Pass rate
Around average — 1.0 pts ahead of the 82.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 5,607 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £45–£112
Pass rate
Around average — 1.0 pts ahead of the 82.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 5,607 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £45–£112
Most common fault
Brakes
32.8% 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 →
12.5 pts down across model years — 13.3% in 2000, 0.8% in 2020.
Which year to buy
Across the 25 years on record, a spread of 25.2 points. See every year →
The 2015 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter MOT pass rate is 83.1% of its MOT tests — 1.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 32.8% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Mercedes-Benz Sprinter does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Brakes make up 32.8% of everything recorded on the 2015 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, against 20.9% nationally — 11.9 points above. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.
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 Sprinter? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Mercedes-Benz Sprinter first registered in 2015 is combined here — 5 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
Cars of this age and mileage average 82.1%, so this figure is 1.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 80.2%. The median 2015 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter in this dataset had covered 112,077 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 82.9% of the time, April–September 83.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements", noted on 4.19% of tests.
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Brake Discs and Pads Set
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 70% so small gaps stay visible.
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 1,057 | 80.1% |
| South East | 962 | 85.0% |
| North West | 494 | 82.8% |
| Yorkshire | 441 | 83.4% |
| Scotland | 441 | 78.0% |
| London | 417 | 95.7% |
| East of England | 405 | 81.7% |
| Wales | 401 | 81.3% |
| North East | 380 | 84.5% |
| West Midlands | 343 | 82.5% |
| East Midlands | 266 | 80.8% |
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.
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
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 4.2% 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 brake pipes 2.3% 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.
Check the lights 1.7% 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.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £45–£112 — and 29% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 5,607 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 →
25 model years on record, from 2000 to 2024. Across them the pass rate runs from 72.7% to 97.9% — a spread of 25.2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
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.
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Closest pass rates among 2015 vans with at least 1,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. Full rankings: best vans and worst vans for MOT pass rates.
Shares of the 8,339 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 | 2,778 | 32.80% | 20.89% | +11.91 |
| Suspension | 1,298 | 15.30% | 20.98% | −5.68 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,090 | 12.90% | 12.21% | +0.69 |
| Tyres | 708 | 8.40% | 19.76% | −11.36 |
| Visibility | 539 | 6.40% | 4.97% | +1.43 |
| Non-component advisories | 516 | 6.10% | 4.18% | +1.92 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 495 | 5.80% | 5.52% | +0.28 |
| Steering | 426 | 5.00% | 2.57% | +2.43 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 336 | 4.00% | 5.57% | −1.57 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 153 | 1.80% | 1.76% | +0.04 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 4.2% | £45–110 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.2% | £80–200 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 2.3% | £80–180 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.7% | £5–20 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.5% | £3–12 |
| Rear reflectors defective or damaged by up to 50% of the reflecting surface Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.3% | £5–25 |
| Parking brake performance inoperative on one side Brakes | Major | 1.3% | £60–150 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.3% | £8–22 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 1.2% | £60–150 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.1% | £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.
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 | 15.8% | £80–180 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 8.8% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 8.7% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 6.7% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Play in steering rack inner joint(s) Non-component advisories | Advisory | 6.2% | £120–300 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 5.3% | £200–700 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 357 | 88.8% | 20,799 mi |
| 30-60k | 732 | 87.3% | 46,929 mi |
| 60-90k | 875 | 83.7% | 75,111 mi |
| 90-120k | 912 | 78.0% | 104,694 mi |
| 120k+ | 2,420 | 81.5% | 189,262 mi |
Source: 5,607 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.
83.1% of the 5,607 2015 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 82.1% for cars first used in 2015. First-attempt pass rate: 80.2%.
The three most recorded items are rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements (4.19%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (4.17%), rigid brake pipes excessively corroded (2.25%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.8% of the time, falling to 81.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2015 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter in this dataset had covered 112,077 mi.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 82.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 83.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.