Pass rate
67.8%
Below average — 4.8 pts behind the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 283 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £47–£129
2003 Fiat Panda MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 80,618 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
28.4% 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 →
2.9 pts down across model years — 5.1% in 2004, 2.2% in 2020.
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 92.7% pass
- Avoid 2004 67.8% pass
Across the 20 years on record, a spread of 24.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 56.7%
- Typical mileage
- 81k mi
The 2003 Fiat Panda MOT pass rate is 67.8% of its MOT tests — 4.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 28.4% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.4× the national share
Suspension accounts for 28.4% of everything recorded on the 2003 Fiat Panda, against 21.0% nationally — 7.4 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 72.6%; this one manages 67.8% — 4.8 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 20% 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 Fiat Panda? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Fiat Panda compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 4.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 56.7%. The median 2003 Fiat Panda in this dataset had covered 80,618 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 69.4% of the time, April–September 64.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn", noted on 4.59% of tests.
- 283 recorded tests behind this page.
- 67.8% overall pass rate, 56.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Fiat Panda, the average is 76.3% — best year 2022 (92.7%), worst 2004 (67.8%).
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
- 283
- Typical mileage (median)
- 80,618 mi
- Make and model
- Fiat Panda
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Suspension Component
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Panda MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 42% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Fiat Panda is most common
Across all Panda model years on record (2003–2022): 119,635 Fiat Panda cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 329,086 tests. Sheffield (S) has the most, with 2,971 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 | Sheffield (S) | 2,971 | 78.7% |
| 2 | Birmingham (B) | 2,565 | 79.5% |
| 3 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 2,394 | 76.6% |
| 4 | Bristol (BS) | 2,222 | 72.9% |
| 5 | Brighton (BN) | 2,219 | 76.0% |
| 6 | Swansea (SA) | 2,099 | 75.8% |
| 7 | Stoke On Trent (ST) | 2,050 | 76.3% |
| 8 | Ashford (TN) | 1,958 | 77.7% |
| 9 | Norwich (NR) | 1,956 | 77.4% |
| 10 | Portsmouth (PO) | 1,898 | 76.4% |
| 11 | Cardiff (CF) | 1,888 | 74.5% |
| 12 | Exeter (EX) | 1,802 | 73.6% |
| 13 | Coventry (CV) | 1,798 | 80.0% |
| 14 | Edinburgh (EH) | 1,793 | 70.1% |
| 15 | Plymouth (PL) | 1,755 | 74.0% |
| 16 | Glasgow (G) | 1,716 | 71.1% |
| 17 | Nottingham (NG) | 1,640 | 73.9% |
| 18 | Manchester (M) | 1,568 | 77.9% |
| 19 | Northampton (NN) | 1,538 | 77.6% |
| 20 | Truro (TR) | 1,532 | 72.1% |
The twenty areas with the most Fiat Panda 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 →
Regional pass rates for the Panda
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 65 | 70.8% |
| West Midlands | 41 | 63.4% |
| East of England | 34 | 64.7% |
| North West | 34 | 64.7% |
| South West | 32 | 71.9% |
| Yorkshire | 25 | 72.0% |
| Wales | 19 | 68.4% |
| East Midlands | 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 2003 Panda
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 Panda
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 suspension joints 4.6% 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.
-
Check the lights 3.9% of tests
“position lamp not working”
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 3.5% 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.
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 Panda through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £47–£129 — and 20% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £47–£129
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- 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
- 20%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 283 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 Panda, side by side
20 model years on record, from 2003 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 67.8% to 92.7% — a spread of 24.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2003 67.8%pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2004 67.8% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2005 69.2% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2006 69.2% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2007 69.8% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2008 70.3% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2009 72.4% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2010 72.6% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2011 73.8% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2012 77.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 78.4% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 80.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 81.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2016 83.5% shock absorbers has an…
- 2017 85.4% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2018 87.3% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2019 89.1% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2020 92.3% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2021 92.0% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2022 92.7% pins and bushes pin or bush…
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 Fiat Panda 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
- Ford Ka 68.0%
- Ford Galaxy 68.0%
- Citroen C3 68.2%
- Volkswagen Polo 68.3%
- Volvo V40 67.3%
- Vauxhall Corsa 68.4%
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 Fiat Panda 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 940 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 | 268 | 28.40% | 20.98% | +7.42 |
| Brakes | 129 | 13.70% | 20.89% | −7.19 |
| Tyres | 125 | 13.20% | 19.76% | −6.56 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 114 | 12.10% | 12.21% | −0.11 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 114 | 12.10% | 5.52% | +6.58 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 85 | 9.00% | 5.57% | +3.43 |
| Non-component advisories | 28 | 3.00% | 4.18% | −1.18 |
| Visibility | 27 | 2.90% | 4.97% | −2.07 |
| Steering | 26 | 2.80% | 2.57% | +0.23 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 24 | 2.50% | 1.76% | +0.74 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 4.6% | £40–150 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 4.6% | £45–110 |
| Service brake imbalance across an axle Brakes | Major | 4.6% | £45–110 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.9% | £5–25 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.5% | £18–45 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 3.5% | £180–450 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.5% | £5–20 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.2% | £45–120 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 3.2% | £18–45 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 2.8% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 31.1% | £200–700 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 23.3% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 23.0% | £25–65 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 13.4% | £40–150 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 10.9% | £45–120 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 10.9% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 5 | 80.0% | 27,356 mi |
| 30-60k | 60 | 80.0% | 47,972 mi |
| 60-90k | 128 | 70.3% | 75,952 mi |
| 90-120k | 59 | 50.8% | 103,020 mi |
| 120k+ | 31 | 64.5% | 136,439 mi |
Source: 283 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 Panda MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Fiat Panda?
67.8% of the 283 2003 Fiat Panda tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 56.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Fiat Panda?
The three most recorded items are pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn (4.59%), rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements (4.59%), service brake imbalance across an axle (4.59%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Fiat Panda MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 80.0% of the time, falling to 64.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Fiat Panda in this dataset had covered 80,618 mi.
Does the season affect the 2003 Fiat Panda MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 69.4% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 64.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.