Pass rate
70.0%
Below average — 2.2 pts behind the 72.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 60 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £36–£101
2004 Ford C-Max MOT pass rate
- 2004
- typical 101,777 mi
Only 60 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.
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
36.6% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 88.6% pass
- Avoid 2004 70.0% pass · this year
Across the 16 years on record, a spread of 18.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 59.1%
- Typical mileage
- 102k mi
The 2004 Ford C-Max MOT pass rate is 70.0% of its MOT tests — 2.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 36.6% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.7× the national share
Suspension accounts for 36.6% of everything recorded on the 2004 Ford C-Max, against 21.0% nationally — 15.6 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.
- Based on a small sample. 60 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 Ford C-Max? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2004 Ford C-Max compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.2%, so this figure is 2.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 59.1%. The median 2004 Ford C-Max in this dataset had covered 101,777 mi.
52% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 64.5% of the time.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect", noted on 8.33% of tests.
- 60 recorded tests behind this page.
- 70.0% overall pass rate, 59.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Ford C-Max, the average is 79.9% — best year 2019 (88.6%), worst 2004 (70.0%).
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
- 60
- Typical mileage (median)
- 101,777 mi
- Make and model
- Ford C-Max
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Headlight Alignment
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the C-Max MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 57% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (52% of tests).
Where the Ford C-Max is most common
Across all C-Max model years on record (2004–2019): 153,868 Ford C-Max cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 406,508 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 4,647 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) | 4,647 | 83.1% |
| 2 | Nottingham (NG) | 3,688 | 78.9% |
| 3 | Liverpool (L) | 3,640 | 81.2% |
| 4 | Sheffield (S) | 3,492 | 82.4% |
| 5 | Peterborough (PE) | 3,364 | 80.8% |
| 6 | Leicester (LE) | 3,191 | 82.0% |
| 7 | Bristol (BS) | 3,138 | 75.5% |
| 8 | Norwich (NR) | 2,760 | 80.9% |
| 9 | Chelmsford (CM) | 2,686 | 82.4% |
| 10 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 2,575 | 81.2% |
| 11 | Derby (DE) | 2,502 | 81.2% |
| 12 | Ipswich (IP) | 2,435 | 80.4% |
| 13 | Brighton (BN) | 2,401 | 75.7% |
| 14 | Basildon (SS) | 2,316 | 82.9% |
| 15 | Reading (RG) | 2,311 | 81.1% |
| 16 | Portsmouth (PO) | 2,307 | 77.1% |
| 17 | Cardiff (CF) | 2,225 | 77.3% |
| 18 | Manchester (M) | 2,209 | 81.0% |
| 19 | Coventry (CV) | 2,204 | 80.2% |
| 20 | Maidstone (ME) | 2,194 | 82.0% |
The twenty areas with the most Ford C-Max 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 C-Max
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 16 | 68.8% |
| North West | 15 | 80.0% |
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 2004 C-Max
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 2004 C-Max
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 8.3% of tests
“headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect”
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 windscreen 6.7% 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.
-
Check the suspension joints 3.3% 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 2004 C-Max through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £36–£101 — and 49% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £36–£101
- 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
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 49%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 60 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 C-Max, side by side
16 model years on record, from 2004 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 70.0% to 88.6% — a spread of 18.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2004 70.0%headlamp aim projected beam image…
- 2005 71.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2006 70.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 70.7% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2008 71.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2009 73.4% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2010 73.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 77.4% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2012 78.5% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2013 81.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2014 81.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 84.1% tyre pressure monitoring system…
- 2016 86.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 88.5% wipers does not clear the…
- 2018 87.5% wipers does not clear the…
- 2019 88.6% wipers does not clear the…
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 2004 Ford C-Max 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 2004 cars with a similar record
- Honda Cr-V 70.0%
- Rover 75 70.1%
- SEAT Ibiza 70.2%
- Hyundai Santa Fe 70.2%
- Land Rover Freelander 69.7%
- Skoda Fabia 70.3%
Closest pass rates among 2004 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 2004 Ford C-Max 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 171 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 | 63 | 36.60% | 20.98% | +15.62 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 31 | 18.00% | 12.21% | +5.79 |
| Tyres | 29 | 16.90% | 19.76% | −2.86 |
| Brakes | 16 | 9.30% | 20.89% | −11.59 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 11 | 6.40% | 5.52% | +0.88 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 6 | 3.50% | 5.57% | −2.07 |
| Visibility | 6 | 3.50% | 4.97% | −1.47 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 4 | 2.30% | 1.76% | +0.54 |
| Steering | 3 | 1.70% | 2.57% | −0.87 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 2 | 1.20% | 0.82% | +0.38 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 8.3% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp lens seriously defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 8.3% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 8.3% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 6.7% | £5–20 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 6.7% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 5.0% | £5–25 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 5.0% | £60–150 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.3% | £18–45 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.3% | £60–250 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 3.3% | £180–450 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 16.7% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 15.0% | £40–150 |
| Suspension arm corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 15.0% | £35–85 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 13.3% | £25–65 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 13.3% | £45–95 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 11.7% | £180–450 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60-90k | 21 | 71.4% | 82,010 mi |
| 90-120k | 19 | 73.7% | 104,744 mi |
| 120k+ | 20 | 65.0% | 158,710 mi |
Source: 60 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.
2004 C-Max MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2004 Ford C-Max?
70.0% of the 60 2004 Ford C-Max tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.2% for cars first used in 2004. First-attempt pass rate: 59.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2004 Ford C-Max?
The three most recorded items are headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (8.33%), headlamp lens seriously defective (8.33%), headlamp lens slightly defective (8.33%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2004 Ford C-Max MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 71.4% of the time, falling to 65.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2004 Ford C-Max in this dataset had covered 101,777 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2004 Ford C-Max?
Diesel: 64.5% pass rate across 31 tests. Petrol: 75.9% pass rate across 29 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.