Pass rate
Below average — 1.7 pts behind the 73.8% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 351 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £64–£164
Pass rate
Below average — 1.7 pts behind the 73.8% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 351 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £64–£164
Most common fault
Suspension
25.2% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
Across the 12 years on record, a spread of 20.6 points. See every year →
The 2000 Mazda E Series MOT pass rate is 72.1% of its MOT tests — 1.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 25.2% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Mazda E Series does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Body & chassis accounts for 13.2% of everything recorded on the 2000 Mazda E Series, against 5.6% nationally — 7.6 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 25.2%, but at 21.0% nationally that one is ordinary. Look underneath for corrosion near the jacking points and suspension mounts; surface rust is normal, flaking metal is not.
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 Mazda E Series? Get an email when these numbers change .
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.8%, so this figure is 1.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 65.7%. The median 2000 Mazda E Series in this dataset had covered 111,471 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 56% of tests, with a 72.8% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 72.4% of the time, April–September 71.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated", noted on 10.83% of tests.
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 42% so small gaps stay visible.
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (56% of tests).
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 130 | 70.0% |
| South West | 89 | 68.5% |
| West Midlands | 36 | 75.0% |
| East of England | 32 | 81.3% |
| East Midlands | 17 | 70.6% |
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.
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
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 suspension joints 10.8% of tests
“ball joint dust cover severely 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.
Check corrosion 9.1% of tests
“component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength”
Look under the sills, around the jacking points and where the suspension mounts meet the body. Flaking, holed or crumbly metal fails; a brown stain on sound metal does not.
Check the windscreen 6.0% 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.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £64–£164 — and 14% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 351 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 →
12 model years on record, from 2000 to 2018. Across them the pass rate runs from 63.9% to 84.5% — a spread of 20.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
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.
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Closest pass rates among 2000 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.
Shares of the 1,084 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 279 | 25.20% | 20.98% | +4.22 |
| Brakes | 214 | 19.30% | 20.89% | −1.59 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 146 | 13.20% | 5.57% | +7.63 |
| Tyres | 91 | 8.20% | 19.76% | −11.56 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 90 | 8.10% | 12.21% | −4.11 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 85 | 7.70% | 5.52% | +2.18 |
| Steering | 65 | 5.90% | 2.57% | +3.33 |
| Visibility | 52 | 4.70% | 4.97% | −0.27 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 34 | 3.10% | 0.82% | +2.28 |
| Non-component advisories | 28 | 2.50% | 4.18% | −1.68 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 10.8% | £18–45 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 9.1% | £180–450 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 6.5% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 6.0% | £80–200 |
| Prescribed areas prescribed area strength or continuity significantly reduced Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 3.7% | £40–120 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.7% | £5–20 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.4% | £5–25 |
| Integral vehicle structure condition corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.1% | £180–450 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 2.9% | £18–45 |
| Service brake imbalance across an axle Brakes | Major | 2.9% | £45–110 |
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 17.7% | £200–700 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 16.8% | £45–95 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 12.8% | £80–180 |
| Integral vehicle structure condition corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 10.5% | £180–450 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 9.4% | £40–150 |
| Chassis condition corroded to the extent that the rigidity of the assembly is significantly reduced Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 8.0% | £180–450 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2 | 50.0% | 17,089 mi |
| 30-60k | 3 | 66.7% | 54,733 mi |
| 60-90k | 99 | 74.7% | 74,323 mi |
| 90-120k | 98 | 69.4% | 105,094 mi |
| 120k+ | 149 | 72.5% | 150,783 mi |
Source: 351 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.
72.1% of the 351 2000 Mazda E Series tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.8% for cars first used in 2000. First-attempt pass rate: 65.7%.
The three most recorded items are ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (10.83%), component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (9.12%), track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt (6.55%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 50.0% of the time, falling to 72.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2000 Mazda E Series in this dataset had covered 111,471 mi.
Diesel: 72.8% pass rate across 195 tests. Petrol: 71.2% pass rate across 156 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 72.4% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 71.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.