Pass rate
94.8%
Above average — 8.8 pts ahead of the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 77 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £32–£85
2017 Mercedes-Benz E MOT pass rate
- 2017
- 5 trims combined
- typical 108,221 mi
Only 77 tests of this exact model and year are in the DVSA data, below the 100 we ask for before a page goes in the index. The figures are still shown, because they are the only ones there are.
Most common fault
Brakes
29.4% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 98.5% pass
- Avoid 2020 87.7% pass
Across the 9 years on record, a spread of 10.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 94.5%
- Typical mileage
- 108k mi
The 2017 Mercedes-Benz E MOT pass rate is 94.8% of its MOT tests — 8.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 29.4% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Mercedes-Benz E does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.5× the national share
Tyres make up 29.4% of everything recorded on the 2017 Mercedes-Benz E, against 19.8% nationally — 9.6 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 29.4%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. Check all four tyres yourself, including the inner shoulders, and look at the date stamp — a tyre can pass on tread and still be six years old.
- 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 94.8% — 8.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Based on a small sample. 77 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 E? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Mercedes-Benz E first registered in 2017 is combined here — 5 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2017 Mercedes-Benz E compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 8.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 94.5%. The median 2017 Mercedes-Benz E in this dataset had covered 108,221 mi.
83% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 93.8% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 94.7% of the time, April–September 94.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction", noted on 3.90% of tests.
- 77 recorded tests behind this page.
- 94.8% overall pass rate, 94.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Mercedes-Benz E, the average is 89.0% — best year 2023 (98.5%), worst 2020 (87.7%).
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
- 77
- Typical mileage (median)
- 108,221 mi
- Make and model
- Mercedes-Benz E
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Indicator Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the E MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 80% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (83% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the E
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 34 | 97.1% |
| London | 26 | 96.2% |
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 E
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 E
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 3.9% of tests
“malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction”
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 2.6% 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 1.3% 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.
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 E through its MOT
Across the 7 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £32–£85 — and 40% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 7 common items
- £32–£85
- 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
- 71%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 40%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 77 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 E, side by side
9 model years on record, from 2017 to 2025. Across them the pass rate runs from 87.7% to 98.5% — a spread of 10.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2017 94.8%malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2018 91.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 88.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 87.7% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 89.6% fractured
- 2022 91.9% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 98.5% fractured
- 2024 97.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2025 98.2% headlamp aim too far to the right
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 E 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
- Lexus Rx 94.9%
- Porsche Cayman 94.6%
- Porsche 911 95.2%
- Porsche Boxster 94.3%
- Aston Martin DB11 95.5%
- Audi A8 93.8%
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 E 7 failure items · 6 advisories · 7 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 34 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 | 10 | 29.40% | 20.89% | +8.51 |
| Tyres | 10 | 29.40% | 19.76% | +9.64 |
| Suspension | 4 | 11.80% | 20.98% | −9.18 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 4 | 11.80% | 5.52% | +6.28 |
| Visibility | 2 | 5.90% | 4.97% | +0.93 |
| Non-component advisories | 2 | 5.90% | 4.18% | +1.72 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 2 | 5.90% | 1.76% | +4.14 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Rectified | 3.9% | £3–12 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.6% | £80–200 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Major | 1.3% | £45–110 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.3% | £45–95 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.3% | £3–12 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £40–150 |
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 | 10.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 6.5% | £45–110 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 2.6% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 2.6% | £18–45 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.6% | £20–80 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Advisory | 2.6% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 5 | 100.0% | 19,527 mi |
| 30-60k | 10 | 100.0% | 42,642 mi |
| 60-90k | 9 | 88.9% | 74,364 mi |
| 90-120k | 18 | 94.4% | 104,394 mi |
| 120k+ | 28 | 96.4% | 157,945 mi |
Source: 77 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 E MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2017 Mercedes-Benz E?
94.8% of the 77 2017 Mercedes-Benz E tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 94.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2017 Mercedes-Benz E?
The three most recorded items are malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (3.90%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.60%), ball joint excessively worn (1.30%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2017 Mercedes-Benz E MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 96.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 Mercedes-Benz E in this dataset had covered 108,221 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2017 Mercedes-Benz E?
Diesel: 93.8% pass rate across 64 tests. Hybrid: 100.0% pass rate across 13 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2017 Mercedes-Benz E MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 94.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 94.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.