Pass rate
72.6%
Below average — 0.5 pts behind the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 95 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £66–£170
2008 Ford Dorchester MOT pass rate
- 2008
- typical 64,929 mi
Only 95 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
Brakes
30.8% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2014 83.2% pass
- Avoid 2008 72.6% pass · this year
Across the 8 years on record, a spread of 10.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 68.8%
- Typical mileage
- 65k mi
The 2008 Ford Dorchester MOT pass rate is 72.6% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 30.8% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Ford Dorchester does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Brakes: 1.5× the national share
Brakes make up 30.8% of everything recorded on the 2008 Ford Dorchester, against 20.9% nationally — 9.9 points above. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 31% 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.
- Based on a small sample. 95 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 Dorchester? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2008 Ford Dorchester compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, so this figure is 0.5 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 68.8%. The median 2008 Ford Dorchester in this dataset had covered 64,929 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 68.9% of the time, April–September 76.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength", noted on 6.32% of tests.
- 95 recorded tests behind this page.
- 72.6% overall pass rate, 68.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Ford Dorchester, the average is 77.0% — best year 2014 (83.2%), worst 2008 (72.6%).
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
- 95
- Typical mileage (median)
- 64,929 mi
- Make and model
- Ford Dorchester
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Corrosion Welding Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Dorchester MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 42% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Dorchester
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| North West | 34 | 70.6% |
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 2008 Dorchester
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 2008 Dorchester
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 6.3% 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 lights 5.3% of tests
“rear fog 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 the coil springs 4.2% 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.
What it costs to get a 2008 Dorchester through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £66–£170 — and 31% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £66–£170
- Cheapest common item: rear fog lamp not working
- £3–£15
- 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
- 31%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 95 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 Dorchester, side by side
8 model years on record, from 2005 to 2014. Across them the pass rate runs from 72.6% to 83.2% — a spread of 10.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2005 75.9% component mounting prescribed…
- 2006 77.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 74.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 72.6%component mounting prescribed…
- 2009 76.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 77.5% rear fog lamp not working
- 2011 77.3% headlamp not working on dipped…
- 2014 83.2% shock absorbers has a serious…
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 2008 Ford Dorchester 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 2008 cars with a similar record
- Vauxhall Corsa 72.6%
- Volkswagen Touran 72.5%
- Hyundai I10 72.5%
- Honda Civic 72.7%
- Skoda Octavia 72.8%
- Volvo S40 72.8%
Closest pass rates among 2008 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 2008 Ford Dorchester 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 273 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | 84 | 30.80% | 20.89% | +9.91 |
| Suspension | 78 | 28.60% | 20.98% | +7.62 |
| Tyres | 29 | 10.60% | 19.76% | −9.16 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 22 | 8.10% | 12.21% | −4.11 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 21 | 7.70% | 5.57% | +2.13 |
| Visibility | 12 | 4.40% | 4.97% | −0.57 |
| Steering | 10 | 3.70% | 2.57% | +1.13 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 9 | 3.30% | 5.52% | −2.22 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 5 | 1.80% | 0.82% | +0.98 |
| Non-component advisories | 3 | 1.10% | 4.18% | −3.08 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 6.3% | £180–450 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 5.3% | £3–15 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 4.2% | £25–65 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.2% | £18–45 |
| Flexible couplings excessively deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.2% | £80–250 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 3.2% | £45–95 |
| Integral vehicle structure condition corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.2% | £180–450 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.2% | £5–20 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 3.2% | £60–150 |
| Washers not working Visibility | Major | 3.2% | £5–15 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 29.5% | £80–180 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 20.0% | £18–45 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 16.8% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 14.7% | £45–110 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 12.6% | £25–65 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 10.5% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 32 | 71.9% | 49,440 mi |
| 60-90k | 43 | 76.7% | 69,994 mi |
| 90-120k | 16 | 68.8% | 101,142 mi |
| 120k+ | 4 | 50.0% | 120,669 mi |
Source: 95 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.
2008 Dorchester MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2008 Ford Dorchester?
72.6% of the 95 2008 Ford Dorchester tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 68.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2008 Ford Dorchester?
The three most recorded items are component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (6.32%), rear fog lamp not working (5.26%), coil spring fractured or broken (4.21%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2008 Ford Dorchester MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 71.9% of the time, falling to 50.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2008 Ford Dorchester in this dataset had covered 64,929 mi.
Does the season affect the 2008 Ford Dorchester MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 68.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 76.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.