2013 Ford Transit MOT pass rate

Pass rate

72.9%

Below average — 5.7 pts behind the 78.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.

Across 78,179 recorded tests.

Typical repair bill £44–£128

Most common fault

Brakes

25.1% 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 →

5.0 pts down across model years — 8.6% in 2000, 3.6% in 2019.

Every failure, with what it costs →

Which year to buy

  • Best 2024 96.9% pass
  • Avoid 2010 68.6% pass

Across the 25 years on record, a spread of 28.3 points. See every year →

First-attempt pass
64.3%
Typical mileage
123k mi

The 2013 Ford Transit MOT pass rate is 72.9% of its MOT tests — 5.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 25.1% of what testers record.

MOT PASS RATES

The 2013 Ford Transit on the real record

72.9% of 2013 Ford Transit MOTs passed — 78,179 tests, 2023–2025

Pass rate

The answer from the DVSA's class-4 MOT records.

Check your postcode

MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Ford Transit does in your corner of the country.

How one model's pass rate varies by postcode →

Expert verdict

Lamps & electrics: 1.6× the national share

Lamps & electrics make up 19.0% of everything recorded on the 2013 Ford Transit, against 12.2% nationally — 6.8 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 25.1%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. 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 Transit? Get an email when these numbers change .

Every Ford Transit first registered in 2013 is combined here — 4 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.

How does the 2013 Ford Transit compare?

Cars of this age and mileage average 78.6%, so this figure is 5.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 64.3%. The median 2013 Ford Transit in this dataset had covered 122,599 mi.

Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 73.0% of the time, April–September 72.9%.

The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 9.32% of tests.

  • 78,179 recorded tests behind this page.
  • 72.9% overall pass rate, 64.3% on a first attempt.
  • Across every year of the Ford Transit, the average is 75.6% — best year 2024 (96.9%), worst 2010 (68.6%).

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
78,179
Typical mileage (median)
122,599 mi
Make and model
Ford Transit
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 Transit MOT pass rate?

0-30k 82.6%
30-60k 77.4%
60-90k 73.9%
90-120k 72.3%
120k+ 72.5%

Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 64% so small gaps stay visible.

Regional pass rates for the Transit

Region Tests Pass rate
South East 12,746 75.0%
South West 10,735 68.8%
North West 10,023 72.1%
East of England 8,119 75.1%
Yorkshire 7,373 72.8%
Scotland 7,255 69.3%
West Midlands 6,705 76.2%
East Midlands 5,508 74.0%
Wales 5,297 71.9%
North East 3,538 73.2%
London 880 87.4%

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 2013 Transit

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.

Brakes 25.1%
+4.2 pts vs national national 20.9% Price brakes parts
Lamps & electrics 19.0%
+6.8 pts vs national national 12.2% Order bulbs & wipers
Suspension 18.1%
−2.9 pts vs national national 21.0% Price suspension parts
Tyres 9.2%
−10.6 pts vs national national 19.8% Compare tyre prices
Show the other 6 fault categories
  • Body & chassis 8.6%
  • Visibility 6.1%
  • Emissions & leaks 6.0%
  • Steering 3.0%
  • Advisories 2.4%
  • Identification 1.2%

Shares are of every item recorded on 2013 Ford Transit tests — a composition, so they add to 100% across all sections, not per test.

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 2013 Transit

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.

  1. Check the lights 9.3% 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.

  2. Check the windscreen 8.7% 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.

  3. Check the suspension joints 3.8% of tests

    “pins and bushes pin or bush 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 2013 Transit through its MOT

Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £44–£128 — and 42% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.

Average repair across the 10 common items
£44–£128
Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
£3–£12
Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
£80–£250
Common items a careful owner can do at home
50%
Repairs that still cost under £30
42%

Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 78,179 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 Transit, side by side

25 model years on record, from 2000 to 2024. Across them the pass rate runs from 68.6% to 96.9% — a spread of 28.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.

  1. 2000 74.8% component mounting prescribed…
  2. 2001 72.0% windscreen damaged but not…
  3. 2002 71.6% windscreen damaged but not…
  4. 2003 69.4% windscreen damaged but not…
  5. 2004 70.3% component mounting prescribed…
  6. 2005 70.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
  7. 2006 71.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
  8. 2007 70.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
  9. 2008 69.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
  10. 2009 69.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
  11. 2010 68.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
  12. 2011 69.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
  13. 2012 70.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
  14. 2013 72.9%
    registration plate lamp(s)…
  15. 2014 76.2% windscreen damaged but not…
  16. 2015 77.3% joints constant velocity boot…
  17. 2016 79.3% windscreen damaged but not…
  18. 2017 80.7% windscreen damaged but not…
  19. 2018 83.2% windscreen damaged but not…
  20. 2019 84.4% windscreen damaged but not…
  21. 2020 86.2% windscreen damaged but not…
  22. 2021 87.6% windscreen damaged but not…
  23. 2022 90.9% windscreen damaged but not…
  24. 2023 93.1% windscreen damaged but not…
  25. 2024 96.9% headlamp aim too high

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 2013 Ford Transit 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.

Compare 2013 with another year →

Compare two different cars instead →

Other 2013 vans with a similar record

Closest pass rates among 2013 vans with at least 1,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. Full rankings: best vans and worst vans for MOT pass rates.

The full DVSA record for the 2013 Ford Transit 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 234,747 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 59,732 25.10% 20.89% +4.21
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 45,246 19.00% 12.21% +6.79
Suspension 43,003 18.10% 20.98% −2.88
Tyres 21,939 9.20% 19.76% −10.56
Body, chassis, structure 20,539 8.60% 5.57% +3.03
Visibility 14,459 6.10% 4.97% +1.13
Noise, emissions and leaks 14,177 6.00% 5.52% +0.48
Steering 7,144 3.00% 2.57% +0.43
Non-component advisories 5,598 2.40% 4.18% −1.78
Identification of the vehicle 2,910 1.20% 1.76% −0.56

The exact failure items, in the tester's words

Share of the 78,179 tests on this vehicle that recorded each item
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost Part
Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Minor 9.3% £5–20 Number Plate Lamp →
Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility Minor 8.7% £80–200 Windscreen →
Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure Minor 8.2% £80–250 Body Panel Repair →
Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure Major 8.0% £80–250 Body Panel Repair →
Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Major 6.1% £5–25 Headlight Bulb →
Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Major 5.5% £5–20 Number Plate Lamp →
Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Major 3.9% £3–12 Stop Light Bulb →
Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension Major 3.8% £40–150 Suspension Component →
Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes Major 3.7% £80–180 Brake Pipe →
Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension Minor 2.4% £18–45 Ball Joint →

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.

Items recorded as advisory on this vehicle
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost
Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes Advisory 25.3% £80–180
Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension Advisory 19.9% £40–150
Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes Advisory 16.5% £45–110
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres Advisory 14.1% £45–95
Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks Advisory 11.3% £200–700
Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes Advisory 10.3% £18–45

Pass rate by mileage

Mileage Tests Pass rate Median odometer
0-30k 477 82.6% 22,164 mi
30-60k 3,561 77.4% 49,132 mi
60-90k 12,275 73.9% 77,212 mi
90-120k 20,778 72.3% 105,457 mi
120k+ 40,775 72.5% 160,860 mi

Source: 78,179 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.

2013 Transit MOT questions

What is the MOT pass rate for a 2013 Ford Transit?

72.9% of the 78,179 2013 Ford Transit tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 78.6% for cars first used in 2013. First-attempt pass rate: 64.3%.

What are the most common MOT failures on a 2013 Ford Transit?

The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (9.32%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (8.69%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (8.20%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.

Does mileage affect the 2013 Ford Transit MOT pass rate?

Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 82.6% of the time, falling to 72.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2013 Ford Transit in this dataset had covered 122,599 mi.

Does the season affect the 2013 Ford Transit MOT pass rate?

Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 73.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 72.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.