Pass rate
73.2%
Below average — 0.6 pts ahead of the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 123 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £60–£160
2003 Jeep Cherokee Extreme MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 105,707 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
25.7% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2003 73.2% pass · this year
- Avoid 2004 66.9% pass
Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 6.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 67.3%
- Typical mileage
- 106k mi
The 2003 Jeep Cherokee Extreme MOT pass rate is 73.2% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 25.7% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Jeep Cherokee Extreme does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Fewer problems with tyres
Tyres are 6.4% of this car’s recorded faults, against 19.8% nationally — the mirror image of the usual story on a car of this age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 22% 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.
- Based on a small sample. 123 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 Jeep Cherokee Extreme? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Jeep Cherokee Extreme compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 0.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 67.3%. The median 2003 Jeep Cherokee Extreme in this dataset had covered 105,707 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 63% of tests, with a 74.0% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 77.8% of the time, April–September 68.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated", noted on 9.76% of tests.
- 123 recorded tests behind this page.
- 73.2% overall pass rate, 67.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Jeep Cherokee Extreme, the average is 69.4% — best year 2003 (73.2%), worst 2004 (66.9%).
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
- 123
- Typical mileage (median)
- 105,707 mi
- Make and model
- Jeep Cherokee Extreme
- 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 Cherokee Extreme MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 57% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (63% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Cherokee Extreme
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 32 | 81.3% |
| South East | 21 | 76.2% |
| Yorkshire | 18 | 66.7% |
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 2003 Cherokee Extreme
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 2003 Cherokee Extreme
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 9.8% 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 lights 7.3% 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 windscreen 7.3% 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 2003 Cherokee Extreme through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £60–£160 — and 22% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £60–£160
- Cheapest common item: mirrors slightly loose
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: component mounting prescribed areas…
- £180–£450
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 40%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 22%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 123 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 Cherokee Extreme, side by side
2 model years on record, from 2003 to 2004. Across them the pass rate runs from 66.9% to 73.2% — a spread of 6.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2003 73.2%ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2004 66.9% 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 2003 Jeep Cherokee Extreme 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 2003 cars with a similar record
- Volkswagen Passat 73.1%
- Suzuki Jimny 73.1%
- Toyota YARIS 73.0%
- Mazda Mx-5 73.6%
- Volkswagen Golf 72.8%
- Subaru Forester 73.7%
Closest pass rates among 2003 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 2003 Jeep Cherokee Extreme 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 396 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 | 104 | 25.70% | 20.98% | +4.72 |
| Brakes | 86 | 21.30% | 20.89% | +0.41 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 46 | 11.40% | 12.21% | −0.81 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 35 | 8.70% | 5.57% | +3.13 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 32 | 7.90% | 5.52% | +2.38 |
| Tyres | 26 | 6.40% | 19.76% | −13.36 |
| Steering | 24 | 5.90% | 2.57% | +3.33 |
| Visibility | 23 | 5.70% | 4.97% | +0.73 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 12 | 3.00% | 0.82% | +2.18 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 8 | 2.00% | 1.76% | +0.24 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 9.8% | £18–45 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 7.3% | £5–20 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 7.3% | £80–200 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 4.9% | £18–45 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 4.9% | £80–250 |
| Mirrors slightly loose Visibility | Minor | 4.9% | £3–15 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 4.1% | £180–450 |
| Integral vehicle structure condition corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced Body, chassis, structure | Major | 4.1% | £180–450 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 4.1% | £80–250 |
| Parking brake performance inoperative on one side Brakes | Major | 4.1% | £60–150 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 19.5% | £200–700 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 16.3% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 15.4% | £45–110 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 14.6% | £25–65 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 12.2% | £45–95 |
| Flexible brake hoses ferrule excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 9.8% | £25–70 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2 | 100.0% | 24,704 mi |
| 30-60k | 2 | 100.0% | 59,020 mi |
| 60-90k | 37 | 73.0% | 78,561 mi |
| 90-120k | 29 | 65.5% | 101,094 mi |
| 120k+ | 53 | 75.5% | 154,366 mi |
Source: 123 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.
2003 Cherokee Extreme MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Jeep Cherokee Extreme?
73.2% of the 123 2003 Jeep Cherokee Extreme tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 67.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Jeep Cherokee Extreme?
The three most recorded items are ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (9.76%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (7.32%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (7.32%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Jeep Cherokee Extreme MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 75.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Jeep Cherokee Extreme in this dataset had covered 105,707 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2003 Jeep Cherokee Extreme?
Diesel: 74.0% pass rate across 77 tests. Petrol: 71.7% pass rate across 46 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2003 Jeep Cherokee Extreme MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 77.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 68.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.