Pass rate
69.9%
Below average — 2.7 pts behind the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 73 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £32–£85
2003 Daewoo Tacuma MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 65,848 mi
Only 73 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
Suspension
22.4% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2004 69.9% pass
- Avoid 2004 69.9% pass
Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 0 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 60.0%
- Typical mileage
- 66k mi
The 2003 Daewoo Tacuma MOT pass rate is 69.9% of its MOT tests — 2.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 22.4% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Daewoo Tacuma does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Emissions & leaks: 2.9× the national share
Emissions & leaks make up 16.1% of everything recorded on the 2003 Daewoo Tacuma, against 5.5% nationally — 10.6 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 22.4%, but at 21.0% nationally that one is ordinary. A smoky diesel or a leaking joint fails on emissions more often than on wear, so ask for a recent emissions printout.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 65% 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.
- Based on a small sample. 73 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 Tacuma? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Daewoo Tacuma compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 2.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 60.0%. The median 2003 Daewoo Tacuma in this dataset had covered 65,848 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp lens slightly defective", noted on 10.96% of tests.
- 73 recorded tests behind this page.
- 69.9% overall pass rate, 60.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Daewoo Tacuma, the average is 69.9% — best year 2004 (69.9%), worst 2004 (69.9%).
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
- 73
- Typical mileage (median)
- 65,848 mi
- Make and model
- Daewoo Tacuma
- 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 Tacuma MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 0% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Tacuma
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| West Midlands | 16 | 75.0% |
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 Tacuma
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 Tacuma
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 11.0% 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 corrosion 8.2% 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 suspension joints 5.5% of tests
“ball joint 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 2003 Tacuma through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £32–£85 — and 65% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £32–£85
- 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
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 65%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 73 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 Tacuma, side by side
2 model years on record, from 2003 to 2004. Across them the pass rate runs from 69.9% to 69.9% — a spread of 0 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2003 69.9%headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2004 69.9% headlamp lens slightly defective
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 Daewoo Tacuma 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
- Peugeot 206 69.9%
- Land Rover Freelander 70.0%
- Ford Mondeo 70.0%
- SEAT Ibiza 70.0%
- Peugeot 406 70.0%
- 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 Daewoo Tacuma 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 285 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 | 64 | 22.40% | 20.98% | +1.42 |
| Brakes | 58 | 20.30% | 20.89% | −0.59 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 46 | 16.10% | 5.52% | +10.58 |
| Tyres | 34 | 11.90% | 19.76% | −7.86 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 32 | 11.20% | 12.21% | −1.01 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 17 | 5.90% | 5.57% | +0.33 |
| Visibility | 13 | 4.50% | 4.97% | −0.47 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 10 | 3.50% | 1.76% | +1.74 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 7 | 2.40% | 0.82% | +1.58 |
| Non-component advisories | 4 | 1.40% | 4.18% | −2.78 |
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 | 11.0% | £5–25 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 9.6% | £3–12 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 8.2% | £180–450 |
| Anti-lock braking system warning lamp indicates an ABS fault Brakes | Major | 5.5% | £3–15 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 5.5% | £18–45 |
| Flexible brake hoses slightly twisted Brakes | Minor | 5.5% | £25–70 |
| Mirrors slightly damaged Visibility | Minor | 5.5% | £3–15 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.5% | £5–20 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 5.5% | £8–22 |
| Additional braking device mounting insecure Brakes | Minor | 4.1% | £45–110 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 42.5% | £200–700 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 30.1% | £80–180 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 28.8% | £25–65 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 23.3% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 20.6% | £45–95 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Advisory | 12.3% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1 | 100.0% | 29,893 mi |
| 30-60k | 22 | 63.6% | 49,892 mi |
| 60-90k | 35 | 77.1% | 72,090 mi |
| 90-120k | 14 | 64.3% | 101,292 mi |
| 120k+ | 1 | 0.0% | 126,178 mi |
Source: 73 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 Tacuma MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Daewoo Tacuma?
69.9% of the 73 2003 Daewoo Tacuma tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 60.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Daewoo Tacuma?
The three most recorded items are headlamp lens slightly defective (10.96%), malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (9.59%), component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (8.22%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Daewoo Tacuma MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 0.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Daewoo Tacuma in this dataset had covered 65,848 mi.