Pass rate
95.5%
Above average — 4.3 pts ahead of the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 247 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £63–£156
2021 Land Rover Defender HSE MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 29,188 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
39.8% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2021 95.5% pass · this year
- Avoid 2020 94.7% pass
Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 0.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 95.4%
- Typical mileage
- 29k mi
The 2021 Land Rover Defender HSE MOT pass rate is 95.5% of its MOT tests — 4.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 39.8% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Land Rover Defender HSE does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.0× the national share
Tyres make up 39.8% of everything recorded on the 2021 Land Rover Defender Hse, against 19.8% nationally — 20.0 points above. Check all four tyres yourself, including the inner shoulders, and look at the date stamp — a tyre can pass on tread and still be six years old.
- 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 91.2% and this one manages 95.5% — 4.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 3% 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 Land Rover Defender HSE? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 Land Rover Defender HSE compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 4.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 95.4%. The median 2021 Land Rover Defender HSE in this dataset had covered 29,188 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 95.8% of the time, April–September 95.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 6.88% of tests.
- 247 recorded tests behind this page.
- 95.5% overall pass rate, 95.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Land Rover Defender HSE, the average is 95.2% — best year 2021 (95.5%), worst 2020 (94.7%).
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
- 247
- Typical mileage (median)
- 29,188 mi
- Make and model
- Land Rover Defender HSE
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Windscreen
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Defender HSE MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 84% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Defender HSE
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 82 | 97.6% |
| East of England | 41 | 92.7% |
| South West | 30 | 90.0% |
| Yorkshire | 22 | 95.5% |
| North West | 18 | 94.4% |
| London | 17 | 100.0% |
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 2021 Defender HSE
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 2021 Defender HSE
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 windscreen 6.9% 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.
-
Check the lights 0.8% of tests
“headlamp aim too low”
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 brakes 0.4% of tests
“brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick”
Look through the spokes of each wheel at the pad — less than 3mm of friction material, or a lip on the disc edge, is the usual failure. Check the handbrake holds on a slope with a few clicks, not at the top of its travel.
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 2021 Defender HSE through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £63–£156 — and 3% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £63–£156
- Cheapest common item: daytime running lamps not working
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: panel damaged
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 3%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 247 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 Defender HSE, side by side
2 model years on record, from 2020 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 94.7% to 95.5% — a spread of 0.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2020 94.7% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2021 95.5%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 2021 Land Rover Defender HSE 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 2021 cars with a similar record
- Kia Stonic GT-Line 95.6%
- Suzuki SX4 S-Cross 95.4%
- Toyota YARIS 95.3%
- Porsche Macan 95.2%
- Volvo XC40 Inscription Pro 95.2%
- Toyota RAV4 95.1%
Closest pass rates among 2021 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 2021 Land Rover Defender HSE 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 8 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 103 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 41 | 39.80% | 19.76% | +20.04 |
| Brakes | 24 | 23.30% | 20.89% | +2.41 |
| Visibility | 18 | 17.50% | 4.97% | +12.53 |
| Non-component advisories | 12 | 11.70% | 4.18% | +7.52 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 5 | 4.90% | 12.21% | −7.31 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1 | 1.00% | 5.57% | −4.57 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 1 | 1.00% | 5.52% | −4.52 |
| Steering | 1 | 1.00% | 2.57% | −1.57 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 6.9% | £80–200 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.2% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.81% | £30–80 |
| Bonnet primary retaining device ineffective Visibility | Major | 0.40% | £20–80 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.40% | £18–45 |
| Daytime running lamps not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.40% | £3–15 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.40% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Rectified | 0.40% | £45–95 |
| Has a lump, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.40% | £45–95 |
| Panel damaged and likely to cause injury Body, chassis, structure | Major | 0.40% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 6.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 4.9% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 4.0% | £45–110 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 3.2% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.4% | £20–80 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.0% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 126 | 97.6% | 18,351 mi |
| 30-60k | 112 | 92.9% | 42,660 mi |
| 60-90k | 9 | 100.0% | 67,062 mi |
Source: 247 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.
2021 Defender HSE MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 Land Rover Defender HSE?
95.5% of the 247 2021 Land Rover Defender HSE tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 95.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 Land Rover Defender HSE?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (6.88%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.21%), headlamp aim too low (0.81%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 Land Rover Defender HSE MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 97.6% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 Land Rover Defender HSE in this dataset had covered 29,188 mi.
Does the season affect the 2021 Land Rover Defender HSE MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 95.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 95.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.