2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE MOT pass rate

Pass rate

97.4%

Above average — 2.6 pts ahead of the 94.8% that cars this age and mileage manage.

Across 115 recorded tests.

Typical repair bill £54–£129

Which year to buy

  • Best 2023 97.4% pass · this year
  • Avoid 2020 92.9% pass

Across the 4 years on record, a spread of 4.5 points. See every year →

First-attempt pass
97.4%
Typical mileage
25k mi

The 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE MOT pass rate is 97.4% of its MOT tests — 2.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 45.5% of what testers record.

MOT PASS RATES

The 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE on the real record

97.4% of 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE MOTs passed — 115 tests, 2023–2025

Pass rate

The answer from the DVSA's class-4 MOT records.

Check your postcode

MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE does in your corner of the country.

How one model's pass rate varies by postcode →

Expert verdict

Tyres: 2.3× the national share

Tyres make up 45.5% of everything recorded on the 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic Hse, against 19.8% nationally — 25.7 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.

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 Xdynamic HSE? Get an email when these numbers change .

How does the 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE compare?

Cars of this age and mileage average 94.8%, so this figure is 2.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 97.4%. The median 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE in this dataset had covered 24,860 mi.

Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 96.7% of the time, April–September 98.1%.

The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 1.74% of tests.

  • 115 recorded tests behind this page.
  • 97.4% overall pass rate, 97.4% on a first attempt.
  • Across every year of the Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE, the average is 93.4% — best year 2023 (97.4%), worst 2020 (92.9%).

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
115
Typical mileage (median)
24,860 mi
Make and model
Land Rover Defender Xdynamic 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 Xdynamic HSE MOT pass rate?

0-30k 98.7%
30-60k 94.3%
60-90k 100.0%

Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 86% so small gaps stay visible.

Regional pass rates for the Defender Xdynamic HSE

Region Tests Pass rate
East of England 28 96.4%
South East 24 95.8%
West Midlands 18 100.0%

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 2023 Defender Xdynamic 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.

Tyres 45.5%
+25.7 pts vs national national 19.8% Compare tyre prices
Brakes 18.2%
−2.7 pts vs national national 20.9% Price brakes parts
Visibility 18.2%
+13.2 pts vs national national 5.0% Order bulbs & wipers
Advisories 9.1%
+4.9 pts vs national national 4.2% Price advisories parts
Show the other 1 fault category
  • Road wheels 9.1%

Shares are of every item recorded on 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE tests — a composition, so they add to 100% across all sections, not per test.

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 2023 Defender Xdynamic 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.

  1. Check the windscreen 1.7% 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 2023 Defender Xdynamic HSE through its MOT

Across the 4 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £54–£129 — and 0% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.

Average repair across the 4 common items
£54–£129
Cheapest common item: badly distorted
£20–£55
Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
£80–£200
Common items a careful owner can do at home
75%
Repairs that still cost under £30
0%

Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 115 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 Xdynamic HSE, side by side

4 model years on record, from 2020 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 92.9% to 97.4% — a spread of 4.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.

  1. 2020 92.9% position lamp not working
  2. 2021 93.4% windscreen damaged but not…
  3. 2022 93.1% windscreen damaged but not…
  4. 2023 97.4%
    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 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic 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.

Compare 2023 with another year →

Compare two different cars instead →

Other 2023 cars with a similar record

Closest pass rates among 2023 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 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE 4 failure items · 4 advisories · 5 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold

Every inspection category

Shares of the 11 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 5 45.50% 19.76% +25.74
Brakes 2 18.20% 20.89% −2.69
Visibility 2 18.20% 4.97% +13.23
Non-component advisories 1 9.10% 4.18% +4.92
Road Wheels 1 9.10% 0.75% +8.35

The exact failure items, in the tester's words

Share of the 115 tests on this vehicle that recorded each item
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost Part
Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility Minor 1.7% £80–200 Windscreen →
Badly distorted Road Wheels Major 0.87% £20–55 Wheel Hub Bearing Kit →
Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres Major 0.87% £45–95 Tyres →
Has ply or cords exposed Tyres Major 0.87% £45–95 Tyres →

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.

Items recorded as advisory on this vehicle
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost
Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes Advisory 1.7% £45–110
Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres Advisory 1.7% £45–95
Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories Advisory 0.87% £20–80
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres Advisory 0.87% £45–95

Pass rate by mileage

Mileage Tests Pass rate Median odometer
0-30k 79 98.7% 20,132 mi
30-60k 35 94.3% 37,491 mi
60-90k 1 100.0% 60,360 mi

Source: 115 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.

2023 Defender Xdynamic HSE MOT questions

What is the MOT pass rate for a 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE?

97.4% of the 115 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 94.8% for cars first used in 2023. First-attempt pass rate: 97.4%.

What are the most common MOT failures on a 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE?

The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.74%), badly distorted (0.87%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (0.87%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.

Does mileage affect the 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE MOT pass rate?

Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 98.7% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE in this dataset had covered 24,860 mi.

Does the season affect the 2023 Land Rover Defender Xdynamic HSE MOT pass rate?

Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 96.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 98.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.