Pass rate
74.9%
Below average — 0.9 pts ahead of the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 27,982 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £36–£107
2009 Ford Kuga MOT pass rate
- 2009
- typical 120,798 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
24.5% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 96.0% pass
- Avoid 2009 74.9% pass · this year
Across the 16 years on record, a spread of 21.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 67.9%
- Typical mileage
- 121k mi
The 2009 Ford Kuga MOT pass rate is 74.9% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 24.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Ford Kuga does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Fewer problems with brakes
Brakes are 14.4% of this car’s recorded faults, against 20.9% nationally — the mirror image of the usual story on a car of this age.
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 Kuga? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2009 Ford Kuga compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 74.0%, so this figure is 0.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 67.9%. The median 2009 Ford Kuga in this dataset had covered 120,798 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 98% of tests, with a 74.9% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 75.0% of the time, April–September 74.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 7.27% of tests.
- 27,982 recorded tests behind this page.
- 74.9% overall pass rate, 67.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Ford Kuga, the average is 86.0% — best year 2023 (96.0%), worst 2009 (74.9%).
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
- 27,982
- Typical mileage (median)
- 120,798 mi
- Make and model
- Ford Kuga
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Kuga MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 65% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (98% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Kuga
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| East of England | 4,204 | 77.6% |
| South East | 4,167 | 76.1% |
| South West | 3,624 | 70.2% |
| Yorkshire | 2,892 | 75.3% |
| North West | 2,883 | 74.3% |
| West Midlands | 2,866 | 78.1% |
| East Midlands | 2,574 | 74.6% |
| Wales | 1,985 | 72.7% |
| North East | 1,236 | 75.8% |
| Scotland | 1,230 | 69.4% |
| London | 321 | 86.6% |
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 2009 Kuga
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 2009 Kuga
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 7.3% of tests
“registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”
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 5.8% 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.
-
Check the windscreen 4.0% 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.
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 2009 Kuga through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £36–£107 — and 49% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £36–£107
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: steering rack gaiter missing or no longer…
- £120–£300
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 49%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 27,982 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 Kuga, side by side
16 model years on record, from 2008 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 74.9% to 96.0% — a spread of 21.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2008 75.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 74.9%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 75.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 75.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 76.9% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 81.5% position lamp not working
- 2014 82.4% position lamp not working
- 2015 84.3% position lamp not working
- 2016 86.7% position lamp not working
- 2017 88.7% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2018 89.4% wipers does not clear the…
- 2019 90.0% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2020 91.9% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 92.4% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 94.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 96.0% has a cut in excess of 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 2009 Ford Kuga 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 2009 cars with a similar record
- Volkswagen Scirocco 74.9%
- Mercedes-Benz Vito 74.9%
- SEAT Leon 75.0%
- MINI Mini 74.8%
- Mercedes-Benz A-Class 75.1%
- Volkswagen Tiguan 75.1%
Closest pass rates among 2009 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 2009 Ford Kuga 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 68,228 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 | 16,868 | 24.50% | 20.98% | +3.52 |
| Tyres | 11,403 | 16.60% | 19.76% | −3.16 |
| Brakes | 9,910 | 14.40% | 20.89% | −6.49 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 8,814 | 12.80% | 12.21% | +0.59 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 5,690 | 8.30% | 5.52% | +2.78 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 4,409 | 6.40% | 5.57% | +0.83 |
| Non-component advisories | 4,177 | 6.10% | 4.18% | +1.92 |
| Visibility | 3,080 | 4.50% | 4.97% | −0.47 |
| Steering | 2,898 | 4.20% | 2.57% | +1.63 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 979 | 1.40% | 1.76% | −0.36 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 7.3% | £5–20 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 5.8% | £25–65 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.5% | £5–25 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.0% | £80–200 |
| Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 3.3% | £120–300 |
| On or after 01/07/2008 emissions exceed manufacturer's specified limit Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.1% | £60–250 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 2.1% | £80–250 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 2.0% | £5–25 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £3–12 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.7% | £3–12 |
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 | 24.6% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 13.5% | £40–150 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 12.0% | £18–45 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 11.6% | £200–700 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 9.7% | £45–110 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 8.0% | £180–450 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 53 | 88.7% | 23,503 mi |
| 30-60k | 573 | 80.6% | 48,973 mi |
| 60-90k | 3,289 | 77.9% | 79,028 mi |
| 90-120k | 9,640 | 75.1% | 106,389 mi |
| 120k+ | 14,238 | 73.9% | 145,545 mi |
Source: 27,982 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.
2009 Kuga MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2009 Ford Kuga?
74.9% of the 27,982 2009 Ford Kuga tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.0% for cars first used in 2009. First-attempt pass rate: 67.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2009 Ford Kuga?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (7.27%), coil spring fractured or broken (5.77%), position lamp not working (4.50%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2009 Ford Kuga MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.7% of the time, falling to 73.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2009 Ford Kuga in this dataset had covered 120,798 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2009 Ford Kuga?
Diesel: 74.9% pass rate across 27,559 tests. Petrol: 75.7% pass rate across 420 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2009 Ford Kuga MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 75.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 74.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.