Pass rate
74.2%
Below average — 1.8 pts ahead of the 72.4% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 14,994 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £23–£63
2005 Mercedes-Benz Clk MOT pass rate
- 2005
- 5 trims combined
- typical 105,200 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
29.2% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £35–£75 for Suspension pin or bush excessively worn. What fitting it takes →
1.8 pts up across model years — 2.9% in 2000, 4.7% in 2009.
Which year to buy
- Best 2000 79.2% pass
- Avoid 2009 73.4% pass
Across the 12 years on record, a spread of 5.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 67.3%
- Typical mileage
- 105k mi
The 2005 Mercedes-Benz Clk MOT pass rate is 74.2% of its MOT tests — 1.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 29.2% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Mercedes-Benz Clk does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.4× the national share
Suspension accounts for 29.2% of everything recorded on the 2005 Mercedes-Benz Clk, against 21.0% nationally — 8.2 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 32% 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 Mercedes-Benz Clk? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Mercedes-Benz Clk first registered in 2005 is combined here — 5 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2005 Mercedes-Benz Clk compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.4%, so this figure is 1.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 67.3%. The median 2005 Mercedes-Benz Clk in this dataset had covered 105,200 mi.
78% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 75.2% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 73.5% of the time, April–September 74.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint excessively worn", noted on 5.89% of tests.
- 14,994 recorded tests behind this page.
- 74.2% overall pass rate, 67.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Mercedes-Benz Clk, the average is 74.7% — best year 2000 (79.2%), worst 2009 (73.4%).
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
- 14,994
- Typical mileage (median)
- 105,200 mi
- Make and model
- Mercedes-Benz Clk
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Clk MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 63% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (78% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Clk
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 4,124 | 75.3% |
| East of England | 1,775 | 74.5% |
| South West | 1,625 | 69.1% |
| North West | 1,441 | 74.9% |
| London | 1,366 | 82.6% |
| West Midlands | 1,206 | 75.8% |
| Yorkshire | 930 | 72.9% |
| East Midlands | 863 | 72.0% |
| Wales | 678 | 70.9% |
| Scotland | 658 | 67.2% |
| North East | 324 | 71.0% |
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 Clk
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 Clk
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 5.9% 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 coil springs 5.5% 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 lights 4.9% of tests
“headlamp lens slightly defective”
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.
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 Clk through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £23–£63 — and 32% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £23–£63
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 32%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 14,994 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 Clk, side by side
12 model years on record, from 2000 to 2011. Across them the pass rate runs from 73.4% to 79.2% — a spread of 5.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 79.2% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2001 79.0% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2002 77.1% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2003 75.5% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2004 73.9% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2005 74.2%ball joint excessively worn
- 2006 74.1% ball joint excessively worn
- 2007 73.7% ball joint excessively worn
- 2008 73.8% ball joint excessively worn
- 2009 73.4% ball joint excessively worn
- 2010 74.0% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2011 76.1% ball joint excessively worn
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 Clk 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
- Subaru Forester 74.3%
- Toyota Previa 74.3%
- BMW X5 74.1%
- Volkswagen Passat 74.1%
- Volkswagen Bora 73.9%
- Smart Mcc Forfour 73.9%
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 Clk 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 40,541 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 | 12,072 | 29.20% | 20.98% | +8.22 |
| Brakes | 9,004 | 21.80% | 20.89% | +0.91 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 5,588 | 13.50% | 12.21% | +1.29 |
| Tyres | 5,284 | 12.80% | 19.76% | −6.96 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2,622 | 6.30% | 5.52% | +0.78 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1,937 | 4.70% | 5.57% | −0.87 |
| Visibility | 1,534 | 3.70% | 4.97% | −1.27 |
| Steering | 912 | 2.20% | 2.57% | −0.37 |
| Non-component advisories | 908 | 2.20% | 4.18% | −1.98 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 680 | 1.60% | 1.76% | −0.16 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 5.9% | £18–45 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 5.5% | £25–65 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.9% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.4% | £5–20 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.3% | £30–80 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.2% | £80–200 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.6% | £3–12 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 2.5% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.3% | £40–150 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 2.2% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 17.5% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 17.4% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 11.3% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 8.6% | £45–110 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 8.4% | £200–700 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 7.8% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 172 | 92.4% | 20,516 mi |
| 30-60k | 1,436 | 80.9% | 49,299 mi |
| 60-90k | 3,465 | 76.2% | 76,849 mi |
| 90-120k | 4,697 | 72.9% | 104,860 mi |
| 120k+ | 5,139 | 71.8% | 149,305 mi |
Source: 14,994 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 Clk MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2005 Mercedes-Benz Clk?
74.2% of the 14,994 2005 Mercedes-Benz Clk tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.4% for cars first used in 2005. First-attempt pass rate: 67.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2005 Mercedes-Benz Clk?
The three most recorded items are ball joint excessively worn (5.89%), coil spring fractured or broken (5.50%), headlamp lens slightly defective (4.94%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2005 Mercedes-Benz Clk MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 92.4% of the time, falling to 71.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2005 Mercedes-Benz Clk in this dataset had covered 105,200 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2005 Mercedes-Benz Clk?
Petrol: 75.2% pass rate across 11,721 tests. Diesel: 70.7% pass rate across 3,261 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2005 Mercedes-Benz Clk MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 73.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 74.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.