Pass rate
70.4%
Below average — 1.8 pts behind the 72.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 554 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £30–£88
2004 Honda Fr-V MOT pass rate
- 2004
- typical 131,678 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
33.5% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £35–£75 for Suspension pin or bush excessively worn. What fitting it takes →
4.5 pts down across model years — 13.5% in 2005, 9.0% in 2009.
Which year to buy
- Best 2009 75.6% pass
- Avoid 2004 70.4% pass · this year
Across the 7 years on record, a spread of 5.2 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 61.2%
- Typical mileage
- 132k mi
The 2004 Honda Fr-V MOT pass rate is 70.4% of its MOT tests — 1.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 33.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Honda Fr-V does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.6× the national share
Suspension accounts for 33.5% of everything recorded on the 2004 Honda Fr-V, against 21.0% nationally — 12.5 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
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 Fr-V? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2004 Honda Fr-V compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.2%, so this figure is 1.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 61.2%. The median 2004 Honda Fr-V in this dataset had covered 131,678 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 69.6% of the time, April–September 72.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt", noted on 11.01% of tests.
- 554 recorded tests behind this page.
- 70.4% overall pass rate, 61.2% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Honda Fr-V, the average is 72.5% — best year 2009 (75.6%), worst 2004 (70.4%).
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
- 554
- Typical mileage (median)
- 131,678 mi
- Make and model
- Honda Fr-V
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Fr-V MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 52% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Fr-V
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 163 | 69.9% |
| South West | 97 | 67.0% |
| West Midlands | 79 | 72.2% |
| London | 55 | 78.2% |
| East of England | 53 | 67.9% |
| North West | 36 | 66.7% |
| Wales | 24 | 66.7% |
| East Midlands | 24 | 70.8% |
| Yorkshire | 20 | 75.0% |
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 2004 Fr-V
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 2004 Fr-V
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 suspension joints 11.0% 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 lights 9.8% 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 corrosion 6.1% of tests
“component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength”
Look under the sills, around the jacking points and where the suspension mounts meet the body. Flaking, holed or crumbly metal fails; a brown stain on sound metal does not.
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 2004 Fr-V through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £30–£88 — and 50% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £30–£88
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: component mounting prescribed areas…
- £180–£450
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 50%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 554 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 Fr-V, side by side
7 model years on record, from 2004 to 2010. Across them the pass rate runs from 70.4% to 75.6% — a spread of 5.2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2004 70.4%track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2005 70.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 70.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 73.0% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2008 72.9% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2009 75.6% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2010 73.3% ball joint dust cover severely…
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 2004 Honda Fr-V 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 2004 cars with a similar record
- Vauxhall Zafira 70.5%
- Volvo S40 70.5%
- Skoda Fabia 70.3%
- MINI Mini 70.6%
- Ford Focus 70.6%
- Volkswagen Touran 70.6%
Closest pass rates among 2004 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 2004 Honda Fr-V 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 2,062 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 | 703 | 33.50% | 20.98% | +12.52 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 313 | 14.90% | 12.21% | +2.69 |
| Brakes | 282 | 13.40% | 20.89% | −7.49 |
| Tyres | 209 | 10.00% | 19.76% | −9.76 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 189 | 9.00% | 5.57% | +3.43 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 155 | 7.40% | 5.52% | +1.88 |
| Steering | 89 | 4.20% | 2.57% | +1.63 |
| Non-component advisories | 44 | 2.10% | 4.18% | −2.08 |
| Visibility | 41 | 2.00% | 4.97% | −2.97 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 37 | 1.80% | 0.82% | +0.98 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 11.0% | £18–45 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 9.8% | £5–20 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 8.1% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 7.9% | £5–25 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 6.1% | £180–450 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 6.0% | £5–25 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 4.9% | £3–12 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.3% | £60–250 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.3% | £40–150 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 3.3% | £5–25 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 29.8% | £25–65 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 22.7% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 21.7% | £40–150 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 11.4% | £180–450 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Advisory | 10.3% | £60–150 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 9.6% | £200–700 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 10 | 60.0% | 55,835 mi |
| 60-90k | 32 | 84.4% | 76,689 mi |
| 90-120k | 148 | 72.3% | 107,154 mi |
| 120k+ | 363 | 68.9% | 150,696 mi |
Source: 554 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.
2004 Fr-V MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2004 Honda Fr-V?
70.4% of the 554 2004 Honda Fr-V tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.2% for cars first used in 2004. First-attempt pass rate: 61.2%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2004 Honda Fr-V?
The three most recorded items are track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt (11.01%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (9.75%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (8.12%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2004 Honda Fr-V MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 60.0% of the time, falling to 68.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2004 Honda Fr-V in this dataset had covered 131,678 mi.
Does the season affect the 2004 Honda Fr-V MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 69.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 72.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.