Pass rate
70.4%
Below average — 2.9 pts behind the 73.3% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 15,720 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £76–£209
2001 Nissan Micra MOT pass rate
- 2001
- typical 63,755 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
21.9% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 93.8% pass
- Avoid 2000 69.4% pass
Across the 24 years on record, a spread of 24.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 61.4%
- Typical mileage
- 64k mi
The 2001 Nissan Micra MOT pass rate is 70.4% of its MOT tests — 2.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 21.9% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Nissan Micra does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Body & chassis: 2.2× the national share
Body & chassis accounts for 12.5% of everything recorded on the 2001 Nissan Micra, against 5.6% nationally — 6.9 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 21.9%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. Look underneath for corrosion near the jacking points and suspension mounts; surface rust is normal, flaking metal is not.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 16% 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 Micra? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2001 Nissan Micra 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 61.4%. The median 2001 Nissan Micra in this dataset had covered 63,755 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 70.0% of the time, April–September 70.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength", noted on 8.40% of tests.
- 15,720 recorded tests behind this page.
- 70.4% overall pass rate, 61.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Nissan Micra, the average is 77.9% — best year 2022 (93.8%), worst 2000 (69.4%).
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
- 15,720
- Typical mileage (median)
- 63,755 mi
- Make and model
- Nissan Micra
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Corrosion Welding Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Micra MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 56% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Micra
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 4,586 | 73.1% |
| South West | 2,826 | 66.0% |
| East of England | 1,845 | 71.4% |
| North West | 1,459 | 66.9% |
| West Midlands | 1,441 | 69.5% |
| London | 1,088 | 80.1% |
| East Midlands | 765 | 69.9% |
| Yorkshire | 759 | 68.5% |
| Wales | 561 | 66.5% |
| Scotland | 205 | 62.4% |
| North East | 179 | 65.9% |
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 Micra
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 Micra
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 corrosion 8.4% 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 lights 4.7% 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 3.5% 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.
What it costs to get a 2001 Micra through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £76–£209 — and 16% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £76–£209
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- 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
- 16%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 15,720 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 Micra, side by side
24 model years on record, from 2000 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 69.4% to 93.8% — a spread of 24.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 69.4% component mounting prescribed…
- 2001 70.4%component mounting prescribed…
- 2002 71.1% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2003 71.6% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2004 72.2% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2005 72.1% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2006 74.2% headlamp aim projected beam image…
- 2007 74.6% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2008 76.0% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2009 76.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2010 76.8% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2011 77.9% service brake performance…
- 2012 78.0% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2013 79.2% service brake performance…
- 2014 81.5% service brake performance…
- 2015 83.7% service brake performance…
- 2016 84.7% service brake performance…
- 2017 79.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2018 82.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2019 88.2% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2020 90.8% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2021 93.4% wipers blade defective
- 2022 93.8% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2023 88.7% wipers blade 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 Nissan Micra 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
- Honda Cr-V 70.4%
- Audi A2 70.6%
- Land Rover Freelander 70.2%
- Ford Focus 70.7%
- Renault Clio 70.7%
- Suzuki Wagon-R+ 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 Nissan Micra 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 42,474 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 | 9,605 | 21.90% | 20.89% | +1.01 |
| Suspension | 8,292 | 18.90% | 20.98% | −2.08 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 5,486 | 12.50% | 5.57% | +6.93 |
| Tyres | 5,458 | 12.50% | 19.76% | −7.26 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 4,615 | 10.50% | 12.21% | −1.71 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2,602 | 5.90% | 5.52% | +0.38 |
| Visibility | 2,050 | 4.70% | 4.97% | −0.27 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1,788 | 4.10% | 1.76% | +2.34 |
| Steering | 1,488 | 3.40% | 2.57% | +0.83 |
| Non-component advisories | 1,090 | 2.50% | 4.18% | −1.68 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 8.4% | £180–450 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 7.9% | £80–250 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 6.6% | £80–250 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.7% | £5–20 |
| Service brake imbalance across an axle Brakes | Major | 4.4% | £45–110 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.5% | £80–200 |
| Prescribed areas prescribed area strength or continuity significantly reduced Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 3.4% | £40–120 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 2.9% | £60–150 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.9% | £5–25 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 2.8% | £45–110 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 18.7% | £45–95 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 11.4% | £80–180 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 11.3% | £200–700 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 11.0% | £25–65 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Advisory | 10.3% | £20–80 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 9.7% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 950 | 80.5% | 23,541 mi |
| 30-60k | 6,018 | 72.3% | 46,520 mi |
| 60-90k | 5,545 | 69.3% | 73,620 mi |
| 90-120k | 2,369 | 65.9% | 101,964 mi |
| 120k+ | 728 | 64.6% | 140,512 mi |
Source: 15,720 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 Micra MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2001 Nissan Micra?
70.4% of the 15,720 2001 Nissan Micra tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.3% for cars first used in 2001. First-attempt pass rate: 61.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2001 Nissan Micra?
The three most recorded items are component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (8.40%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (7.89%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (6.60%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2001 Nissan Micra MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 80.5% of the time, falling to 64.6% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2001 Nissan Micra in this dataset had covered 63,755 mi.
Does the season affect the 2001 Nissan Micra MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 70.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 70.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.