
Does the season affect the 2005 Daewoo Kalos MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 63.4% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 74.4%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.