Pass rate
84.7%
Around average — 10.7 pts ahead of the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 470 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £27–£72
2009 Lexus IS250C MOT pass rate
- 2009
- typical 79,918 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
30.7% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2011 89.1% pass
- Avoid 2009 84.7% pass · this year
Across the 4 years on record, a spread of 4.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 82.3%
- Typical mileage
- 80k mi
The 2009 Lexus IS250C MOT pass rate is 84.7% of its MOT tests — 10.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 30.7% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.6× the national share
Tyres make up 30.7% of everything recorded on the 2009 Lexus Is250c, against 19.8% nationally — 10.9 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 74.0% and this one manages 84.7% — 10.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
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 Lexus IS250C? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2009 Lexus IS250C compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 74.0%, so this figure is 10.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 82.3%. The median 2009 Lexus IS250C in this dataset had covered 79,918 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 85.2% of the time, April–September 84.2%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp lens slightly defective", noted on 4.89% of tests.
- 470 recorded tests behind this page.
- 84.7% overall pass rate, 82.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Lexus IS250C, the average is 86.9% — best year 2011 (89.1%), worst 2009 (84.7%).
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
- 470
- Typical mileage (median)
- 79,918 mi
- Make and model
- Lexus IS250C
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Headlight Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the IS250C MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 60% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the IS250C
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 169 | 86.4% |
| East of England | 62 | 79.0% |
| South West | 46 | 87.0% |
| London | 46 | 91.3% |
| West Midlands | 36 | 80.6% |
| Yorkshire | 33 | 84.8% |
| North West | 29 | 75.9% |
| Wales | 16 | 81.3% |
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 2009 IS250C
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 2009 IS250C
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 4.9% of tests
“headlamp lens slightly defective”
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 windscreen 3.0% 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 1.7% 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 2009 IS250C through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £27–£72 — and 48% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £27–£72
- Cheapest common item: wipers blade defective
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 48%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 470 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 IS250C, side by side
4 model years on record, from 2009 to 2012. Across them the pass rate runs from 84.7% to 89.1% — a spread of 4.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2009 84.7%headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2010 87.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2011 89.1% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2012 85.9% tyre pressure monitoring system…
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 2009 Lexus IS250C 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 2009 cars with a similar record
Closest pass rates among 2009 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 2009 Lexus IS250C 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 694 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 | 214 | 30.70% | 19.76% | +10.94 |
| Brakes | 166 | 23.80% | 20.89% | +2.91 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 105 | 15.10% | 12.21% | +2.89 |
| Suspension | 79 | 11.30% | 20.98% | −9.68 |
| Visibility | 37 | 5.30% | 4.97% | +0.33 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 34 | 4.90% | 5.57% | −0.67 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 31 | 4.40% | 1.76% | +2.64 |
| Non-component advisories | 13 | 1.90% | 4.18% | −2.28 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 11 | 1.60% | 5.52% | −3.92 |
| Steering | 4 | 0.60% | 2.57% | −1.97 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.9% | £5–25 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.0% | £80–200 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.7% | £18–45 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.5% | £8–22 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.3% | £5–25 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £30–75 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.3% | £8–22 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.1% | £45–120 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.1% | £30–80 |
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 | 18.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 13.2% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 10.2% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 6.6% | £45–110 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 6.4% | £30–75 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 6.0% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 13 | 92.3% | 26,973 mi |
| 30-60k | 107 | 85.0% | 48,038 mi |
| 60-90k | 170 | 87.6% | 75,153 mi |
| 90-120k | 130 | 86.2% | 104,340 mi |
| 120k+ | 50 | 68.0% | 148,204 mi |
Source: 470 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.
2009 IS250C MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2009 Lexus IS250C?
84.7% of the 470 2009 Lexus IS250C tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.0% for cars first used in 2009. First-attempt pass rate: 82.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2009 Lexus IS250C?
The three most recorded items are headlamp lens slightly defective (4.89%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.98%), brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick (1.70%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2009 Lexus IS250C MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 92.3% of the time, falling to 68.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2009 Lexus IS250C in this dataset had covered 79,918 mi.
Does the season affect the 2009 Lexus IS250C MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 85.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 84.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.