Pass rate
69.6%
Below average — 3.0 pts behind the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 171 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £46–£128
2003 Nissan Kubistar MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 104,631 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
20.4% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2008 70.8% pass
- Avoid 2009 64.3% pass
Across the 7 years on record, a spread of 6.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 59.1%
- Typical mileage
- 105k mi
The 2003 Nissan Kubistar MOT pass rate is 69.6% of its MOT tests — 3.0 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 20.4% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Nissan Kubistar does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Fewer problems with tyres
Tyres are 14.6% of this car’s recorded faults, against 19.8% nationally — the mirror image of the usual story on a car of this age.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 72.6%; this one manages 69.6% — 3.0 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 24% 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 Nissan Kubistar? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Nissan Kubistar compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 3.0 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 59.1%. The median 2003 Nissan Kubistar in this dataset had covered 104,631 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 70.0% of the time, April–September 69.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 8.77% of tests.
- 171 recorded tests behind this page.
- 69.6% overall pass rate, 59.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Nissan Kubistar, the average is 69.1% — best year 2008 (70.8%), worst 2009 (64.3%).
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
- 171
- Typical mileage (median)
- 104,631 mi
- Make and model
- Nissan Kubistar
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Kubistar MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 55% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Kubistar
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 37 | 67.6% |
| North West | 35 | 68.6% |
| South East | 18 | 66.7% |
| East of England | 18 | 88.9% |
| West Midlands | 15 | 60.0% |
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.
What fails a 2003 Kubistar
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 2003 Kubistar
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 lights 8.8% 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.
-
Check the coil springs 8.2% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
-
Check the steering 7.6% of tests
“steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt”
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.
What it costs to get a 2003 Kubistar through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £46–£128 — and 24% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £46–£128
- Cheapest common item: srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: steering rack gaiter missing or no longer…
- £120–£300
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 24%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 171 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 Kubistar, side by side
7 model years on record, from 2003 to 2009. Across them the pass rate runs from 64.3% to 70.8% — a spread of 6.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2003 69.6%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2004 67.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2005 69.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2006 67.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2007 69.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 70.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 64.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
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 2003 Nissan Kubistar 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 2003 cars with a similar record
- Honda Cr-V 69.5%
- Hyundai Getz 69.5%
- Volvo S40 69.5%
- Peugeot 206 69.9%
- Land Rover Freelander 70.0%
- Ford Mondeo 70.0%
Closest pass rates among 2003 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 2003 Nissan Kubistar 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 607 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 | 127 | 20.40% | 20.98% | −0.58 |
| Brakes | 102 | 16.40% | 20.89% | −4.49 |
| Tyres | 91 | 14.60% | 19.76% | −5.16 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 86 | 13.80% | 12.21% | +1.59 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 49 | 7.90% | 5.57% | +2.33 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 47 | 7.50% | 5.52% | +1.98 |
| Steering | 46 | 7.40% | 2.57% | +4.83 |
| Visibility | 29 | 4.70% | 4.97% | −0.27 |
| Non-component advisories | 18 | 2.90% | 4.18% | −1.28 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 12 | 1.90% | 1.76% | +0.14 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 8.8% | £5–20 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 8.2% | £25–65 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 8.2% | £80–250 |
| Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 7.6% | £120–300 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 5.8% | £80–250 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 5.8% | £3–12 |
| Battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.3% | £60–140 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 4.1% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 3.5% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.5% | £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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 27.5% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 18.7% | £200–700 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 18.1% | £45–95 |
| Linkage pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 14.0% | £40–150 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 12.3% | £80–180 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Advisory | 11.7% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 15 | 66.7% | 55,075 mi |
| 60-90k | 25 | 64.0% | 76,940 mi |
| 90-120k | 70 | 77.1% | 102,854 mi |
| 120k+ | 61 | 63.9% | 148,330 mi |
Source: 171 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.
2003 Kubistar MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Nissan Kubistar?
69.6% of the 171 2003 Nissan Kubistar tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 59.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Nissan Kubistar?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (8.77%), coil spring fractured or broken (8.19%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (8.19%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Nissan Kubistar MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 66.7% of the time, falling to 63.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Nissan Kubistar in this dataset had covered 104,631 mi.
Does the season affect the 2003 Nissan Kubistar MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 70.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 69.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.