Pass rate
Around average — 3.3 pts ahead of the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 29,836 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £26–£70
Pass rate
Around average — 3.3 pts ahead of the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 29,836 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £26–£70
Most common fault
Brakes
22.1% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Part only £25–£55 for Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded. What fitting it takes →
4.1 pts down across model years — 10.4% in 2002, 6.3% in 2012.
Which year to buy
Across the 11 years on record, a spread of 11.4 points. See every year →
The 2008 Ford Fusion MOT pass rate is 76.4% of its MOT tests — 3.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 22.1% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Ford Fusion does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 73.1% and this one manages 76.4% — 3.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
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 Fusion? Get an email when these numbers change .
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, so this figure is 3.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 69.9%. The median 2008 Ford Fusion in this dataset had covered 82,863 mi.
74% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 77.3% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 75.9% of the time, April–September 76.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated", noted on 7.34% 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.
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 61% so small gaps stay visible.
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (74% of tests).
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 5,845 | 78.5% |
| East of England | 4,392 | 80.0% |
| South West | 4,156 | 73.2% |
| North West | 2,992 | 76.3% |
| West Midlands | 2,924 | 78.3% |
| Yorkshire | 2,423 | 74.3% |
| East Midlands | 2,176 | 78.7% |
| Wales | 1,449 | 69.8% |
| Scotland | 1,438 | 67.0% |
| London | 1,036 | 84.5% |
| North East | 999 | 70.8% |
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 the suspension joints 7.3% of tests
“ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated”
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 4.0% of tests
“stop 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 brake pipes 3.0% of tests
“rigid brake pipes excessively corroded”
Brake pipes run under the car, usually in front of the rear wheels. Flaking or crusty metal is what fails; a light dusting of surface rust does not. Worth asking a garage to look while it is on a ramp.
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 £26–£70 — and 44% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 29,836 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 →
11 model years on record, from 2002 to 2012. Across them the pass rate runs from 71.9% to 83.3% — a spread of 11.4 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 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.
Shares of the 73,973 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 | 16,611 | 22.10% | 20.89% | +1.21 |
| Suspension | 15,649 | 20.90% | 20.98% | −0.08 |
| Tyres | 11,221 | 15.00% | 19.76% | −4.76 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 10,244 | 13.60% | 12.21% | +1.39 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 5,134 | 6.80% | 5.57% | +1.23 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 4,680 | 6.20% | 5.52% | +0.68 |
| Visibility | 3,052 | 4.10% | 4.97% | −0.87 |
| Non-component advisories | 3,005 | 4.00% | 4.18% | −0.18 |
| Steering | 2,572 | 3.40% | 2.57% | +0.83 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1,805 | 2.40% | 1.76% | +0.64 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 7.3% | £18–45 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.0% | £3–12 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 3.4% | £18–45 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.2% | £3–15 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 3.0% | £80–180 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 2.6% | £3–12 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.5% | £80–200 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.4% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.2% | £5–20 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 2.1% | £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.
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 | 20.7% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 16.5% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 14.2% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 11.3% | £45–110 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 9.9% | £25–65 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 7.8% | £200–700 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 618 | 90.6% | 24,146 mi |
| 30-60k | 6,022 | 82.3% | 47,902 mi |
| 60-90k | 10,559 | 77.5% | 74,944 mi |
| 90-120k | 7,809 | 73.1% | 103,284 mi |
| 120k+ | 4,621 | 69.8% | 142,599 mi |
Source: 29,836 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.
76.4% of the 29,836 2008 Ford Fusion tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 69.9%.
The three most recorded items are ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (7.34%), stop lamp not working (4.03%), ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (3.44%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 90.6% of the time, falling to 69.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2008 Ford Fusion in this dataset had covered 82,863 mi.
Petrol: 77.3% pass rate across 21,979 tests. Diesel: 73.9% pass rate across 7,857 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 75.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 76.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.