Pass rate
81.0%
Around average — 7.9 pts ahead of the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 3,136 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £25–£68
2008 Jaguar Xj MOT pass rate
- 2008
- typical 96,871 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
29.8% 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 →
2.2 pts down across model years — 3.4% in 2000, 1.2% in 2019.
Which year to buy
- Best 2020 94.3% pass
- Avoid 2004 77.7% pass
Across the 21 years on record, a spread of 16.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 77.4%
- Typical mileage
- 97k mi
The 2008 Jaguar Xj MOT pass rate is 81.0% of its MOT tests — 7.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 29.8% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.4× the national share
Suspension accounts for 29.8% of everything recorded on the 2008 Jaguar Xj, against 21.0% nationally — 8.8 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.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 73.1% and this one manages 81.0% — 7.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 20% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
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 Jaguar Xj? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2008 Jaguar Xj compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, 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 77.4%. The median 2008 Jaguar Xj in this dataset had covered 96,871 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 75% of tests, with a 80.5% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 80.3% of the time, April–September 81.7%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 6.57% of tests.
- 3,136 recorded tests behind this page.
- 81.0% overall pass rate, 77.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Jaguar Xj, the average is 82.3% — best year 2020 (94.3%), worst 2004 (77.7%).
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
- 3,136
- Typical mileage (median)
- 96,871 mi
- Make and model
- Jaguar Xj
- 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 Xj MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 70% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (75% of tests).
Where the Jaguar Xj is most common
Across all Xj model years on record (2000–2020): 30,481 Jaguar Xj cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 68,447 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 1,079 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) | 1,079 | 85.4% |
| 2 | Peterborough (PE) | 736 | 81.4% |
| 3 | Coventry (CV) | 662 | 83.6% |
| 4 | Sheffield (S) | 645 | 88.2% |
| 5 | Nottingham (NG) | 554 | 84.1% |
| 6 | Reading (RG) | 537 | 80.8% |
| 7 | Leicester (LE) | 528 | 82.8% |
| 8 | Chelmsford (CM) | 498 | 86.5% |
| 9 | Liverpool (L) | 481 | 84.3% |
| 10 | Derby (DE) | 469 | 85.9% |
| 11 | Northampton (NN) | 462 | 81.7% |
| 12 | Doncaster (DN) | 459 | 82.9% |
| 13 | Glasgow (G) | 446 | 81.5% |
| 14 | Guildford (GU) | 429 | 79.1% |
| 15 | Ashford (TN) | 424 | 81.9% |
| 16 | Manchester (M) | 414 | 88.4% |
| 17 | Portsmouth (PO) | 413 | 77.4% |
| 18 | Bristol (BS) | 407 | 78.3% |
| 19 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 407 | 84.2% |
| 20 | Cardiff (CF) | 406 | 78.4% |
The twenty areas with the most Jaguar Xj 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 Xj
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 712 | 81.3% |
| East of England | 435 | 83.2% |
| South West | 325 | 76.0% |
| North West | 315 | 81.0% |
| West Midlands | 314 | 82.5% |
| Scotland | 276 | 76.8% |
| Yorkshire | 244 | 80.7% |
| East Midlands | 188 | 85.1% |
| Wales | 122 | 73.0% |
| London | 109 | 84.4% |
| North East | 96 | 90.6% |
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 Xj
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 Xj
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 6.6% 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 6.4% 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 windscreen 2.4% 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.
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 Xj through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £25–£68 — and 20% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £25–£68
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 20%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 3,136 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 Xj, side by side
21 model years on record, from 2000 to 2020. Across them the pass rate runs from 77.7% to 94.3% — a spread of 16.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 78.3% component mounting prescribed…
- 2001 80.3% component mounting prescribed…
- 2002 78.1% component mounting prescribed…
- 2003 78.8% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2004 77.7% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2005 79.6% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2006 79.2% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2007 79.2% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2008 81.0%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 81.9% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2010 81.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 82.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 84.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 83.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 84.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 87.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2016 87.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2017 90.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2018 91.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2019 92.1% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 94.3% 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 2008 Jaguar Xj 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
- BMW 5 Series 81.0%
- Audi Q7 81.2%
- Volvo S80 80.7%
- BMW X5 80.5%
- BMW 525 80.5%
- Mercedes-Benz S-Class 81.5%
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 Jaguar Xj 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 5,371 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 | 1,636 | 29.80% | 20.98% | +8.82 |
| Brakes | 1,254 | 22.90% | 20.89% | +2.01 |
| Tyres | 862 | 15.70% | 19.76% | −4.06 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 613 | 11.20% | 12.21% | −1.01 |
| Visibility | 267 | 4.90% | 4.97% | −0.07 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 224 | 4.10% | 5.52% | −1.42 |
| Steering | 209 | 3.80% | 2.57% | +1.23 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 129 | 2.40% | 5.57% | −3.17 |
| Non-component advisories | 93 | 1.70% | 4.18% | −2.48 |
| Road Wheels | 84 | 1.50% | 0.75% | +0.75 |
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 | 6.6% | £5–20 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 6.4% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 3.4% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.8% | £40–150 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 2.7% | £18–45 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 2.5% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.4% | £80–200 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.9% | £18–45 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover excessively damaged or deteriorated so that it no longer prevents the ingress of… Steering | Major | 1.7% | £18–45 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 1.7% | £80–180 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 13.5% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 11.8% | £45–95 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 10.3% | £80–180 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 7.6% | £180–450 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 7.3% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 6.5% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 55 | 98.2% | 20,204 mi |
| 30-60k | 439 | 87.7% | 48,886 mi |
| 60-90k | 885 | 80.7% | 75,543 mi |
| 90-120k | 859 | 79.5% | 104,925 mi |
| 120k+ | 893 | 78.4% | 150,456 mi |
Source: 3,136 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 Xj MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2008 Jaguar Xj?
81.0% of the 3,136 2008 Jaguar Xj tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 77.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2008 Jaguar Xj?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (6.57%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (6.44%), ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (3.38%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2008 Jaguar Xj MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 98.2% of the time, falling to 78.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2008 Jaguar Xj in this dataset had covered 96,871 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2008 Jaguar Xj?
Diesel: 80.5% pass rate across 2,344 tests. Petrol: 82.4% pass rate across 792 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2008 Jaguar Xj MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 80.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 81.7%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.