Pass rate
91.2%
Above average — 9.1 pts ahead of the 82.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 57 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £13–£40
2015 Lexus IS300 MOT pass rate
- 2015
- typical 83,355 mi
Only 57 tests of this exact model and year are in the DVSA data, below the 100 we ask for before a page goes in the index. The figures are still shown, because they are the only ones there are.
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
44.8% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2016 92.2% pass
- Avoid 2001 79.0% pass
Across the 9 years on record, a spread of 13.2 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 90.4%
- Typical mileage
- 83k mi
The 2015 Lexus IS300 MOT pass rate is 91.2% of its MOT tests — 9.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 44.8% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.3× the national share
Tyres make up 44.8% of everything recorded on the 2015 Lexus Is300, against 19.8% nationally — 25.0 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 82.1% and this one manages 91.2% — 9.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 60% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
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 IS300? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2015 Lexus IS300 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 82.1%, so this figure is 9.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 90.4%. The median 2015 Lexus IS300 in this dataset had covered 83,355 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Anti-lock braking system warning lamp does not illuminate", noted on 1.75% of tests.
- 57 recorded tests behind this page.
- 91.2% overall pass rate, 90.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Lexus IS300, the average is 81.2% — best year 2016 (92.2%), worst 2001 (79.0%).
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
- 57
- Typical mileage (median)
- 83,355 mi
- Make and model
- Lexus IS300
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the IS300 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 76% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Lexus IS300 is most common
Across all IS300 model years on record (2001–2016): 1,132 Lexus IS300 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 2,514 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 36 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 | Birmingham (B) | 36 | 91.3% |
| 2 | London (SE) | 28 | 84.8% |
| 3 | Reading (RG) | 26 | 86.2% |
| 4 | Guildford (GU) | 25 | 83.3% |
| 5 | London (E) | 24 | 84.6% |
| 6 | Croydon (CR) | 23 | 95.5% |
| 7 | Brighton (BN) | 22 | 81.8% |
| 8 | High Wycombe (HP) | 22 | 81.5% |
| 9 | Crawley (RH) | 22 | 93.5% |
| 10 | Hounslow (TW) | 22 | 79.1% |
| 11 | Manchester (M) | 22 | 83.3% |
| 12 | Chelmsford (CM) | 20 | 82.6% |
| 13 | Southampton (SO) | 20 | 81.0% |
| 14 | Ipswich (IP) | 19 | 64.7% |
| 15 | Sheffield (S) | 19 | 79.5% |
| 16 | Swindon (SN) | 19 | 84.6% |
| 17 | Peterborough (PE) | 19 | 86.8% |
| 18 | Cardiff (CF) | 18 | 79.6% |
| 19 | Ilford (IG) | 18 | 84.8% |
| 20 | Romford (RM) | 17 | 87.8% |
The twenty areas with the most Lexus IS300 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 IS300
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 15 | 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 2015 IS300
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 2015 IS300
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 1.8% of tests
“anti-lock braking system warning lamp does not illuminate”
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 number plates 1.8% of tests
“registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements”
Check both plates are present, legible and correctly spaced, with the postcode of the supplier and the BS AU 145e mark. A private plate in the wrong style is a fail before the car is even looked at.
-
Check the suspension joints 1.8% of tests
“track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated,”
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.
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 2015 IS300 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £13–£40 — and 60% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £13–£40
- Cheapest common item: anti-lock braking system warning lamp does…
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: has ply or cords exposed
- £45–£95
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 100%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 60%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 57 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 IS300, side by side
9 model years on record, from 2001 to 2016. Across them the pass rate runs from 79.0% to 92.2% — a spread of 13.2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2001 79.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2002 80.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2003 80.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2004 81.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 79.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2013 84.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2014 82.1% headlamp aim too high
- 2015 91.2%anti-lock braking system warning…
- 2016 92.2% has ply or cords damaged
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 2015 Lexus IS300 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 2015 cars with a similar record
- BMW I8 91.2%
- Mercedes-Benz Gle 90.7%
- Toyota Prius 90.6%
- Honda Jazz 90.5%
- Mazda Mx-5 90.2%
- Porsche Cayenne 89.8%
Closest pass rates among 2015 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 2015 Lexus IS300 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 8 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 29 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 | 13 | 44.80% | 19.76% | +25.04 |
| Brakes | 5 | 17.20% | 20.89% | −3.69 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 5 | 17.20% | 12.21% | +4.99 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 2 | 6.90% | 5.57% | +1.33 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 1 | 3.40% | 5.52% | −2.12 |
| Steering | 1 | 3.40% | 2.57% | +0.83 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1 | 3.40% | 1.76% | +1.64 |
| Road Wheels | 1 | 3.40% | 0.75% | +2.65 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-lock braking system warning lamp does not illuminate Brakes | Major | 1.8% | £3–15 |
| Fixing missing Road Wheels | Major | 1.8% | £20–55 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.8% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.8% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp not working on main beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £5–25 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £5–25 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £3–15 |
| Registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements Identification of the vehicle | Major | 1.8% | £20–80 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 1.8% | £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 | 14.0% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 5.3% | £45–110 |
| Drive shaft badly damaged Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 3.5% | £60–160 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 1.8% | £18–45 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 1.8% | £200–700 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 1.8% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 15 | 93.3% | 45,351 mi |
| 60-90k | 19 | 84.2% | 74,921 mi |
| 90-120k | 7 | 100.0% | 102,983 mi |
| 120k+ | 16 | 93.8% | 180,055 mi |
Source: 57 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.
2015 IS300 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2015 Lexus IS300?
91.2% of the 57 2015 Lexus IS300 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 82.1% for cars first used in 2015. First-attempt pass rate: 90.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2015 Lexus IS300?
The three most recorded items are anti-lock braking system warning lamp does not illuminate (1.75%), fixing missing (1.75%), has ply or cords exposed (1.75%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2015 Lexus IS300 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.3% of the time, falling to 93.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2015 Lexus IS300 in this dataset had covered 83,355 mi.