Pass rate
64.3%
Below average — 7.9 pts behind the 72.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 400 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £60–£168
2004 Kia Carens MOT pass rate
- 2004
- typical 78,080 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
24.4% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2018 83.4% pass
- Avoid 2005 61.3% pass
Across the 17 years on record, a spread of 22.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 50.2%
- Typical mileage
- 78k mi
The 2004 Kia Carens MOT pass rate is 64.3% of its MOT tests — 7.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 24.4% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Kia Carens does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Body & chassis: 2.3× the national share
Body & chassis accounts for 12.7% of everything recorded on the 2004 Kia Carens, against 5.6% nationally — 7.1 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 24.4%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. Look underneath for corrosion near the jacking points and suspension mounts; surface rust is normal, flaking metal is not.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 72.2%; this one manages 64.3% — 7.9 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 32% 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 Kia Carens? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2004 Kia Carens compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.2%, so this figure is 7.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 50.2%. The median 2004 Kia Carens in this dataset had covered 78,080 mi.
64% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 64.3% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 64.0% of the time, April–September 64.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated", noted on 14.25% of tests.
- 400 recorded tests behind this page.
- 64.3% overall pass rate, 50.2% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Kia Carens, the average is 76.6% — best year 2018 (83.4%), worst 2005 (61.3%).
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
- 400
- Typical mileage (median)
- 78,080 mi
- Make and model
- Kia Carens
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Body Panel Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Carens MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 53% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (64% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Carens
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 91 | 64.8% |
| East of England | 62 | 61.3% |
| South West | 55 | 60.0% |
| North West | 52 | 73.1% |
| Yorkshire | 39 | 61.5% |
| West Midlands | 37 | 73.0% |
| East Midlands | 35 | 60.0% |
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 Carens
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 Carens
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 8.3% of tests
“headlamp lens slightly defective”
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 7.3% 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.
-
Check the windscreen 6.8% 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 2004 Carens through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £60–£168 — and 32% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £60–£168
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: component mounting prescribed areas…
- £180–£450
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 32%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 400 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 Carens, side by side
17 model years on record, from 2003 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 61.3% to 83.4% — a spread of 22.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2003 65.9% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2004 64.3%joints constant velocity boot…
- 2005 61.3% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2006 62.7% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2007 67.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 68.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 70.7% ball joint excessively worn
- 2010 71.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 68.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 72.3% ball joint excessively worn
- 2013 76.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 78.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 78.7% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2016 79.9% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2017 81.7% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2018 83.4% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2019 82.1% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
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 Kia Carens 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
- Ford Galaxy 66.2%
- Vauxhall Combo 66.3%
- Renault Modus 66.3%
- Ford Ka 66.7%
- Volkswagen Beetle 66.8%
- Volvo V40 67.0%
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 Kia Carens 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 1,485 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | 368 | 24.40% | 20.89% | +3.51 |
| Suspension | 250 | 16.60% | 20.98% | −4.38 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 212 | 14.00% | 12.21% | +1.79 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 192 | 12.70% | 5.57% | +7.13 |
| Tyres | 189 | 12.50% | 19.76% | −7.26 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 104 | 6.90% | 5.52% | +1.38 |
| Visibility | 77 | 5.10% | 4.97% | +0.13 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 41 | 2.70% | 1.76% | +0.94 |
| Non-component advisories | 27 | 1.80% | 4.18% | −2.38 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 25 | 1.70% | 0.82% | +0.88 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 14.3% | £80–250 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 12.3% | £45–110 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 8.3% | £5–25 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 7.5% | £80–250 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 7.3% | £180–450 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 6.8% | £80–200 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 6.3% | £3–12 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 5.0% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.0% | £5–20 |
| Door condition cannot be opened from outside the vehicle Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.8% | £80–250 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 21.5% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 20.8% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 18.8% | £200–700 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 14.3% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 12.8% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 9.8% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 13 | 76.9% | 25,608 mi |
| 30-60k | 83 | 65.1% | 49,234 mi |
| 60-90k | 181 | 64.1% | 75,493 mi |
| 90-120k | 88 | 61.4% | 106,011 mi |
| 120k+ | 35 | 65.7% | 130,115 mi |
Source: 400 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 Carens MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2004 Kia Carens?
64.3% of the 400 2004 Kia Carens tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.2% for cars first used in 2004. First-attempt pass rate: 50.2%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2004 Kia Carens?
The three most recorded items are joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (14.25%), rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements (12.25%), headlamp lens slightly defective (8.25%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2004 Kia Carens MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 76.9% of the time, falling to 65.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2004 Kia Carens in this dataset had covered 78,080 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2004 Kia Carens?
Diesel: 64.3% pass rate across 255 tests. Petrol: 64.1% pass rate across 145 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2004 Kia Carens MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 64.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 64.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.