Pass rate
80.0%
Around average — 10.7 pts behind the 90.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 100 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £8–£27
2020 Honda Insight MOT pass rate
- 2020
- typical 93,280 mi
Most common fault
Lamps & electrics
38.1% of faults · 12.2% nationally
Part only £6–£18 for Registration plate lamp inoperative (multiple lamps). What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2014 87.7% pass
- Avoid 2001 76.3% pass
Across the 14 years on record, a spread of 11.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 75.6%
- Typical mileage
- 93k mi
The 2020 Honda Insight MOT pass rate is 80.0% of its MOT tests — 10.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Lamps & electrics is the biggest single reason it fails, at 38.1% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Honda Insight does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 3.1× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 38.1% of everything recorded on the 2020 Honda Insight, against 12.2% nationally — 25.9 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.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 90.7%; this one manages 80.0% — 10.7 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 78% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
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 Insight? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2020 Honda Insight compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 90.7%, so this figure is 10.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 75.6%. The median 2020 Honda Insight in this dataset had covered 93,280 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 82.2% of the time, April–September 78.2%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 9.00% of tests.
- 100 recorded tests behind this page.
- 80.0% overall pass rate, 75.6% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Honda Insight, the average is 81.9% — best year 2014 (87.7%), worst 2001 (76.3%).
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
- 100
- Typical mileage (median)
- 93,280 mi
- Make and model
- Honda Insight
- 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 Insight MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 70% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Insight
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 30 | 73.3% |
| North West | 24 | 79.2% |
| West Midlands | 16 | 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 2020 Insight
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 2020 Insight
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 9.0% 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 5.0% of tests
“linkage ball joint dust cover 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 wipers and washers 4.0% of tests
“wipers blade defective”
Run the wipers with the screen wet: they should clear it in one sweep without smearing or juddering. Top the washer bottle up and check both jets hit the screen.
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 2020 Insight through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £8–£27 — and 78% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £8–£27
- Cheapest common item: rear fog lamp missing
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust…
- £18–£45
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 100%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 78%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 100 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 Insight, side by side
14 model years on record, from 2000 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 76.3% to 87.7% — a spread of 11.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 81.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2001 76.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2002 83.0% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2009 79.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 80.9% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2011 83.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 84.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 85.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 87.7% position lamp not working
- 2015 81.3% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2016 81.7% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2019 81.8% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2020 80.0%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2021 86.8% track rod end ball joint dust…
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 2020 Honda Insight 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 2020 cars with a similar record
- Mercedes-Benz Citan 81.6%
- Toyota Estima 81.6%
- Vauxhall Combo 83.1%
- Tesla Model 3 Performance 83.2%
- Mercedes-Benz Vito 83.3%
- Nissan Elgrand 76.0%
Closest pass rates among 2020 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 2020 Honda Insight 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 146 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 | 56 | 38.10% | 12.21% | +25.89 |
| Tyres | 33 | 22.40% | 19.76% | +2.64 |
| Suspension | 21 | 14.30% | 20.98% | −6.68 |
| Visibility | 10 | 6.80% | 4.97% | +1.83 |
| Non-component advisories | 8 | 5.40% | 4.18% | +1.22 |
| Brakes | 7 | 4.80% | 20.89% | −16.09 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 5 | 3.40% | 1.76% | +1.64 |
| Steering | 4 | 2.70% | 2.57% | +0.13 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1 | 0.70% | 5.57% | −4.87 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 1 | 0.70% | 0.82% | −0.12 |
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 | 9.0% | £5–20 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 7.0% | £5–25 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 5.0% | £18–45 |
| Rear fog lamp missing Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.0% | £3–15 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 4.0% | £8–22 |
| Headlamp lens seriously defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.0% | £5–25 |
| Position lamp incorrect colour Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.0% | £5–25 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 2.0% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.0% | £5–25 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 2.0% | £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 | 17.0% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 8.0% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp has a product on the lens so that the light output is severely reduced Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Advisory | 6.0% | £5–25 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 5.0% | £20–80 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 5.0% | £40–150 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Advisory | 5.0% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 20 | 85.0% | 46,964 mi |
| 60-90k | 28 | 78.6% | 75,877 mi |
| 90-120k | 37 | 78.4% | 104,156 mi |
| 120k+ | 15 | 80.0% | 140,450 mi |
Source: 100 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.
2020 Insight MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2020 Honda Insight?
80.0% of the 100 2020 Honda Insight tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 90.7% for cars first used in 2020. First-attempt pass rate: 75.6%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2020 Honda Insight?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (9.00%), headlamp lens slightly defective (7.00%), linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (5.00%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2020 Honda Insight MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 85.0% of the time, falling to 80.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2020 Honda Insight in this dataset had covered 93,280 mi.
Does the season affect the 2020 Honda Insight MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 82.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 78.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.