Pass rate
Above average — 14.1 pts ahead of the 74.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 339 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £17–£66
Pass rate
Above average — 14.1 pts ahead of the 74.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 339 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £17–£66
Most common fault
Lamps & electrics
21.0% of faults · 12.2% nationally
Part only £6–£18 for Registration plate lamp inoperative (multiple lamps). What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
Across the 23 years on record, a spread of 13.5 points. See every year →
The 2010 Ford Mustang MOT pass rate is 88.8% of its MOT tests — 14.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Lamps & electrics is the biggest single reason it fails, at 21.0% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Ford Mustang does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics make up 21.0% of everything recorded on the 2010 Ford Mustang, against 12.2% nationally — 8.8 points above. Walk round the car with the lights on before the test: bulbs, indicators and number-plate lamps are the cheapest failures to prevent and among the most common.
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 Mustang? Get an email when these numbers change .
Cars of this age and mileage average 74.7%, so this figure is 14.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 87.8%. The median 2010 Ford Mustang in this dataset had covered 66,538 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 86.0% of the time, April–September 90.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 2.95% 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.
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 72% so small gaps stay visible.
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 114 | 89.5% |
| East of England | 53 | 90.6% |
| West Midlands | 34 | 88.2% |
| North West | 28 | 89.3% |
| Yorkshire | 27 | 88.9% |
| South West | 24 | 95.8% |
| East Midlands | 18 | 83.3% |
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 lights 3.0% 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 suspension joints 2.4% of tests
“track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or 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 number plates 1.8% of tests
“registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements”
Check both plates are present, legible and correctly spaced, with the postcode of the supplier and the BS AU 145e mark. A private plate in the wrong style is a fail before the car is even looked at.
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 £17–£66 — and 60% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 339 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 →
23 model years on record, from 2000 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 79.4% to 92.9% — a spread of 13.5 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 2010 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 343 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 73 | 21.00% | 12.21% | +8.79 |
| Brakes | 64 | 18.40% | 20.89% | −2.49 |
| Suspension | 63 | 18.20% | 20.98% | −2.78 |
| Tyres | 53 | 15.30% | 19.76% | −4.46 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 27 | 7.80% | 5.52% | +2.28 |
| Steering | 23 | 6.60% | 2.57% | +4.03 |
| Visibility | 15 | 4.30% | 4.97% | −0.67 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 13 | 3.70% | 5.57% | −1.87 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 7 | 2.00% | 1.76% | +0.24 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 5 | 1.40% | 0.82% | +0.58 |
| 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 | 3.0% | £5–20 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.4% | £3–15 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 2.4% | £18–45 |
| Registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements Identification of the vehicle | Major | 1.8% | £20–80 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.5% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds default limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.2% | £60–250 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.2% | £3–12 |
| Position lamp incorrect colour Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.2% | £5–25 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.2% | £5–25 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.2% | £8–22 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 7.7% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 4.7% | £40–150 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 4.4% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 4.1% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 4.1% | £45–95 |
| Linkage pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 3.0% | £40–150 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 30 | 100.0% | 18,449 mi |
| 30-60k | 122 | 93.4% | 46,837 mi |
| 60-90k | 122 | 86.1% | 75,643 mi |
| 90-120k | 49 | 81.6% | 100,226 mi |
| 120k+ | 15 | 80.0% | 161,240 mi |
Source: 339 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.
88.8% of the 339 2010 Ford Mustang tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.7% for cars first used in 2010. First-attempt pass rate: 87.8%.
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (2.95%), rear fog lamp not working (2.36%), track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt (2.36%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 80.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2010 Ford Mustang in this dataset had covered 66,538 mi.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 86.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 90.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.