Pass rate
Below average — 1.0 pts behind the 72.5% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 509 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £82–£224
Pass rate
Below average — 1.0 pts behind the 72.5% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 509 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £82–£224
Most common fault
Suspension
23.2% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
Across the 7 years on record, a spread of 11.1 points. See every year →
The 2006 Daihatsu Copen MOT pass rate is 71.5% of its MOT tests — 1.0 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 23.2% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Daihatsu Copen does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Body & chassis accounts for 13.9% of everything recorded on the 2006 Daihatsu Copen, against 5.6% nationally — 8.3 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 23.2%, but at 21.0% nationally that one is ordinary. Look underneath for corrosion near the jacking points and suspension mounts; surface rust is normal, flaking metal is not.
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 Daihatsu Copen? Get an email when these numbers change .
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.5%, so this figure is 1.0 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 64.3%. The median 2006 Daihatsu Copen in this dataset had covered 56,315 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 70.3% of the time, April–September 72.4%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength", noted on 9.82% of tests.
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Corrosion Welding Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 50% so small gaps stay visible.
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 113 | 74.3% |
| South West | 82 | 69.5% |
| East of England | 60 | 68.3% |
| North West | 50 | 74.0% |
| West Midlands | 45 | 73.3% |
| Scotland | 41 | 68.3% |
| East Midlands | 37 | 73.0% |
| Yorkshire | 32 | 75.0% |
| Wales | 23 | 65.2% |
| North East | 17 | 58.8% |
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.
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
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 9.8% 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 exhaust and emissions 3.7% of tests
“catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits”
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 3.5% 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.
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £82–£224 — and 16% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 509 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 →
7 model years on record, from 2003 to 2009. Across them the pass rate runs from 71.5% to 82.6% — a spread of 11.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
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.
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Closest pass rates among 2006 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.
Shares of the 1,062 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 | 248 | 23.20% | 20.98% | +2.22 |
| Brakes | 216 | 20.20% | 20.89% | −0.69 |
| Tyres | 152 | 14.20% | 19.76% | −5.56 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 149 | 13.90% | 5.57% | +8.33 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 106 | 9.90% | 5.52% | +4.38 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 91 | 8.50% | 12.21% | −3.71 |
| Visibility | 44 | 4.10% | 4.97% | −0.87 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 37 | 3.50% | 0.82% | +2.68 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 10 | 0.90% | 1.76% | −0.86 |
| Steering | 9 | 0.80% | 2.57% | −1.77 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 9.8% | £180–450 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.7% | £60–250 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.7% | £45–120 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.5% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.0% | £5–25 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.0% | £3–12 |
| Emissions not tested unable to be completed Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.4% | £60–250 |
| Prescribed areas prescribed area strength or continuity significantly reduced Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 2.4% | £40–120 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 2.4% | £80–180 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 2.2% | £25–65 |
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 16.3% | £45–95 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 10.4% | £80–180 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 9.0% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 8.4% | £45–95 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Advisory | 6.7% | £180–450 |
| Integral vehicle structure condition corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 6.7% | £180–450 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 58 | 79.3% | 22,887 mi |
| 30-60k | 216 | 73.1% | 45,381 mi |
| 60-90k | 166 | 71.1% | 72,629 mi |
| 90-120k | 58 | 58.6% | 99,272 mi |
| 120k+ | 11 | 72.7% | 130,759 mi |
Source: 509 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.
71.5% of the 509 2006 Daihatsu Copen tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.5% for cars first used in 2006. First-attempt pass rate: 64.3%.
The three most recorded items are component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (9.82%), catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits (3.73%), exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases (3.73%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 79.3% of the time, falling to 72.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2006 Daihatsu Copen in this dataset had covered 56,315 mi.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 70.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 72.4%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.