Pass rate
71.3%
Below average — 1.1 pts behind the 72.4% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 366 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £22–£57
2005 Mercedes-Benz C MOT pass rate
- 2005
- 2 trims combined
- typical 121,960 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
33.2% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 94.4% pass
- Avoid 2005 71.3% pass · this year
Across the 17 years on record, a spread of 23.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 62.5%
- Typical mileage
- 122k mi
The 2005 Mercedes-Benz C MOT pass rate is 71.3% of its MOT tests — 1.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 33.2% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Mercedes-Benz C does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.6× the national share
Suspension accounts for 33.2% of everything recorded on the 2005 Mercedes-Benz C, against 21.0% nationally — 12.2 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.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 25% 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.
- Based on a small sample. 366 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 Mercedes-Benz C? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Mercedes-Benz C first registered in 2005 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2005 Mercedes-Benz C compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.4%, so this figure is 1.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 62.5%. The median 2005 Mercedes-Benz C in this dataset had covered 121,960 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 63% of tests, with a 70.3% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 70.2% of the time, April–September 73.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 8.20% of tests.
- 366 recorded tests behind this page.
- 71.3% overall pass rate, 62.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Mercedes-Benz C, the average is 87.7% — best year 2023 (94.4%), worst 2005 (71.3%).
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
- 366
- Typical mileage (median)
- 121,960 mi
- Make and model
- Mercedes-Benz C
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
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 C MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 60% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (63% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the C
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 106 | 73.6% |
| South West | 57 | 57.9% |
| West Midlands | 54 | 75.9% |
| East of England | 39 | 74.4% |
| North West | 32 | 68.8% |
| Scotland | 19 | 57.9% |
| London | 18 | 88.9% |
| East Midlands | 17 | 76.5% |
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 2005 C
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 2005 C
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 8.2% 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 suspension joints 6.8% of tests
“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.
-
Check the windscreen 3.5% 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.
What it costs to get a 2005 C through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £22–£57 — and 25% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £22–£57
- Cheapest common item: mirrors slightly damaged
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 25%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 366 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 C, side by side
17 model years on record, from 2000 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 71.3% to 94.4% — a spread of 23.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 78.1% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2001 76.8% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2002 75.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2003 76.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2004 73.6% ball joint excessively worn
- 2005 71.3%coil spring fractured or broken
- 2006 75.6% ball joint excessively worn
- 2007 77.3% ball joint excessively worn
- 2008 77.6% ball joint excessively worn
- 2009 74.9% ball joint excessively worn
- 2010 77.8% ball joint excessively worn
- 2018 86.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 89.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 88.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2021 90.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2022 91.1% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 94.4% windscreen damaged but not…
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 2005 Mercedes-Benz C 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 2005 cars with a similar record
- Suzuki Ignis 71.3%
- Volvo XC90 71.2%
- Nissan Pathfinder 71.2%
- Mitsubishi Colt 71.4%
- Toyota Hilux 71.4%
- Citroen C4 71.4%
Closest pass rates among 2005 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 2005 Mercedes-Benz C 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 1,062 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 | 356 | 33.20% | 20.98% | +12.22 |
| Brakes | 257 | 24.00% | 20.89% | +3.11 |
| Tyres | 125 | 11.70% | 19.76% | −8.06 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 91 | 8.50% | 12.21% | −3.71 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 74 | 6.90% | 5.52% | +1.38 |
| Visibility | 47 | 4.40% | 4.97% | −0.57 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 43 | 4.00% | 5.57% | −1.57 |
| Non-component advisories | 34 | 3.20% | 4.18% | −0.98 |
| Steering | 22 | 2.10% | 2.57% | −0.47 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 13 | 1.20% | 1.76% | −0.56 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 8.2% | £25–65 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 6.8% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 4.4% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 3.5% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.5% | £80–200 |
| Side repeaters not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.0% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.5% | £5–25 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 2.5% | £18–45 |
| Mirrors slightly damaged Visibility | Minor | 2.5% | £3–15 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.9% | £5–20 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 24.3% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 21.9% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 14.2% | £200–700 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 13.4% | £40–150 |
| Flexible brake hoses excessively deteriorated Brakes | Advisory | 12.3% | £25–70 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 12.0% | £25–65 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 15 | 80.0% | 51,048 mi |
| 60-90k | 61 | 68.9% | 74,989 mi |
| 90-120k | 102 | 73.5% | 105,562 mi |
| 120k+ | 186 | 70.4% | 153,888 mi |
Source: 366 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.
2005 C MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2005 Mercedes-Benz C?
71.3% of the 366 2005 Mercedes-Benz C tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.4% for cars first used in 2005. First-attempt pass rate: 62.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2005 Mercedes-Benz C?
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (8.20%), ball joint excessively worn (6.83%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (4.37%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2005 Mercedes-Benz C MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 80.0% of the time, falling to 70.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2005 Mercedes-Benz C in this dataset had covered 121,960 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2005 Mercedes-Benz C?
Diesel: 70.3% pass rate across 229 tests. Petrol: 73.0% pass rate across 137 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2005 Mercedes-Benz C MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 70.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 73.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.