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2011 Lotus Evora MOT pass rate

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Pass rate

90.2%

Above average — 14.3 pts ahead of the 75.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.

Across 306 recorded tests.

Typical repair bill £16–£46

Which year to buy

  • Best 2020 98.3% pass
  • Avoid 2009 88.4% pass

Across the 12 years on record, a spread of 9.9 points. See every year →

First-attempt pass
89.5%
Typical mileage
44k mi

The 2011 Lotus Evora MOT pass rate is 90.2% of its MOT tests — 14.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 24.7% of what testers record.

MOT PASS RATES

The 2011 Lotus Evora on the real record

90.2% of 2011 Lotus Evora MOTs passed — 306 tests, 2023–2025

Pass rate

The answer from the DVSA's class-4 MOT records.

Expert verdict

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 75.9% and this one manages 90.2% — 14.3 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 Lotus Evora? Get an email when these numbers change .

Every Lotus Evora first registered in 2011 is combined here — 3 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.

How does the 2011 Lotus Evora compare?

Cars of this age and mileage average 75.9%, so this figure is 14.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 89.5%. The median 2011 Lotus Evora in this dataset had covered 44,170 mi.

Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 90.8% of the time, April–September 89.6%.

The single most recorded failure item is "Position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning", noted on 1.63% of tests.

  • 306 recorded tests behind this page.
  • 90.2% overall pass rate, 89.5% 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
306
Typical mileage (median)
44,170 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

Headlight Bulb

Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.

Does mileage affect the Evora MOT pass rate?

0-30k 90.5%
30-60k 91.5%
60-90k 89.7%
90-120k 75.0%

Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 67% 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 Share of all Tests Pass rate
1 Guildford (GU) 90 7.2% 193 91.2%
2 Northampton (NN) 84 6.7% 156 90.4%
3 Norwich (NR) 41 3.3% 81 90.1%
4 Crewe (CW) 40 3.2% 71 94.4%
5 Edinburgh (EH) 38 3% 94 87.2%
6 Chelmsford (CM) 38 3% 65 95.4%
7 Ashford (TN) 37 2.9% 67 89.6%
8 Southampton (SO) 34 2.7% 57 89.5%
9 Nottingham (NG) 33 2.6% 62 88.7%
10 Derby (DE) 31 2.5% 61 98.4%
11 Milton Keynes (MK) 28 2.2% 64 82.8%
12 Reading (RG) 27 2.1% 57 86.0%
13 Bristol (BS) 26 2.1% 46 91.3%
14 Ipswich (IP) 25 2% 47 87.2%
15 Birmingham (B) 25 2% 46 95.7%
16 Leicester (LE) 24 1.9% 39 84.6%
17 Peterborough (PE) 22 1.7% 43 90.7%
18 Poole (BH) 20 1.6% 45 88.9%
19 Gloucester (GL) 18 1.4% 31 90.3%
20 Oxford (OX) 17 1.4% 38 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 95 88.4%
East Midlands 34 94.1%
Yorkshire 29 93.1%
East of England 28 92.9%
North West 26 92.3%
South West 22 81.8%
Scotland 22 77.3%
West Midlands 21 100.0%
London 15 93.3%

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 2011 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.

Brakes 24.7%
+3.8 pts vs national national 20.9% Price brakes parts
Suspension 23.1%
+2.1 pts vs national national 21.0% Price suspension parts
Tyres 23.1%
+3.3 pts vs national national 19.8% Compare tyre prices
Lamps & electrics 15.5%
+3.3 pts vs national national 12.2% Order bulbs & wipers
Show the other 6 fault categories
  • Visibility 4.8%
  • Advisories 2.0%
  • Emissions & leaks 1.6%
  • Identification 1.6%
  • Seat belts 1.6%
  • Steering 0.8%

Shares are of every item recorded on 2011 Lotus Evora tests — a composition, so they add to 100% across all sections, not per test.

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 2011 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.

  1. Check the lights 1.6% of tests

    “position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning”

    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.

  2. Check the suspension joints 1.3% of tests

    “linkage ball joints ball joint 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.

  3. Check the wipers and washers 1.0% 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.

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 2011 Evora through its MOT

Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £16–£46 — and 68% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.

Average repair across the 10 common items
£16–£46
Cheapest common item: individual direction indicators not working
£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
68%

Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 306 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.

  1. 2009 88.4% windscreen damaged but not…
  2. 2010 89.9% windscreen damaged but not…
  3. 2011 90.2%
    position lamp with a multiple…
  4. 2012 91.3% malfunction indicator lamp…
  5. 2013 92.0% position lamp with a multiple…
  6. 2014 90.9% catalyst emissions lambda reading…
  7. 2015 90.6% windscreen damaged but not…
  8. 2016 94.6% has a cut in excess of the…
  9. 2017 94.9% windscreen damaged but not…
  10. 2018 94.9% anti-lock braking system warning…
  11. 2019 95.5% anti-lock braking system warning…
  12. 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 2011 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.

Compare 2011 with another year →

Compare two different cars instead →

Other 2011 cars with a similar record

Closest pass rates among 2011 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 2011 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 248 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 62 24.70% 20.89% +3.81
Suspension 58 23.10% 20.98% +2.12
Tyres 58 23.10% 19.76% +3.34
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 39 15.50% 12.21% +3.29
Visibility 12 4.80% 4.97% −0.17
Non-component advisories 5 2.00% 4.18% −2.18
Noise, emissions and leaks 4 1.60% 5.52% −3.92
Identification of the vehicle 4 1.60% 1.76% −0.16
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems 4 1.60% 0.82% +0.78
Steering 2 0.80% 2.57% −1.77

The exact failure items, in the tester's words

Share of the 306 tests on this vehicle that recorded each item
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost Part
Position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Minor 1.6% £5–25 Headlight Bulb →
Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Major 1.3% £30–80 Headlight Alignment →
Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Minor 1.3% £5–25 Headlight Bulb →
Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension Major 1.3% £18–45 Ball Joint →
Individual direction indicators not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Major 0.98% £3–12 Indicator Bulb →
Side repeaters not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Major 0.98% £5–25 Headlight Bulb →
Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems Major 0.98% £3–12 Indicator Bulb →
Washers not working Visibility Major 0.98% £5–15 Windscreen Washer →
Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility Minor 0.98% £80–200 Windscreen →
Anti-lock braking system warning lamp indicates an ABS fault Brakes Major 0.65% £3–15 Bulb →

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.

Items recorded as advisory on this vehicle
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost
Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes Advisory 7.5% £45–110
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres Advisory 7.2% £45–95
Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres Advisory 6.9% £45–95
Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension Advisory 5.9% £25–65
Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension Advisory 4.3% £18–45
Ball joint excessively worn Suspension Advisory 3.3% £18–45

Pass rate by mileage

Mileage Tests Pass rate Median odometer
0-30k 63 90.5% 23,003 mi
30-60k 153 91.5% 43,100 mi
60-90k 78 89.7% 70,740 mi
90-120k 12 75.0% 97,701 mi

Source: 306 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.

2011 Evora MOT questions

What is the MOT pass rate for a 2011 Lotus Evora?

90.2% of the 306 2011 Lotus Evora tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 75.9% for cars first used in 2011. First-attempt pass rate: 89.5%.

What are the most common MOT failures on a 2011 Lotus Evora?

The three most recorded items are position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning (1.63%), headlamp aim too low (1.31%), headlamp lens slightly defective (1.31%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.

Does mileage affect the 2011 Lotus Evora MOT pass rate?

Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 90.5% of the time, falling to 75.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2011 Lotus Evora in this dataset had covered 44,170 mi.

Does the season affect the 2011 Lotus Evora MOT pass rate?

Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 90.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 89.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.