Pass rate
79.8%
Around average — 6.7 pts ahead of the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 983 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £56–£163
2008 Mercedes-Benz R-Class MOT pass rate
- 2008
- typical 125,259 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
27.5% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Part only £25–£55 for Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2013 83.5% pass
- Avoid 2007 76.8% pass
Across the 8 years on record, a spread of 6.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 76.0%
- Typical mileage
- 125k mi
The 2008 Mercedes-Benz R-Class MOT pass rate is 79.8% of its MOT tests — 6.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Mercedes-Benz R-Class does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Emissions & leaks: 2.9× the national share
Emissions & leaks make up 16.0% of everything recorded on the 2008 Mercedes-Benz R-Class, against 5.5% nationally — 10.5 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 27.5%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. A smoky diesel or a leaking joint fails on emissions more often than on wear, so ask for a recent emissions printout.
- 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 73.1% and this one manages 79.8% — 6.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 28% 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 R-Class? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2008 Mercedes-Benz R-Class compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, so this figure is 6.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 76.0%. The median 2008 Mercedes-Benz R-Class in this dataset had covered 125,259 mi.
96% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 79.6% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 80.1% of the time, April–September 79.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated", noted on 12.41% of tests.
- 983 recorded tests behind this page.
- 79.8% overall pass rate, 76.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Mercedes-Benz R-Class, the average is 80.0% — best year 2013 (83.5%), worst 2007 (76.8%).
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
- 983
- Typical mileage (median)
- 125,259 mi
- Make and model
- Mercedes-Benz R-Class
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Body Panel Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the R-Class MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 69% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (96% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the R-Class
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 264 | 80.3% |
| East of England | 128 | 78.1% |
| North West | 121 | 81.8% |
| South West | 94 | 68.1% |
| West Midlands | 93 | 84.9% |
| London | 76 | 89.5% |
| Yorkshire | 64 | 82.8% |
| East Midlands | 58 | 82.8% |
| Wales | 39 | 66.7% |
| Scotland | 24 | 75.0% |
| North East | 22 | 77.3% |
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 2008 R-Class
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 2008 R-Class
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 windscreen 4.1% 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 lights 3.0% of tests
“position lamp not working”
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 brake pipes 1.9% of tests
“rigid brake pipes excessively corroded”
Brake pipes run under the car, usually in front of the rear wheels. Flaking or crusty metal is what fails; a light dusting of surface rust does not. Worth asking a garage to look while it is on a ramp.
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 2008 R-Class through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £56–£163 — and 28% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £56–£163
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 28%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 983 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 R-Class, side by side
8 model years on record, from 2006 to 2013. Across them the pass rate runs from 76.8% to 83.5% — a spread of 6.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2006 79.7% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2007 76.8% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2008 79.8%joints constant velocity boot…
- 2009 78.6% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2010 80.5% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2011 80.5% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2012 82.2% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2013 83.5% joints constant velocity boot…
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 2008 Mercedes-Benz R-Class 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 2008 cars with a similar record
- Subaru Impreza 79.8%
- BMW 520 79.5%
- BMW X3 79.5%
- Toyota Hi-Ace 79.5%
- Toyota Corolla 79.4%
- BMW Z4 79.4%
Closest pass rates among 2008 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 2008 Mercedes-Benz R-Class 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 2,353 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 | 651 | 27.50% | 20.89% | +6.61 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 379 | 16.00% | 5.52% | +10.48 |
| Suspension | 334 | 14.10% | 20.98% | −6.88 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 290 | 12.30% | 12.21% | +0.09 |
| Tyres | 289 | 12.20% | 19.76% | −7.56 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 209 | 8.80% | 5.57% | +3.23 |
| Visibility | 85 | 3.60% | 4.97% | −1.37 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 43 | 1.80% | 1.76% | +0.04 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 37 | 1.60% | 0.82% | +0.78 |
| Non-component advisories | 36 | 1.50% | 4.18% | −2.68 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 12.4% | £80–250 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.1% | £80–200 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.0% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.9% | £5–20 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 2.1% | £80–250 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 2.0% | £45–110 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 1.9% | £80–180 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.7% | £5–25 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.7% | £3–12 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 1.6% | £60–150 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 27.6% | £200–700 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 24.3% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 16.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 8.1% | £45–110 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 7.6% | £40–150 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 7.0% | £30–75 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 6 | 100.0% | 20,365 mi |
| 30-60k | 29 | 93.1% | 48,108 mi |
| 60-90k | 126 | 84.9% | 76,974 mi |
| 90-120k | 273 | 77.3% | 106,159 mi |
| 120k+ | 549 | 78.9% | 153,620 mi |
Source: 983 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.
2008 R-Class MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2008 Mercedes-Benz R-Class?
79.8% of the 983 2008 Mercedes-Benz R-Class tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 76.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2008 Mercedes-Benz R-Class?
The three most recorded items are joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (12.41%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (4.07%), position lamp not working (3.05%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2008 Mercedes-Benz R-Class MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 78.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2008 Mercedes-Benz R-Class in this dataset had covered 125,259 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2008 Mercedes-Benz R-Class?
Diesel: 79.6% pass rate across 945 tests. Petrol: 84.2% pass rate across 38 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2008 Mercedes-Benz R-Class MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 80.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 79.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.