Pass rate
91.5%
Above average — 5.5 pts ahead of the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 141 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £43–£124
2017 McLaren 540 MOT pass rate
- 2017
- typical 19,844 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
33.3% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £40–£65 for Shock absorber leaking. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2016 94.5% pass
- Avoid 2017 91.5% pass · this year
Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 91.1%
- Typical mileage
- 20k mi
The 2017 McLaren 540 MOT pass rate is 91.5% of its MOT tests — 5.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 33.3% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.6× the national share
Suspension accounts for 33.3% of everything recorded on the 2017 McLaren 540, against 21.0% nationally — 12.3 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
- 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 86.0% and this one manages 91.5% — 5.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 0% 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 McLaren 540? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2017 McLaren 540 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 5.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 91.1%. The median 2017 McLaren 540 in this dataset had covered 19,844 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 92.9% of the time, April–September 90.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 4.96% of tests.
- 141 recorded tests behind this page.
- 91.5% overall pass rate, 91.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the McLaren 540, the average is 92.3% — best year 2016 (94.5%), worst 2017 (91.5%).
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
- 141
- Typical mileage (median)
- 19,844 mi
- Make and model
- McLaren 540
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Coil Spring
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the 540 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 82% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 540
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 39 | 84.6% |
| North West | 18 | 88.9% |
| East of England | 18 | 100.0% |
| West Midlands | 15 | 93.3% |
| South West | 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 2017 540
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 2017 540
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 coil springs 5.0% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
-
Check the windscreen 2.1% 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 exhaust and emissions 0.7% of tests
“catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits”
Listen for a blow at idle and have someone rev it gently. Then look at the tailpipe smoke: blue is oil, white when warm is coolant, black is over-fuelling. Any of those and the emissions test is the least of it.
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 2017 540 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £43–£124 — and 0% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £43–£124
- Cheapest common item: coil spring fractured or broken
- £25–£65
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 0%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 141 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 540, side by side
2 model years on record, from 2016 to 2017. Across them the pass rate runs from 91.5% to 94.5% — a spread of 3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2016 94.5% has ply or cords exposed
- 2017 91.5%coil spring fractured or broken
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 2017 McLaren 540 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 2017 cars with a similar record
Closest pass rates among 2017 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 2017 McLaren 540 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 54 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 | 18 | 33.30% | 20.98% | +12.32 |
| Tyres | 16 | 29.60% | 19.76% | +9.84 |
| Brakes | 8 | 14.80% | 20.89% | −6.09 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 4 | 7.40% | 5.52% | +1.88 |
| Visibility | 4 | 7.40% | 4.97% | +2.43 |
| Non-component advisories | 2 | 3.70% | 4.18% | −0.48 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1 | 1.90% | 12.21% | −10.31 |
| Steering | 1 | 1.90% | 2.57% | −0.67 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 5.0% | £25–65 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.1% | £80–200 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.71% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content at idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.71% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions hydrocarbon content after 2nd fast idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.71% | £60–250 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.71% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.71% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.71% | £30–80 |
| Mirrors insecure Visibility | Major | 0.71% | £20–80 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 0.71% | £30–75 |
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 | 5.7% | £45–95 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 4.3% | £30–75 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 2.1% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 2.1% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.1% | £45–95 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 1.4% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 128 | 90.6% | 18,438 mi |
| 30-60k | 13 | 100.0% | 35,965 mi |
Source: 141 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.
2017 540 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2017 McLaren 540?
91.5% of the 141 2017 McLaren 540 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 91.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2017 McLaren 540?
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (4.96%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.13%), catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits (0.71%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2017 McLaren 540 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 90.6% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 McLaren 540 in this dataset had covered 19,844 mi.
Does the season affect the 2017 McLaren 540 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 92.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 90.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.