Pass rate
67.1%
Below average — 5.5 pts behind the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 9,805 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £54–£147
2003 Ford Transit Connect MOT pass rate
- 2003
- Van
- typical 141,838 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
20.0% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 88.4% pass
- Avoid 2005 66.8% pass
Across the 22 years on record, a spread of 21.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 56.9%
- Typical mileage
- 142k mi
The 2003 Ford Transit Connect MOT pass rate is 67.1% of its MOT tests — 5.5 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 20.0% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.6× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 19.1% of everything recorded on the 2003 Ford Transit Connect, against 12.2% nationally — 6.9 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 20.0%, 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.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, vans this age and mileage expect about 72.6%; this one manages 67.1% — 5.5 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not 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 Transit Connect? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Ford Transit Connect compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 5.5 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 56.9%. The median 2003 Ford Transit Connect in this dataset had covered 141,838 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 99% of tests, with a 67.1% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 66.6% of the time, April–September 67.7%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 17.76% of tests.
- 9,805 recorded tests behind this page.
- 67.1% overall pass rate, 56.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Ford Transit Connect, the average is 77.6% — best year 2023 (88.4%), worst 2005 (66.8%).
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
- 9,805
- Typical mileage (median)
- 141,838 mi
- Make and model
- Ford Transit Connect
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
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 Connect MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 58% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (99% of tests).
Where the Ford Transit Connect is most common
Across all Transit Connect model years on record (2002–2023): 264,850 Ford Transit Connect cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 607,107 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 7,453 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham (B) | 7,453 | 81.7% |
| 2 | Sheffield (S) | 6,412 | 80.4% |
| 3 | Nottingham (NG) | 5,882 | 76.1% |
| 4 | Chelmsford (CM) | 4,906 | 81.6% |
| 5 | Peterborough (PE) | 4,879 | 76.3% |
| 6 | Leicester (LE) | 4,733 | 79.4% |
| 7 | Bristol (BS) | 4,484 | 74.4% |
| 8 | Manchester (M) | 4,457 | 78.9% |
| 9 | Reading (RG) | 4,308 | 81.7% |
| 10 | Ashford (TN) | 4,043 | 77.9% |
| 11 | Basildon (SS) | 4,008 | 83.3% |
| 12 | Cardiff (CF) | 3,974 | 74.5% |
| 13 | Norwich (NR) | 3,961 | 75.9% |
| 14 | Doncaster (DN) | 3,849 | 78.4% |
| 15 | Derby (DE) | 3,800 | 78.1% |
| 16 | Portsmouth (PO) | 3,756 | 72.7% |
| 17 | Maidstone (ME) | 3,629 | 81.5% |
| 18 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 3,593 | 78.9% |
| 19 | Southampton (SO) | 3,523 | 77.2% |
| 20 | Liverpool (L) | 3,511 | 78.8% |
The twenty areas with the most Ford Transit Connect cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
Regional pass rates for the Transit Connect
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 1,837 | 70.0% |
| South West | 1,752 | 61.6% |
| East of England | 1,501 | 68.1% |
| North West | 1,119 | 66.2% |
| West Midlands | 968 | 70.0% |
| East Midlands | 770 | 66.8% |
| Yorkshire | 703 | 67.3% |
| Wales | 456 | 66.4% |
| Scotland | 276 | 64.9% |
| North East | 262 | 66.0% |
| London | 161 | 80.7% |
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 2003 Transit Connect
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 2003 Transit Connect
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 17.8% 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 windscreen 10.9% 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.
-
Check the suspension joints 8.9% 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.
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 2003 Transit Connect through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £54–£147 — and 36% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £54–£147
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: component mounting prescribed areas…
- £180–£450
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 36%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 9,805 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 Connect, side by side
22 model years on record, from 2002 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 66.8% to 88.4% — a spread of 21.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2002 68.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2003 67.1%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2004 67.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 66.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 67.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2007 67.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 67.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2009 68.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2010 68.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 70.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 72.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 74.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2014 79.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 80.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2016 82.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 84.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 84.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 83.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 84.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2021 86.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2022 85.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2023 88.4% windscreen damaged but not…
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 2003 Ford Transit Connect 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 2003 vans with a similar record
- Renault Trafic 67.2%
- Fiat Doblo 66.6%
- Vauxhall Vivaro 66.5%
- Renault Kangoo 67.7%
- Citroen Dispatch 67.9%
- Peugeot Partner 68.6%
Closest pass rates among 2003 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 2003 Ford Transit Connect 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 43,226 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 | 8,819 | 20.00% | 20.89% | −0.89 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 8,405 | 19.10% | 12.21% | +6.89 |
| Suspension | 8,232 | 18.70% | 20.98% | −2.28 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 4,926 | 11.20% | 5.57% | +5.63 |
| Tyres | 4,138 | 9.40% | 19.76% | −10.36 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 3,620 | 8.20% | 5.52% | +2.68 |
| Visibility | 2,376 | 5.40% | 4.97% | +0.43 |
| Steering | 965 | 2.20% | 2.57% | −0.37 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 918 | 2.10% | 1.76% | +0.34 |
| Non-component advisories | 827 | 1.90% | 4.18% | −2.28 |
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 | 17.8% | £5–20 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 10.9% | £80–200 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 9.6% | £80–250 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 8.9% | £18–45 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 8.7% | £180–450 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 6.5% | £5–25 |
| Battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.8% | £60–140 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 5.0% | £80–250 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.9% | £5–20 |
| Prescribed areas prescribed area strength or continuity significantly reduced Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 4.2% | £40–120 |
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 | 29.9% | £80–180 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 29.9% | £200–700 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 22.3% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 10.8% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 8.7% | £45–110 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Advisory | 8.4% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 22 | 90.9% | 21,210 mi |
| 30-60k | 141 | 80.9% | 49,402 mi |
| 60-90k | 795 | 71.2% | 78,125 mi |
| 90-120k | 2,001 | 67.5% | 107,030 mi |
| 120k+ | 6,702 | 66.2% | 163,887 mi |
Source: 9,805 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.
2003 Transit Connect MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Ford Transit Connect?
67.1% of the 9,805 2003 Ford Transit Connect tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 56.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Ford Transit Connect?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (17.76%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (10.92%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (9.64%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Ford Transit Connect MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 90.9% of the time, falling to 66.2% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Ford Transit Connect in this dataset had covered 141,838 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2003 Ford Transit Connect?
Diesel: 67.1% pass rate across 9,681 tests. Petrol: 68.1% pass rate across 113 tests. LPG: 54.5% pass rate across 11 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2003 Ford Transit Connect MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 66.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 67.7%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.