Pass rate
70.4%
Below average — 2.9 pts behind the 73.3% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 54 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £53–£138
2001 MG Zt-T MOT pass rate
- 2001
- typical 104,833 mi
Only 54 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
Suspension
36.5% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2006 76.0% pass
- Avoid 2003 70.2% pass
Across the 6 years on record, a spread of 5.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 62.8%
- Typical mileage
- 105k mi
The 2001 MG Zt-T MOT pass rate is 70.4% of its MOT tests — 2.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 36.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how MG Zt-T does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.7× the national share
Suspension accounts for 36.5% of everything recorded on the 2001 MG Zt-T, against 21.0% nationally — 15.5 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 20% 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.
- Based on a small sample. 54 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 MG Zt-T? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2001 MG Zt-T compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.3%, so this figure is 2.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 62.8%. The median 2001 MG Zt-T in this dataset had covered 104,833 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated", noted on 9.26% of tests.
- 54 recorded tests behind this page.
- 70.4% overall pass rate, 62.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the MG Zt-T, the average is 72.6% — best year 2006 (76.0%), worst 2003 (70.2%).
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
- 54
- Typical mileage (median)
- 104,833 mi
- Make and model
- MG Zt-T
- 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 Zt-T MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 42% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Zt-T
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 18 | 94.4% |
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 2001 Zt-T
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 2001 Zt-T
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 9.3% of tests
“ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated”
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 corrosion 5.6% of tests
“component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength”
Look under the sills, around the jacking points and where the suspension mounts meet the body. Flaking, holed or crumbly metal fails; a brown stain on sound metal does not.
-
Check the suspension 5.6% of tests
“component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area is inadequately repaired”
Bounce each corner and listen for a knock over a rough surface at low speed. Most suspension failures announce themselves weeks before the test.
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 2001 Zt-T through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £53–£138 — and 20% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £53–£138
- Cheapest common item: srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: component mounting prescribed areas…
- £180–£450
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 40%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 20%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 54 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 Zt-T, side by side
6 model years on record, from 2001 to 2006. Across them the pass rate runs from 70.2% to 76.0% — a spread of 5.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2001 70.4%ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2002 74.9% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2003 70.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2004 74.1% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2005 71.3% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2006 76.0% headlamp lens slightly defective
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 2001 MG Zt-T 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 2001 cars with a similar record
- Nissan Micra 70.4%
- Honda Cr-V 70.4%
- Audi A2 70.6%
- Land Rover Freelander 70.2%
- Ford Focus 70.7%
- Renault Clio 70.7%
Closest pass rates among 2001 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 2001 MG Zt-T 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 165 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 | 61 | 36.50% | 20.98% | +15.52 |
| Brakes | 47 | 28.10% | 20.89% | +7.21 |
| Tyres | 12 | 7.20% | 19.76% | −12.56 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 10 | 6.00% | 12.21% | −6.21 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 9 | 5.40% | 5.57% | −0.17 |
| Visibility | 6 | 3.60% | 4.97% | −1.37 |
| Non-component advisories | 6 | 3.60% | 4.18% | −0.58 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 5 | 3.00% | 1.76% | +1.24 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 5 | 3.00% | 0.82% | +2.18 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 4 | 2.40% | 5.52% | −3.12 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 9.3% | £18–45 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 5.6% | £180–450 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area is inadequately repaired Suspension | Major | 5.6% | £40–150 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.6% | £5–25 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 5.6% | £45–110 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 5.6% | £80–180 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 5.6% | £3–12 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 5.6% | £80–200 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.7% | £45–120 |
| Parking brake performance inoperative on one side Brakes | Major | 3.7% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 22.2% | £80–180 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 16.7% | £45–110 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 16.7% | £180–450 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 14.8% | £25–65 |
| Anti-roll bar corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 13.0% | £12–30 |
| Flexible brake hoses ferrule excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 11.1% | £25–70 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 3 | 100.0% | 41,228 mi |
| 60-90k | 15 | 80.0% | 83,875 mi |
| 90-120k | 10 | 50.0% | 99,742 mi |
| 120k+ | 26 | 69.2% | 155,336 mi |
Source: 54 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.
2001 Zt-T MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2001 MG Zt-T?
70.4% of the 54 2001 MG Zt-T tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.3% for cars first used in 2001. First-attempt pass rate: 62.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2001 MG Zt-T?
The three most recorded items are ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (9.26%), component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (5.56%), component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area is inadequately repaired (5.56%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2001 MG Zt-T MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 69.2% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2001 MG Zt-T in this dataset had covered 104,833 mi.