Pass rate
Around average — 7.9 pts ahead of the 72.4% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 71 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £21–£54
Only 71 tests of this exact model and year are in the DVSA data, below the 100 we ask for before a page goes in the index. The figures are still shown, because they are the only ones there are.
Pass rate
Around average — 7.9 pts ahead of the 72.4% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 71 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £21–£54
Most common fault
Suspension
17.3% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
Across the 18 years on record, a spread of 20 points. See every year →
The 2005 Honda Odyssey MOT pass rate is 80.3% of its MOT tests — 7.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 17.3% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Honda Odyssey does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Advisories make up 14.2% of everything recorded on the 2005 Honda Odyssey, against 4.2% nationally — 10.0 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 17.3%, but at 21.0% nationally that one is ordinary. Most of what testers record here is advisory — worth reading, not worth walking away from on its own.
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 Odyssey? Get an email when these numbers change .
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.4%, so this figure is 7.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 77.0%. The median 2005 Honda Odyssey in this dataset had covered 112,171 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 72.7% of the time, April–September 86.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 9.86% of tests.
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 68% so small gaps stay visible.
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| East of England | 15 | 80.0% |
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.
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
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 9.9% 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 2.8% of tests
“ball joint 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.
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £21–£54 — and 50% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 71 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 →
18 model years on record, from 2004 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 74.0% to 94.0% — a spread of 20 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
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.
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Closest pass rates among 2005 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.
Shares of the 158 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 | 28 | 17.30% | 20.98% | −3.68 |
| Tyres | 27 | 16.70% | 19.76% | −3.06 |
| Brakes | 26 | 16.00% | 20.89% | −4.89 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 23 | 14.20% | 12.21% | +1.99 |
| Non-component advisories | 23 | 14.20% | 4.18% | +10.02 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 7 | 4.30% | 5.52% | −1.22 |
| Steering | 7 | 4.30% | 2.57% | +1.73 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 6 | 3.70% | 5.57% | −1.87 |
| Visibility | 6 | 3.70% | 4.97% | −1.27 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 5 | 3.10% | 1.76% | +1.34 |
| 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 | 9.9% | £5–20 |
| Service brake imbalance across an axle Brakes | Major | 4.2% | £45–110 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.8% | £18–45 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 2.8% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.8% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.8% | £5–25 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.8% | £3–15 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 2.8% | £60–150 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 2.8% | £3–12 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 2.8% | £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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-component advisories Play in steering rack inner joint(s) Non-component advisories | Advisory | 18.3% | £120–300 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 16.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 14.1% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 11.3% | £40–150 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 9.9% | £200–700 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 8.4% | £45–95 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60-90k | 18 | 88.9% | 75,268 mi |
| 90-120k | 22 | 77.3% | 105,333 mi |
| 120k+ | 30 | 76.7% | 162,623 mi |
Source: 71 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.
80.3% of the 71 2005 Honda Odyssey tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.4% for cars first used in 2005. First-attempt pass rate: 77.0%.
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (9.86%), service brake imbalance across an axle (4.23%), ball joint excessively worn (2.82%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.9% of the time, falling to 76.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2005 Honda Odyssey in this dataset had covered 112,171 mi.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 72.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 86.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.