Pass rate
81.2%
Around average — 4.0 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 24,335 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £48–£142
2012 Land Rover Discovery MOT pass rate
- 2012
- 4 trims combined
- typical 118,991 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
26.4% 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 →
4.5 pts down across model years — 5.1% in 2000, 0.6% in 2017.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 92.9% pass
- Avoid 2006 74.8% pass
Across the 24 years on record, a spread of 18.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 77.4%
- Typical mileage
- 119k mi
The 2012 Land Rover Discovery MOT pass rate is 81.2% of its MOT tests — 4.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.4% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Brakes: 1.3× the national share
Brakes make up 26.4% of everything recorded on the 2012 Land Rover Discovery, against 20.9% nationally — 5.5 points above. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.
- 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 77.2% and this one manages 81.2% — 4.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 28% 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 Discovery? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Land Rover Discovery first registered in 2012 is combined here — 4 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2012 Land Rover Discovery compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 4.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 77.4%. The median 2012 Land Rover Discovery in this dataset had covered 118,991 mi.
100% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 81.1% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 81.3% of the time, April–September 81.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 7.30% of tests.
- 24,335 recorded tests behind this page.
- 81.2% overall pass rate, 77.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Land Rover Discovery, the average is 83.5% — best year 2023 (92.9%), worst 2006 (74.8%).
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
- 24,335
- Typical mileage (median)
- 118,991 mi
- Make and model
- Land Rover Discovery
- 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 Discovery MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 71% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (100% of tests).
Where the Land Rover Discovery is most common
Across all Discovery model years on record (2000–2023): 378,162 Land Rover Discovery cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 816,420 tests. Peterborough (PE) has the most, with 8,580 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 | Peterborough (PE) | 8,580 | 83.9% |
| 2 | Sheffield (S) | 8,523 | 87.7% |
| 3 | Birmingham (B) | 8,127 | 87.0% |
| 4 | Ashford (TN) | 7,521 | 83.4% |
| 5 | Reading (RG) | 7,510 | 85.1% |
| 6 | Guildford (GU) | 6,594 | 82.6% |
| 7 | Chelmsford (CM) | 6,307 | 85.9% |
| 8 | Nottingham (NG) | 5,902 | 83.6% |
| 9 | Gloucester (GL) | 5,827 | 81.3% |
| 10 | Leicester (LE) | 5,809 | 86.4% |
| 11 | Derby (DE) | 5,776 | 83.6% |
| 12 | Coventry (CV) | 5,719 | 86.1% |
| 13 | Oxford (OX) | 5,702 | 83.7% |
| 14 | Bristol (BS) | 4,982 | 80.8% |
| 15 | Crawley (RH) | 4,979 | 83.7% |
| 16 | Doncaster (DN) | 4,968 | 85.0% |
| 17 | Exeter (EX) | 4,964 | 76.1% |
| 18 | York (YO) | 4,941 | 82.3% |
| 19 | Northampton (NN) | 4,933 | 82.2% |
| 20 | Norwich (NR) | 4,816 | 81.1% |
The twenty areas with the most Land Rover Discovery 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 Discovery
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 5,463 | 83.0% |
| South West | 3,707 | 78.0% |
| East of England | 3,202 | 82.1% |
| North West | 2,352 | 80.6% |
| West Midlands | 2,350 | 83.7% |
| Yorkshire | 1,903 | 81.4% |
| Scotland | 1,790 | 76.4% |
| East Midlands | 1,594 | 80.3% |
| Wales | 936 | 82.6% |
| North East | 771 | 81.3% |
| London | 267 | 89.9% |
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 2012 Discovery
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 2012 Discovery
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 7.3% 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 suspension joints 5.2% of tests
“pins and bushes pin or bush 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 windscreen 4.2% 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 2012 Discovery through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £48–£142 — and 28% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £48–£142
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 40%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 28%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 24,335 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 Discovery, side by side
24 model years on record, from 2000 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 74.8% to 92.9% — a spread of 18.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 75.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2001 74.8% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2002 75.4% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2003 76.1% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2004 75.5% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2005 75.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 74.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 75.9% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2008 76.7% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2009 77.2% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2010 78.8% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2011 80.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 81.2%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 82.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 83.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 85.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 86.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 87.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 88.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 87.6% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 87.7% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 88.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 88.5% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 92.9% has a cut in excess of the…
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 2012 Land Rover Discovery 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 2012 cars with a similar record
- Mercedes-Benz Slk 81.2%
- Volvo V70 81.2%
- Honda Accord 81.2%
- Toyota Avensis 81.1%
- MINI COOPER D 81.1%
- Audi A4 81.0%
Closest pass rates among 2012 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 2012 Land Rover Discovery 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 42,310 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 | 11,324 | 26.40% | 20.89% | +5.51 |
| Suspension | 9,231 | 21.50% | 20.98% | +0.52 |
| Tyres | 6,232 | 14.50% | 19.76% | −5.26 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 4,466 | 10.40% | 12.21% | −1.81 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 4,375 | 10.20% | 5.57% | +4.63 |
| Visibility | 1,919 | 4.50% | 4.97% | −0.47 |
| Non-component advisories | 1,591 | 3.70% | 4.18% | −0.48 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 1,351 | 3.10% | 5.52% | −2.42 |
| Steering | 1,072 | 2.50% | 2.57% | −0.07 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 749 | 1.70% | 0.82% | +0.88 |
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 | 7.3% | £5–20 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 5.2% | £40–150 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 4.8% | £80–250 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.2% | £80–200 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 2.1% | £80–180 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.8% | £80–250 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.3% | £5–20 |
| Prop shaft bearing excessively worn Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.3% | £80–250 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.2% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.1% | £18–45 |
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 | 16.2% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 15.6% | £40–150 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 13.6% | £80–180 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.4% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 6.5% | £45–110 |
| Flexible brake hoses ferrule excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 4.7% | £25–70 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 80 | 92.5% | 23,324 mi |
| 30-60k | 734 | 90.1% | 49,491 mi |
| 60-90k | 3,474 | 86.4% | 77,713 mi |
| 90-120k | 8,154 | 81.0% | 105,876 mi |
| 120k+ | 11,881 | 79.1% | 149,921 mi |
Source: 24,335 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.
2012 Discovery MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 Land Rover Discovery?
81.2% of the 24,335 2012 Land Rover Discovery tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 77.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 Land Rover Discovery?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (7.30%), pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn (5.21%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (4.80%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 Land Rover Discovery MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 92.5% of the time, falling to 79.1% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 Land Rover Discovery in this dataset had covered 118,991 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2012 Land Rover Discovery?
Diesel: 81.1% pass rate across 24,266 tests. Petrol: 87.0% pass rate across 69 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2012 Land Rover Discovery MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 81.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 81.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.