Pass rate
88.4%
Above average — 14.4 pts ahead of the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 233 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £41–£112
2009 Lotus Evora MOT pass rate
- 2009
- 2 trims combined
- typical 48,340 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
27.1% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2020 98.3% pass
- Avoid 2009 88.4% pass · this year
Across the 12 years on record, a spread of 9.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 87.3%
- Typical mileage
- 48k mi
The 2009 Lotus Evora MOT pass rate is 88.4% of its MOT tests — 14.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.1% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.4× the national share
Tyres make up 27.1% of everything recorded on the 2009 Lotus Evora, against 19.8% nationally — 7.3 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 88.4% — 14.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 22% 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 Lotus Evora? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Lotus Evora first registered in 2009 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2009 Lotus Evora compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 74.0%, so this figure is 14.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 87.3%. The median 2009 Lotus Evora in this dataset had covered 48,340 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 87.4% of the time, April–September 89.5%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 2.58% of tests.
- 233 recorded tests behind this page.
- 88.4% overall pass rate, 87.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Lotus Evora, the average is 91.8% — best year 2020 (98.3%), worst 2009 (88.4%).
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
- 233
- Typical mileage (median)
- 48,340 mi
- Make and model
- Lotus Evora
- 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 Evora MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 52% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Lotus Evora is most common
Across all Evora model years on record (2009–2020): 1,258 Lotus Evora cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 2,402 tests. Guildford (GU) has the most, with 90 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 | Guildford (GU) | 90 | 91.2% |
| 2 | Northampton (NN) | 84 | 90.4% |
| 3 | Norwich (NR) | 41 | 90.1% |
| 4 | Crewe (CW) | 40 | 94.4% |
| 5 | Edinburgh (EH) | 38 | 87.2% |
| 6 | Chelmsford (CM) | 38 | 95.4% |
| 7 | Ashford (TN) | 37 | 89.6% |
| 8 | Southampton (SO) | 34 | 89.5% |
| 9 | Nottingham (NG) | 33 | 88.7% |
| 10 | Derby (DE) | 31 | 98.4% |
| 11 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 28 | 82.8% |
| 12 | Reading (RG) | 27 | 86.0% |
| 13 | Bristol (BS) | 26 | 91.3% |
| 14 | Ipswich (IP) | 25 | 87.2% |
| 15 | Birmingham (B) | 25 | 95.7% |
| 16 | Leicester (LE) | 24 | 84.6% |
| 17 | Peterborough (PE) | 22 | 90.7% |
| 18 | Poole (BH) | 20 | 88.9% |
| 19 | Gloucester (GL) | 18 | 90.3% |
| 20 | Oxford (OX) | 17 | 89.5% |
The twenty areas with the most Lotus Evora 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 Evora
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 82 | 80.5% |
| East of England | 38 | 94.7% |
| East Midlands | 22 | 90.9% |
| North West | 21 | 95.2% |
| Yorkshire | 19 | 94.7% |
| South West | 19 | 84.2% |
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 Evora
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 Evora
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 wipers and washers 1.7% of tests
“washers not working”
Run the wipers with the screen wet: they should clear it in one sweep without smearing or juddering. Top the washer bottle up and check both jets hit the screen.
-
Check the lights 1.3% of tests
“headlamp aim too low”
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.
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 Evora through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £41–£112 — and 22% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £41–£112
- Cheapest common item: washers not working
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 40%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 22%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 233 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 Evora, side by side
12 model years on record, from 2009 to 2020. Across them the pass rate runs from 88.4% to 98.3% — a spread of 9.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2009 88.4%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2010 89.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2011 90.2% position lamp with a multiple…
- 2012 91.3% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2013 92.0% position lamp with a multiple…
- 2014 90.9% catalyst emissions lambda reading…
- 2015 90.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 94.6% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2017 94.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 94.9% anti-lock braking system warning…
- 2019 95.5% anti-lock braking system warning…
- 2020 98.3% ball joint dust cover severely…
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 Lotus Evora 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
- Toyota Estima 86.7%
- BMW M3 90.3%
- Porsche Cayman 90.3%
- Porsche 911 91.3%
- Porsche Boxster 91.4%
- BMW Z4 85.3%
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 Lotus Evora 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 197 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 | 55 | 27.10% | 19.76% | +7.34 |
| Brakes | 43 | 21.20% | 20.89% | +0.31 |
| Suspension | 39 | 19.20% | 20.98% | −1.78 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 21 | 10.30% | 12.21% | −1.91 |
| Visibility | 16 | 7.90% | 4.97% | +2.93 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 7 | 3.40% | 5.57% | −2.17 |
| Steering | 5 | 2.50% | 2.57% | −0.07 |
| Non-component advisories | 4 | 2.00% | 4.18% | −2.18 |
| Road Wheels | 4 | 2.00% | 0.75% | +1.25 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 3 | 1.50% | 5.52% | −4.02 |
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 |
| Washers not working Visibility | Major | 1.7% | £5–15 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.3% | £30–80 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 0.86% | £18–45 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.86% | £60–250 |
| Driver's airbag missing Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 0.86% | £40–120 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.86% | £30–80 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.86% | £5–25 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 0.86% | £60–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.86% | £45–95 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 7.7% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 7.7% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 6.0% | £25–65 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 6.0% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 3.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 3.4% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 41 | 97.6% | 21,178 mi |
| 30-60k | 126 | 88.9% | 45,412 mi |
| 60-90k | 61 | 83.6% | 70,037 mi |
| 90-120k | 5 | 60.0% | 90,885 mi |
Source: 233 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 Evora MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2009 Lotus Evora?
88.4% of the 233 2009 Lotus Evora tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.0% for cars first used in 2009. First-attempt pass rate: 87.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2009 Lotus Evora?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.58%), washers not working (1.72%), headlamp aim too low (1.29%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2009 Lotus Evora MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 97.6% of the time, falling to 60.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2009 Lotus Evora in this dataset had covered 48,340 mi.
Does the season affect the 2009 Lotus Evora MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 87.4% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 89.5%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.