Pass rate
70.8%
Below average — 2.3 pts behind the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 808 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £44–£120
2008 Nissan Kubistar MOT pass rate
- 2008
- typical 114,817 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
20.6% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2008 70.8% pass · this year
- Avoid 2009 64.3% pass
Across the 7 years on record, a spread of 6.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 60.6%
- Typical mileage
- 115k mi
The 2008 Nissan Kubistar MOT pass rate is 70.8% of its MOT tests — 2.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 20.6% 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
Lamps & electrics: 1.5× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 18.2% of everything recorded on the 2008 Nissan Kubistar, against 12.2% nationally — 6.0 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 20.6%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. Walk round the car with the lights on before the test: bulbs, indicators and number-plate lamps are the cheapest failures to prevent and among the most common.
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 2008 Nissan Kubistar compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, so this figure is 2.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 60.6%. The median 2008 Nissan Kubistar in this dataset had covered 114,817 mi.
98% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 70.7% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 69.6% of the time, April–September 72.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 13.99% of tests.
- 808 recorded tests behind this page.
- 70.8% overall pass rate, 60.6% 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
- 808
- Typical mileage (median)
- 114,817 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 60% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (98% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Kubistar
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 153 | 71.2% |
| East of England | 131 | 73.3% |
| South West | 110 | 71.8% |
| North West | 97 | 72.2% |
| Scotland | 69 | 68.1% |
| West Midlands | 64 | 70.3% |
| Yorkshire | 58 | 67.2% |
| East Midlands | 53 | 71.7% |
| Wales | 48 | 66.7% |
| North East | 19 | 63.2% |
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 2008 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 2008 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 14.0% 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 windscreen 8.0% 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 steering 6.2% 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 2008 Kubistar through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £44–£120 — and 38% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £44–£120
- Cheapest common item: mirrors slightly damaged
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: steering rack gaiter missing or no longer…
- £120–£300
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 38%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 808 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 2008 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 2008 cars with a similar record
- Vauxhall Vectra 70.8%
- Kia Picanto 70.8%
- Mercedes-Benz Clc 70.8%
- Citroen C2 70.8%
- Citroen C1 70.7%
- Mitsubishi L200 70.7%
Closest pass rates among 2008 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 2008 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 2,283 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 | 484 | 20.60% | 20.89% | −0.29 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 429 | 18.20% | 12.21% | +5.99 |
| Suspension | 356 | 15.10% | 20.98% | −5.88 |
| Tyres | 322 | 13.70% | 19.76% | −6.06 |
| Steering | 189 | 8.00% | 2.57% | +5.43 |
| Visibility | 157 | 6.70% | 4.97% | +1.73 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 124 | 5.30% | 5.57% | −0.27 |
| Non-component advisories | 95 | 4.00% | 4.18% | −0.18 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 90 | 3.80% | 5.52% | −1.72 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 37 | 1.60% | 1.76% | −0.16 |
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 | 14.0% | £5–20 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 8.0% | £80–200 |
| Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 6.2% | £120–300 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 5.5% | £18–45 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 4.2% | £80–250 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.2% | £5–25 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 3.7% | £60–150 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.6% | £18–45 |
| Mirrors slightly damaged Visibility | Minor | 3.2% | £3–15 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.1% | £80–250 |
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.
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 | 20.8% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 12.0% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 11.0% | £45–95 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 8.5% | £80–180 |
| Linkage pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 7.8% | £40–150 |
| Non-component advisories Play in steering rack inner joint(s) Non-component advisories | Advisory | 7.5% | £120–300 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 16 | 68.8% | 22,847 mi |
| 30-60k | 53 | 69.8% | 48,603 mi |
| 60-90k | 161 | 73.9% | 76,461 mi |
| 90-120k | 218 | 73.9% | 106,736 mi |
| 120k+ | 353 | 68.0% | 155,495 mi |
Source: 808 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.
2008 Kubistar MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2008 Nissan Kubistar?
70.8% of the 808 2008 Nissan Kubistar tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 60.6%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2008 Nissan Kubistar?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (13.99%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (8.04%), steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (6.19%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2008 Nissan Kubistar MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 68.8% of the time, falling to 68.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2008 Nissan Kubistar in this dataset had covered 114,817 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2008 Nissan Kubistar?
Diesel: 70.7% pass rate across 794 tests. Petrol: 78.6% pass rate across 14 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2008 Nissan Kubistar MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 69.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 72.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.