Pass rate
93.0%
Above average — 1.8 pts ahead of the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 342 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £51–£134
2021 Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 25,266 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
39.2% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 94.5% pass
- Avoid 2021 93.0% pass · this year
Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 1.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 92.5%
- Typical mileage
- 25k mi
The 2021 Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian MOT pass rate is 93.0% of its MOT tests — 1.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 39.2% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.0× the national share
Tyres make up 39.2% of everything recorded on the 2021 Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian, against 19.8% nationally — 19.4 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.
- 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.
- Based on a small sample. 342 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 Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 1.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 92.5%. The median 2021 Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian in this dataset had covered 25,266 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 91.2% of the time, April–September 95.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords", noted on 2.63% of tests.
- 342 recorded tests behind this page.
- 93.0% overall pass rate, 92.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian, the average is 93.8% — best year 2022 (94.5%), worst 2021 (93.0%).
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
- 342
- Typical mileage (median)
- 25,266 mi
- Make and model
- Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Tyres
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Defender V8 Carpathian MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 84% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Defender V8 Carpathian
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 92 | 88.0% |
| Yorkshire | 39 | 94.9% |
| North West | 38 | 100.0% |
| East of England | 36 | 97.2% |
| West Midlands | 34 | 91.2% |
| South West | 29 | 89.7% |
| London | 20 | 100.0% |
| East Midlands | 18 | 94.4% |
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 V8 Carpathian
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 V8 Carpathian
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 2.6% 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 brakes 0.9% 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.
-
Check the exhaust and emissions 0.6% of tests
“catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits”
Listen for a blow at idle and have someone rev it gently. Then look at the tailpipe smoke: blue is oil, white when warm is coolant, black is over-fuelling. Any of those and the emissions test is the least of it.
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 V8 Carpathian through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £51–£134 — and 3% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £51–£134
- Cheapest common item: daytime running lamps not working
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 3%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 342 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 V8 Carpathian, side by side
2 model years on record, from 2021 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 93.0% to 94.5% — a spread of 1.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2021 93.0%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 94.5% 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 V8 Carpathian 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
- Nissan Leaf 93.0%
- Hyundai Tucson Ultimate T-Gdi 93.0%
- Mazda Cx-5 93.0%
- Fiat 500 Dolcevita 93.0%
- Audi Q3 93.1%
- Mercedes-Benz Glc 92.9%
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 V8 Carpathian 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 153 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 | 60 | 39.20% | 19.76% | +19.44 |
| Brakes | 57 | 37.30% | 20.89% | +16.41 |
| Visibility | 11 | 7.20% | 4.97% | +2.23 |
| Non-component advisories | 5 | 3.30% | 4.18% | −0.88 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 5 | 3.30% | 0.82% | +2.48 |
| Suspension | 4 | 2.60% | 20.98% | −18.38 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 4 | 2.60% | 5.57% | −2.97 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 3 | 2.00% | 1.76% | +0.24 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 2 | 1.30% | 12.21% | −10.91 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2 | 1.30% | 5.52% | −4.22 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 2.6% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.6% | £80–200 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.88% | £18–45 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.58% | £60–250 |
| Registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements Identification of the vehicle | Major | 0.58% | £20–80 |
| Brake pads worn down to wear indicator Brakes | Major | 0.29% | £18–45 |
| Brake performance not tested unable to be tested Brakes | Major | 0.29% | £60–150 |
| Damaged Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 0.29% | £40–120 |
| Daytime running lamps not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.29% | £3–15 |
| Door condition cannot be opened from inside the vehicle Body, chassis, structure | Major | 0.29% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 9.1% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 7.0% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 5.0% | £18–45 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 3.5% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 1.2% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 225 | 92.9% | 19,306 mi |
| 30-60k | 112 | 92.9% | 38,906 mi |
| 60-90k | 5 | 100.0% | 65,235 mi |
Source: 342 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 V8 Carpathian MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian?
93.0% of the 342 2021 Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 92.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (2.63%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.63%), brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick (0.88%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 92.9% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian in this dataset had covered 25,266 mi.
Does the season affect the 2021 Land Rover Defender V8 Carpathian MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 91.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 95.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.