Pass rate
Around average — 1.6 pts behind the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 885 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £53–£147
Pass rate
Around average — 1.6 pts behind the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 885 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £53–£147
Most common fault
Tyres
38.5% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
Across the 4 years on record, a spread of 8.7 points. See every year →
The 2017 DS DS5 MOT pass rate is 84.4% of its MOT tests — 1.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 38.5% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres make up 38.5% of everything recorded on the 2017 DS Ds5, against 19.8% nationally — 18.7 points above. Check all four tyres yourself, including the inner shoulders, and look at the date stamp — a tyre can pass on tread and still be six years old.
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 DS DS5? Get an email when these numbers change .
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 1.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 81.6%. The median 2017 DS DS5 in this dataset had covered 59,131 mi.
97% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 84.3% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 82.6% of the time, April–September 86.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated", noted on 3.05% 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.
Body Panel Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 67% so small gaps stay visible.
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (97% of tests).
Across all DS5 model years on record (2015–2018): 2,135 DS DS5 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 4,742 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 66 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 | Birmingham (B) | 66 | 85.8% |
| 2 | Peterborough (PE) | 59 | 86.7% |
| 3 | Sheffield (S) | 56 | 83.3% |
| 4 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 55 | 76.0% |
| 5 | Manchester (M) | 47 | 83.7% |
| 6 | Cardiff (CF) | 41 | 81.2% |
| 7 | Doncaster (DN) | 37 | 87.5% |
| 8 | Portsmouth (PO) | 36 | 75.8% |
| 9 | Nottingham (NG) | 36 | 72.8% |
| 10 | Glasgow (G) | 36 | 75.0% |
| 11 | Northampton (NN) | 35 | 78.1% |
| 12 | Edinburgh (EH) | 34 | 76.3% |
| 13 | Chester (CH) | 32 | 77.9% |
| 14 | Swansea (SA) | 32 | 84.9% |
| 15 | Warrington (WA) | 31 | 76.1% |
| 16 | Stoke On Trent (ST) | 31 | 84.1% |
| 17 | Leicester (LE) | 29 | 80.0% |
| 18 | Derby (DE) | 29 | 88.9% |
| 19 | Preston (PR) | 29 | 86.2% |
| 20 | Norwich (NR) | 28 | 83.6% |
The twenty areas with the most DS DS5 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 →
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 172 | 86.6% |
| North West | 113 | 88.5% |
| Yorkshire | 97 | 82.5% |
| East of England | 87 | 81.6% |
| Scotland | 84 | 77.4% |
| South West | 74 | 81.1% |
| West Midlands | 73 | 86.3% |
| East Midlands | 70 | 87.1% |
| Wales | 44 | 88.6% |
| North East | 43 | 76.7% |
| London | 28 | 92.9% |
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.
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 the tyre tread 1.9% of tests
“tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm”
Check all four tyres cold, including the inner shoulder where wear hides — 1.6mm across the central three-quarters is the legal limit, and most testers fail at 1.6mm without argument.
Check the brakes 1.7% of tests
“brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick”
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.
Check the coil springs 1.4% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
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 £53–£147 — and 0% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 885 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 →
4 model years on record, from 2015 to 2018. Across them the pass rate runs from 77.6% to 86.3% — a spread of 8.7 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 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.
Shares of the 923 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 357 | 38.50% | 19.76% | +18.74 |
| Brakes | 263 | 28.40% | 20.89% | +7.51 |
| Suspension | 61 | 6.60% | 20.98% | −14.38 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 57 | 6.10% | 5.57% | +0.53 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 47 | 5.10% | 12.21% | −7.11 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 45 | 4.90% | 5.52% | −0.62 |
| Non-component advisories | 42 | 4.50% | 4.18% | +0.32 |
| Visibility | 35 | 3.80% | 4.97% | −1.17 |
| Steering | 10 | 1.10% | 2.57% | −1.47 |
| Road Wheels | 6 | 0.60% | 0.75% | −0.15 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 3.0% | £80–250 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 2.4% | £80–250 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.7% | £18–45 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 1.4% | £25–65 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.90% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 0.90% | £80–200 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 0.79% | £18–45 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.79% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.79% | £30–80 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 23.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 12.8% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 9.5% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 4.1% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 4.0% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 3.2% | £200–700 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 78 | 87.2% | 22,470 mi |
| 30-60k | 383 | 85.4% | 46,568 mi |
| 60-90k | 313 | 85.3% | 72,756 mi |
| 90-120k | 86 | 75.6% | 103,268 mi |
| 120k+ | 25 | 80.0% | 135,384 mi |
Source: 885 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.
84.4% of the 885 2017 DS DS5 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 81.6%.
The three most recorded items are joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (3.05%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (2.37%), tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (1.92%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 87.2% of the time, falling to 80.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 DS DS5 in this dataset had covered 59,131 mi.
Diesel: 84.3% pass rate across 856 tests. Other: 76.5% pass rate across 17 tests. Petrol: 100.0% pass rate across 12 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 82.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 86.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.