Pass rate
86.2%
Above average — 2.2 pts ahead of the 84.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 105,896 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £30–£78
2016 Land Rover Discovery MOT pass rate
- 2016
- typical 72,701 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
31.1% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Part only £25–£40 for Brake pads under 1.5 mm. What fitting it takes →
1.0 pts down across model years — 3.1% in 2000, 2.1% in 2022.
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
- 84.3%
- Typical mileage
- 73k mi
The 2016 Land Rover Discovery MOT pass rate is 86.2% of its MOT tests — 2.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 31.1% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Brakes: 1.5× the national share
Brakes make up 31.1% of everything recorded on the 2016 Land Rover Discovery, against 20.9% nationally — 10.2 points above. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.
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 .
How does the 2016 Land Rover Discovery compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 84.0%, so this figure is 2.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 84.3%. The median 2016 Land Rover Discovery in this dataset had covered 72,701 mi.
100% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 86.3% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 86.5% of the time, April–September 86.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 2.63% of tests.
- 105,896 recorded tests behind this page.
- 86.2% overall pass rate, 84.3% 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
- 105,896
- Typical mileage (median)
- 72,701 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
Windscreen
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Discovery MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 75% 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 | 23,721 | 87.1% |
| East of England | 12,455 | 87.3% |
| South West | 12,278 | 84.6% |
| North West | 11,010 | 85.9% |
| Yorkshire | 9,560 | 86.9% |
| West Midlands | 9,374 | 87.5% |
| Scotland | 8,501 | 82.0% |
| East Midlands | 6,598 | 86.8% |
| London | 4,513 | 88.6% |
| Wales | 4,045 | 86.1% |
| North East | 3,835 | 84.9% |
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 2016 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 2016 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 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 lights 2.1% 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 brakes 1.1% 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 2016 Discovery through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £30–£78 — and 45% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £30–£78
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 45%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 105,896 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 2016 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 2016 cars with a similar record
- Ford Galaxy 86.2%
- Vauxhall Viva 86.3%
- Mercedes-Benz B-Class 86.3%
- Infiniti Q30 86.1%
- SEAT Leon 86.4%
- Skoda Superb 86.0%
Closest pass rates among 2016 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 2016 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 114,634 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 | 36,107 | 31.10% | 20.89% | +10.21 |
| Tyres | 30,020 | 25.90% | 19.76% | +6.14 |
| Suspension | 13,915 | 12.00% | 20.98% | −8.98 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 10,164 | 8.80% | 12.21% | −3.41 |
| Visibility | 6,855 | 5.90% | 4.97% | +0.93 |
| Non-component advisories | 6,362 | 5.50% | 4.18% | +1.32 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 4,895 | 4.20% | 5.52% | −1.32 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 4,065 | 3.50% | 5.57% | −2.07 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1,163 | 1.00% | 1.76% | −0.76 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 1,088 | 0.90% | 0.82% | +0.08 |
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 | 2.6% | £80–200 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.1% | £5–20 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.6% | £45–95 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.4% | £3–12 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.1% | £18–45 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 0.97% | £25–65 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 0.92% | £8–22 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 0.89% | £40–150 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.87% | £8–22 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.64% | £3–15 |
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 | 14.2% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 12.3% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 10.9% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 6.0% | £40–150 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.3% | £45–95 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 3.0% | £80–180 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2,544 | 91.5% | 23,376 mi |
| 30-60k | 28,580 | 88.3% | 48,617 mi |
| 60-90k | 47,803 | 85.7% | 74,248 mi |
| 90-120k | 20,872 | 84.8% | 101,751 mi |
| 120k+ | 6,072 | 83.8% | 140,459 mi |
Source: 105,896 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.
2016 Discovery MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2016 Land Rover Discovery?
86.2% of the 105,896 2016 Land Rover Discovery tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 84.0% for cars first used in 2016. First-attempt pass rate: 84.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2016 Land Rover Discovery?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.63%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (2.12%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.60%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2016 Land Rover Discovery MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.5% of the time, falling to 83.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2016 Land Rover Discovery in this dataset had covered 72,701 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2016 Land Rover Discovery?
Diesel: 86.3% pass rate across 105,760 tests. Petrol: 83.1% pass rate across 136 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2016 Land Rover Discovery MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 86.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 86.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.