Pass rate
Above average — 22.2 pts ahead of the 72.4% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 129 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £71–£197
Pass rate
Above average — 22.2 pts ahead of the 72.4% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 129 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £71–£197
Most common fault
Emissions & leaks
18.6% of faults · 5.5% nationally
Which year to buy
Across the 22 years on record, a spread of 14.1 points. See every year →
The 2005 Morgan Plus MOT pass rate is 94.6% of its MOT tests — 22.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Emissions & leaks is the biggest single reason it fails, at 18.6% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Morgan Plus does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Emissions & leaks make up 18.6% of everything recorded on the 2005 Morgan Plus, against 5.5% nationally — 13.1 points above. A smoky diesel or a leaking joint fails on emissions more often than on wear, so ask for a recent emissions printout.
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 Morgan Plus? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Morgan Plus first registered in 2005 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.4%, so this figure is 22.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 94.4%. The median 2005 Morgan Plus in this dataset had covered 26,976 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 94.6% of the time, April–September 94.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Hose chafing", noted on 2.33% 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.
Body Panel Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 58% so small gaps stay visible.
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 39 | 94.9% |
| South West | 27 | 88.9% |
| East of England | 18 | 100.0% |
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.
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 steering 2.3% of tests
“steering rack gaiter damaged or deteriorated,”
With the wheels straight, rock the steering wheel gently with the engine off — more than about an inch of free play before the wheels move is worth investigating. Split rack gaiters are cheap to replace and commonly recorded.
Check the wipers and washers 1.6% of tests
“washers provides insufficient washer liquid”
Run the wipers with the screen wet: they should clear it in one sweep without smearing or juddering. Top the washer bottle up and check both jets hit the screen.
Check the windscreen 1.6% 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.
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 £71–£197 — and 18% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 129 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 →
22 model years on record, from 2000 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 82.2% to 96.3% — a spread of 14.1 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 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.
Shares of the 69 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 13 | 18.60% | 5.52% | +13.08 |
| Suspension | 12 | 17.10% | 20.98% | −3.88 |
| Tyres | 9 | 12.90% | 19.76% | −6.86 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 7 | 10.00% | 5.57% | +4.43 |
| Steering | 7 | 10.00% | 2.57% | +7.43 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 6 | 8.60% | 12.21% | −3.61 |
| Visibility | 6 | 8.60% | 4.97% | +3.63 |
| Non-component advisories | 4 | 5.70% | 4.18% | +1.52 |
| Brakes | 3 | 4.30% | 20.89% | −16.59 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 2 | 2.90% | 0.82% | +2.08 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hose chafing Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 2.3% | £80–250 |
| Steering rack gaiter damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 2.3% | £120–300 |
| Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 1.6% | £120–300 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Rectified | 1.6% | £5–15 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.6% | £80–200 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds default limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.78% | £60–250 |
| Electrical wiring insecure and connectors likely to become disconnected Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.78% | £5–25 |
| Emissions not tested unable to be completed Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.78% | £60–250 |
| Fixing loose Road Wheels | Rectified | 0.78% | £20–55 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.78% | £45–95 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wheel bearings has excessive play Suspension | Advisory | 5.4% | £20–55 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 3.9% | £45–95 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 2.3% | £45–120 |
| Other leaks leak harmful to the environment or a risk to other road users Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 2.3% | £60–250 |
| Transmission oil leaks leaking excessively from transmission Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 2.3% | £200–700 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 1.6% | £200–700 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 71 | 95.8% | 19,098 mi |
| 30-60k | 50 | 96.0% | 40,203 mi |
| 60-90k | 6 | 66.7% | 65,165 mi |
| 90-120k | 2 | 100.0% | 118,506 mi |
Source: 129 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.
94.6% of the 129 2005 Morgan Plus tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.4% for cars first used in 2005. First-attempt pass rate: 94.4%.
The three most recorded items are hose chafing (2.33%), steering rack gaiter damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt (2.33%), steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (1.55%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 95.8% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2005 Morgan Plus in this dataset had covered 26,976 mi.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 94.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 94.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.