Pass rate
78.3%
Around average — 7.7 pts behind the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 12,360 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £31–£87
2017 Mercedes-Benz Citan MOT pass rate
- 2017
- 2 trims combined
- typical 90,798 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
25.7% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Part only £25–£40 for Brake pads under 1.5 mm. What fitting it takes →
2.8 pts up across model years — 4.2% in 2013, 7.0% in 2021.
Which year to buy
- Best 2021 82.9% pass
- Avoid 2013 71.6% pass
Across the 9 years on record, a spread of 11.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 72.7%
- Typical mileage
- 91k mi
The 2017 Mercedes-Benz Citan MOT pass rate is 78.3% of its MOT tests — 7.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 25.7% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Mercedes-Benz Citan does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.8× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 22.4% of everything recorded on the 2017 Mercedes-Benz Citan, against 12.2% nationally — 10.2 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 25.7%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. Walk round the car with the lights on before the test: bulbs, indicators and number-plate lamps are the cheapest failures to prevent and among the most common.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 86.0%; this one manages 78.3% — 7.7 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
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 Citan? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Mercedes-Benz Citan first registered in 2017 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2017 Mercedes-Benz Citan compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 7.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 72.7%. The median 2017 Mercedes-Benz Citan in this dataset had covered 90,798 mi.
99% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 78.2% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 78.3% of the time, April–September 78.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 9.51% of tests.
- 12,360 recorded tests behind this page.
- 78.3% overall pass rate, 72.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Mercedes-Benz Citan, the average is 77.2% — best year 2021 (82.9%), worst 2013 (71.6%).
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
- 12,360
- Typical mileage (median)
- 90,798 mi
- Make and model
- Mercedes-Benz Citan
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Citan MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 68% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (99% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Citan
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 2,342 | 82.2% |
| Scotland | 1,802 | 72.1% |
| North West | 1,322 | 78.2% |
| East of England | 1,281 | 80.2% |
| Yorkshire | 1,140 | 76.3% |
| West Midlands | 1,073 | 79.7% |
| South West | 892 | 75.8% |
| London | 723 | 85.6% |
| East Midlands | 691 | 77.9% |
| North East | 636 | 73.9% |
| Wales | 458 | 78.2% |
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 2017 Citan
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 Citan
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 lights 9.5% of tests
“registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”
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.
-
Check the windscreen 7.5% 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.
-
Check the suspension joints 2.3% of tests
“track rod end ball joint has excessive play”
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.
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 Citan through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £31–£87 — and 53% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £31–£87
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot split or…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 53%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 12,360 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 Citan, side by side
9 model years on record, from 2013 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 71.6% to 82.9% — a spread of 11.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2013 71.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 72.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 75.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2016 76.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2017 78.3%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2018 79.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2019 82.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2020 81.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2021 82.9% 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 2017 Mercedes-Benz Citan 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
- Renault Clio 78.0%
- Citroen C4 Grand Picasso 78.9%
- Renault Grand Scenic 79.0%
- Nissan Navara 79.1%
- Peugeot 5008 79.1%
- Alfa Romeo Mito 79.1%
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 Mercedes-Benz Citan 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 21,746 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 | 5,677 | 25.70% | 20.89% | +4.81 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 4,933 | 22.40% | 12.21% | +10.19 |
| Tyres | 4,333 | 19.60% | 19.76% | −0.16 |
| Visibility | 1,998 | 9.10% | 4.97% | +4.13 |
| Suspension | 1,422 | 6.40% | 20.98% | −14.58 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1,199 | 5.40% | 5.57% | −0.17 |
| Steering | 695 | 3.10% | 2.57% | +0.53 |
| Non-component advisories | 608 | 2.80% | 4.18% | −1.38 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 493 | 2.20% | 5.52% | −3.32 |
| Road Wheels | 388 | 1.80% | 0.75% | +1.05 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 9.5% | £5–20 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 7.5% | £80–200 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 5.0% | £80–250 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.2% | £3–12 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.7% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.6% | £5–20 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 2.5% | £3–12 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 2.3% | £18–45 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 2.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 2.0% | £18–45 |
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 | 21.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 11.1% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 10.8% | £45–110 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 6.6% | £80–180 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 4.6% | £45–95 |
| Stop lamp with a multiple light source more than 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Advisory | 3.8% | £3–12 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 279 | 86.0% | 23,288 mi |
| 30-60k | 2,058 | 81.2% | 47,964 mi |
| 60-90k | 3,732 | 78.4% | 75,116 mi |
| 90-120k | 3,351 | 77.0% | 103,937 mi |
| 120k+ | 2,905 | 76.9% | 154,297 mi |
Source: 12,360 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 Citan MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2017 Mercedes-Benz Citan?
78.3% of the 12,360 2017 Mercedes-Benz Citan tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 72.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2017 Mercedes-Benz Citan?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (9.51%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (7.48%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (5.00%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2017 Mercedes-Benz Citan MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 86.0% of the time, falling to 76.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 Mercedes-Benz Citan in this dataset had covered 90,798 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2017 Mercedes-Benz Citan?
Diesel: 78.2% pass rate across 12,227 tests. Petrol: 84.2% pass rate across 133 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2017 Mercedes-Benz Citan MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 78.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 78.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.