Pass rate
72.7%
Below average — 0.4 pts behind the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 80,215 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £15–£41
2008 Honda Civic MOT pass rate
- 2008
- typical 114,532 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
26.8% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £40–£65 for Shock absorber leaking. What fitting it takes →
3.9 pts down across model years — 5.6% in 2000, 1.7% in 2021.
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 95.6% pass
- Avoid 2003 71.7% pass
Across the 24 years on record, a spread of 23.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 64.4%
- Typical mileage
- 115k mi
The 2008 Honda Civic MOT pass rate is 72.7% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.8% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Honda Civic does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.7× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 20.6% of everything recorded on the 2008 Honda Civic, against 12.2% nationally — 8.4 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 26.8%, but at 21.0% 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 Honda Civic? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2008 Honda Civic compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, so this figure is 0.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 64.4%. The median 2008 Honda Civic in this dataset had covered 114,532 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 72% of tests, with a 73.2% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 72.9% of the time, April–September 72.5%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 8.29% of tests.
- 80,215 recorded tests behind this page.
- 72.7% overall pass rate, 64.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Honda Civic, the average is 79.2% — best year 2022 (95.6%), worst 2003 (71.7%).
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
- 80,215
- Typical mileage (median)
- 114,532 mi
- Make and model
- Honda Civic
- 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 Civic MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 62% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (72% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Civic
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 16,867 | 74.8% |
| South West | 9,527 | 67.8% |
| West Midlands | 8,911 | 76.1% |
| North West | 8,773 | 72.7% |
| East of England | 8,188 | 73.5% |
| Yorkshire | 6,827 | 72.1% |
| East Midlands | 5,755 | 72.1% |
| Scotland | 4,887 | 64.5% |
| London | 4,648 | 81.3% |
| Wales | 3,261 | 68.5% |
| North East | 2,569 | 70.2% |
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 2008 Civic
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 2008 Civic
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 8.3% 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 suspension joints 5.8% 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 shock absorbers 3.7% of tests
“shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak”
Press down hard on each corner of the car and let go. It should settle in one bounce; if it keeps rocking, or you can see oil weeping down a shock absorber, that is the fault a tester will find.
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 2008 Civic through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £15–£41 — and 46% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £15–£41
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: headlamp aim projected beam image is…
- £30–£80
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 46%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 80,215 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 Civic, side by side
24 model years on record, from 2000 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 71.7% to 95.6% — a spread of 23.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 75.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2001 72.0% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2002 72.2% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2003 71.7% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2004 72.5% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2005 72.8% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2006 72.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 72.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 72.7%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 73.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 74.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 75.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 82.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 84.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 86.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 87.3% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2016 88.4% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2017 89.2% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2018 89.5% wipers blade defective
- 2019 91.3% wipers blade defective
- 2020 93.0% wipers blade defective
- 2021 93.8% wipers blade defective
- 2022 95.6% wipers blade defective
- 2023 94.0% rear fog lamp missing
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 2008 Honda Civic 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 2008 cars with a similar record
- Skoda Octavia 72.8%
- Volvo S40 72.8%
- Mitsubishi Shogun 72.8%
- Vauxhall Corsa 72.6%
- Ford Mondeo 72.5%
- Volkswagen Touran 72.5%
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.
The full DVSA record for the 2008 Honda Civic 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 225,365 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 | 60,861 | 26.80% | 20.98% | +5.82 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 46,843 | 20.60% | 12.21% | +8.39 |
| Brakes | 36,844 | 16.20% | 20.89% | −4.69 |
| Tyres | 30,804 | 13.50% | 19.76% | −6.26 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 12,456 | 5.50% | 5.57% | −0.07 |
| Steering | 8,724 | 3.80% | 2.57% | +1.23 |
| Non-component advisories | 8,370 | 3.70% | 4.18% | −0.48 |
| Visibility | 7,651 | 3.40% | 4.97% | −1.57 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 6,712 | 3.00% | 1.76% | +1.24 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 6,100 | 2.70% | 5.52% | −2.82 |
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 | 8.3% | £5–20 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 6.0% | £5–25 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 5.8% | £18–45 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 5.8% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.8% | £30–80 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.5% | £5–25 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 3.7% | £30–75 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 2.6% | £25–65 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.4% | £3–12 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.3% | £18–45 |
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 | 18.3% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 12.8% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 10.8% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 10.2% | £25–65 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 9.3% | £30–75 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.8% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 381 | 88.7% | 22,200 mi |
| 30-60k | 3,604 | 80.7% | 49,394 mi |
| 60-90k | 14,761 | 75.6% | 77,647 mi |
| 90-120k | 26,168 | 73.1% | 105,346 mi |
| 120k+ | 35,071 | 70.3% | 150,002 mi |
Source: 80,215 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.
2008 Civic MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2008 Honda Civic?
72.7% of the 80,215 2008 Honda Civic tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 64.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2008 Honda Civic?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (8.29%), headlamp lens slightly defective (6.00%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (5.78%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2008 Honda Civic MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.7% of the time, falling to 70.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2008 Honda Civic in this dataset had covered 114,532 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2008 Honda Civic?
Petrol: 73.2% pass rate across 57,563 tests. Diesel: 69.9% pass rate across 19,369 tests. Hybrid: 79.4% pass rate across 1,781 tests. Electric: 80.7% pass rate across 787 tests. Other: 80.7% pass rate across 711 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2008 Honda Civic MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 72.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 72.5%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.