Pass rate
Above average — 17.4 pts ahead of the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 210 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £44–£125
Pass rate
Above average — 17.4 pts ahead of the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 210 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £44–£125
Most common fault
Brakes
27.0% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
Across the 22 years on record, a spread of 14.1 points. See every year →
The 2009 Morgan Plus MOT pass rate is 91.4% of its MOT tests — 17.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.0% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Visibility accounts for 11.2% of everything recorded on the 2009 Morgan Plus, against 5.0% nationally — 6.2 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 27.0%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. Wipers, washers and a chip in the driver’s eyeline are the three quickest ways to fail a test that the car otherwise deserves to pass.
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 2009 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 74.0%, so this figure is 17.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 90.6%. The median 2009 Morgan Plus in this dataset had covered 22,514 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 89.3% of the time, April–September 92.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Service brake performance excessively binding", noted on 3.33% 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.
Brake Servicing
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 82% so small gaps stay visible.
Across all Plus model years on record (2000–2021): 2,134 Morgan Plus cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 4,540 tests. Worcester (WR) has the most, with 147 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Worcester (WR) | 147 | 94.4% |
| 2 | Ashford (TN) | 144 | 90.3% |
| 3 | Bristol (BS) | 122 | 95.9% |
| 4 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 89 | 85.6% |
| 5 | Gloucester (GL) | 84 | 94.0% |
| 6 | Exeter (EX) | 80 | 90.9% |
| 7 | Doncaster (DN) | 66 | 97.9% |
| 8 | Reading (RG) | 60 | 90.4% |
| 9 | Salisbury (SP) | 54 | 91.1% |
| 10 | Guildford (GU) | 52 | 82.6% |
| 11 | Chelmsford (CM) | 51 | 94.2% |
| 12 | Crewe (CW) | 49 | 94.2% |
| 13 | Ipswich (IP) | 46 | 87.5% |
| 14 | Perth (PH) | 45 | 93.7% |
| 15 | Preston (PR) | 40 | 100.0% |
| 16 | Stevenage (SG) | 39 | 97.8% |
| 17 | Oxford (OX) | 29 | 88.6% |
| 18 | Birmingham (B) | 26 | 100.0% |
| 19 | Coventry (CV) | 25 | 86.4% |
| 20 | Leicester (LE) | 25 | 97.8% |
The twenty areas with the most Morgan Plus cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 63 | 90.5% |
| South West | 42 | 88.1% |
| North West | 25 | 96.0% |
| West Midlands | 22 | 95.5% |
| Scotland | 20 | 100.0% |
| East of England | 17 | 94.1% |
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 wipers and washers 1.9% of tests
“washers not working”
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 lights 0.9% 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 steering 0.9% 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.
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 £44–£125 — and 35% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 210 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 2009 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 89 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 | 24 | 27.00% | 20.89% | +6.11 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 16 | 18.00% | 12.21% | +5.79 |
| Suspension | 15 | 16.90% | 20.98% | −4.08 |
| Tyres | 11 | 12.40% | 19.76% | −7.36 |
| Visibility | 10 | 11.20% | 4.97% | +6.23 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 5 | 5.60% | 5.52% | +0.08 |
| Steering | 3 | 3.40% | 2.57% | +0.83 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 2 | 2.20% | 5.57% | −3.37 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 2 | 2.20% | 0.82% | +1.38 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1 | 1.10% | 1.76% | −0.66 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 3.3% | £60–150 |
| Washers not working Visibility | Major | 1.9% | £5–15 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.95% | £3–12 |
| Service brake imbalance across an axle Brakes | Major | 0.95% | £45–110 |
| Steering rack gaiter damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 0.95% | £120–300 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.95% | £3–12 |
| Brake performance not tested unable to be tested Brakes | Major | 0.48% | £60–150 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.48% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content at idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.48% | £60–250 |
| Emissions not tested unable to be completed Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.48% | £60–250 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Advisory | 2.9% | £60–150 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.4% | £45–95 |
| Swivel pins and bushes swivel pin and/or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 2.4% | £40–150 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 1.9% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 1.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 1.4% | £45–110 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 148 | 91.2% | 17,876 mi |
| 30-60k | 55 | 90.9% | 37,956 mi |
| 60-90k | 5 | 100.0% | 69,913 mi |
| 90-120k | 2 | 100.0% | 94,267 mi |
Source: 210 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.
91.4% of the 210 2009 Morgan Plus tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.0% for cars first used in 2009. First-attempt pass rate: 90.6%.
The three most recorded items are service brake performance excessively binding (3.33%), washers not working (1.90%), malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (0.95%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.2% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2009 Morgan Plus in this dataset had covered 22,514 mi.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 89.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 92.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.