Pass rate
70.7%
Below average — 3.3 pts behind the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 4,261 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £21–£56
2009 Kia Carens MOT pass rate
- 2009
- 2 trims combined
- typical 97,729 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
29.0% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
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
- 60.6%
- Typical mileage
- 98k mi
The 2009 Kia Carens MOT pass rate is 70.7% of its MOT tests — 3.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 29.0% 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
Suspension: 1.4× the national share
Suspension accounts for 29.0% of everything recorded on the 2009 Kia Carens, against 21.0% nationally — 8.0 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.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 74.0%; this one manages 70.7% — 3.3 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
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 .
Every Kia Carens first registered in 2009 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2009 Kia Carens compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 74.0%, so this figure is 3.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 60.6%. The median 2009 Kia Carens in this dataset had covered 97,729 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 53% of tests, with a 70.4% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 70.7% of the time, April–September 70.7%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint excessively worn", noted on 6.13% of tests.
- 4,261 recorded tests behind this page.
- 70.7% overall pass rate, 60.6% 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
- 4,261
- Typical mileage (median)
- 97,729 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
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Carens MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 60% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (53% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Carens
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 868 | 73.6% |
| North West | 567 | 69.7% |
| Yorkshire | 478 | 71.1% |
| East of England | 459 | 72.3% |
| West Midlands | 437 | 72.3% |
| East Midlands | 419 | 70.6% |
| South West | 353 | 65.2% |
| Scotland | 199 | 61.8% |
| Wales | 182 | 68.1% |
| London | 162 | 80.9% |
| North East | 137 | 63.5% |
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 2009 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 2009 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 suspension joints 6.1% 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.
-
Check the lights 6.0% 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 coil springs 3.3% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
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 2009 Carens through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £21–£56 — and 46% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £21–£56
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 46%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 4,261 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 2009 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 2009 cars with a similar record
- Vauxhall Zafira 70.7%
- Volkswagen Fox 70.7%
- Chevrolet Matiz 70.7%
- Suzuki SX4 70.7%
- Renault Scenic 70.8%
- Citroen C3 70.6%
Closest pass rates among 2009 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 2009 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 12,827 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 | 3,773 | 29.00% | 20.98% | +8.02 |
| Brakes | 2,929 | 22.50% | 20.89% | +1.61 |
| Tyres | 1,955 | 15.00% | 19.76% | −4.76 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,575 | 12.10% | 12.21% | −0.11 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 683 | 5.30% | 5.52% | −0.22 |
| Visibility | 523 | 4.00% | 4.97% | −0.97 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 467 | 3.60% | 5.57% | −1.97 |
| Non-component advisories | 343 | 2.60% | 4.18% | −1.58 |
| Steering | 312 | 2.40% | 2.57% | −0.17 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 267 | 2.10% | 1.76% | +0.34 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 6.1% | £18–45 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 6.0% | £5–20 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 5.5% | £45–110 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.7% | £5–25 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.4% | £3–12 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 3.3% | £25–65 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.3% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.2% | £80–200 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.8% | £3–12 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.6% | £5–25 |
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 | 25.5% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 18.3% | £40–150 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 12.8% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 11.9% | £45–110 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 11.2% | £25–65 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 10.8% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 43 | 95.3% | 21,872 mi |
| 30-60k | 411 | 78.8% | 48,932 mi |
| 60-90k | 1,229 | 71.8% | 77,176 mi |
| 90-120k | 1,598 | 68.6% | 104,196 mi |
| 120k+ | 974 | 68.2% | 140,117 mi |
Source: 4,261 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.
2009 Carens MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2009 Kia Carens?
70.7% of the 4,261 2009 Kia Carens tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.0% for cars first used in 2009. First-attempt pass rate: 60.6%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2009 Kia Carens?
The three most recorded items are ball joint excessively worn (6.13%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (6.05%), rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements (5.54%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2009 Kia Carens MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 95.3% of the time, falling to 68.2% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2009 Kia Carens in this dataset had covered 97,729 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2009 Kia Carens?
Diesel: 70.4% pass rate across 2,265 tests. Petrol: 71.0% pass rate across 1,992 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2009 Kia Carens MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 70.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 70.7%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.