Pass rate
69.2%
Below average — 3.4 pts behind the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 633 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £57–£149
2003 Kia Sorento MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 117,338 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
23.4% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Part only £25–£55 for Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded. What fitting it takes →
13.1 pts down across model years — 13.8% in 2004, 0.7% in 2017.
Which year to buy
- Best 2024 99.1% pass
- Avoid 2004 65.6% pass
Across the 22 years on record, a spread of 33.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 61.6%
- Typical mileage
- 117k mi
The 2003 Kia Sorento MOT pass rate is 69.2% of its MOT tests — 3.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 23.4% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Body & chassis: 2.1× the national share
Body & chassis accounts for 11.8% of everything recorded on the 2003 Kia Sorento, against 5.6% nationally — 6.2 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 23.4%, 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 72.6%; this one manages 69.2% — 3.4 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 26% 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 Sorento? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Kia Sorento compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 3.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 61.6%. The median 2003 Kia Sorento in this dataset had covered 117,338 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 90% of tests, with a 68.6% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 69.2% of the time, April–September 69.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 6.64% of tests.
- 633 recorded tests behind this page.
- 69.2% overall pass rate, 61.6% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Kia Sorento, the average is 79.2% — best year 2024 (99.1%), worst 2004 (65.6%).
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
- 633
- Typical mileage (median)
- 117,338 mi
- Make and model
- Kia Sorento
- 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 Sorento MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 55% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (90% of tests).
Where the Kia Sorento is most common
Across all Sorento model years on record (2003–2024): 55,321 Kia Sorento cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 131,852 tests. Sheffield (S) has the most, with 1,845 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 | Sheffield (S) | 1,845 | 82.1% |
| 2 | Nottingham (NG) | 1,659 | 76.7% |
| 3 | Peterborough (PE) | 1,510 | 80.2% |
| 4 | Birmingham (B) | 1,254 | 82.8% |
| 5 | Doncaster (DN) | 1,152 | 79.3% |
| 6 | Derby (DE) | 1,126 | 81.3% |
| 7 | Leicester (LE) | 1,115 | 82.8% |
| 8 | Guildford (GU) | 868 | 78.8% |
| 9 | Stoke On Trent (ST) | 805 | 75.5% |
| 10 | Chelmsford (CM) | 796 | 82.4% |
| 11 | Reading (RG) | 787 | 81.1% |
| 12 | York (YO) | 778 | 75.8% |
| 13 | Portsmouth (PO) | 776 | 77.9% |
| 14 | Ipswich (IP) | 758 | 78.1% |
| 15 | Stockport (SK) | 720 | 81.4% |
| 16 | Southampton (SO) | 689 | 77.8% |
| 17 | Coventry (CV) | 687 | 82.6% |
| 18 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 683 | 81.5% |
| 19 | Preston (PR) | 677 | 78.4% |
| 20 | Bolton (BL) | 672 | 79.5% |
The twenty areas with the most Kia Sorento 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 Sorento
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 175 | 71.4% |
| East of England | 121 | 76.0% |
| South West | 77 | 57.1% |
| West Midlands | 72 | 76.4% |
| North West | 48 | 64.6% |
| Yorkshire | 39 | 51.3% |
| East Midlands | 36 | 72.2% |
| Wales | 23 | 69.6% |
| Scotland | 19 | 57.9% |
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 Sorento
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 Sorento
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 corrosion 6.0% 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 4.3% 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 Sorento through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £57–£149 — and 26% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £57–£149
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: component mounting prescribed areas…
- £180–£450
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 30%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 26%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 633 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 Sorento, side by side
22 model years on record, from 2003 to 2024. Across them the pass rate runs from 65.6% to 99.1% — a spread of 33.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2003 69.2%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2004 65.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 68.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 68.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 69.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 69.2% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2009 71.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 72.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 73.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 73.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 75.3% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2014 77.7% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2015 81.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 83.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 85.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 87.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 88.6% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 89.8% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 90.6% wipers does not clear the…
- 2022 92.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2023 98.4% headlamp aim too high
- 2024 99.1% wipers blade defective
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 Kia Sorento 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
- Honda Cr-V 69.5%
- Hyundai Getz 69.5%
- Nissan X-Trail 68.9%
- Volvo S40 69.5%
- Renault Clio 68.7%
- Peugeot 307 68.7%
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 Kia Sorento 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 2,160 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 | 515 | 23.40% | 20.89% | +2.51 |
| Suspension | 435 | 19.80% | 20.98% | −1.18 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 276 | 12.60% | 12.21% | +0.39 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 260 | 11.80% | 5.57% | +6.23 |
| Tyres | 178 | 8.10% | 19.76% | −11.66 |
| Steering | 128 | 5.80% | 2.57% | +3.23 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 114 | 5.20% | 5.52% | −0.32 |
| Visibility | 89 | 4.00% | 4.97% | −0.97 |
| Non-component advisories | 84 | 3.80% | 4.18% | −0.38 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 81 | 3.70% | 0.82% | +2.88 |
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 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 6.0% | £180–450 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.4% | £5–25 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.3% | £80–200 |
| Prescribed areas prescribed area strength or continuity significantly reduced Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 4.1% | £40–120 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 4.1% | £80–180 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.0% | £30–80 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 3.6% | £18–45 |
| Parking brake performance inoperative on one side Brakes | Major | 3.2% | £60–150 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.0% | £40–150 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 24.8% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 15.0% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 13.3% | £200–700 |
| Chassis condition corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 9.6% | £180–450 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 9.0% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 8.7% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1 | 100.0% | 15,900 mi |
| 30-60k | 26 | 84.6% | 48,297 mi |
| 60-90k | 113 | 75.2% | 76,813 mi |
| 90-120k | 208 | 71.6% | 105,786 mi |
| 120k+ | 285 | 63.5% | 146,768 mi |
Source: 633 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 Sorento MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Kia Sorento?
69.2% of the 633 2003 Kia Sorento tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 61.6%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Kia Sorento?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (6.64%), component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (6.00%), headlamp lens slightly defective (4.42%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Kia Sorento MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 63.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Kia Sorento in this dataset had covered 117,338 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2003 Kia Sorento?
Diesel: 68.6% pass rate across 567 tests. Petrol: 74.2% pass rate across 62 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2003 Kia Sorento MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 69.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 69.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.