Pass rate
Around average — 6.4 pts behind the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 45,917 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £29–£84
Pass rate
Around average — 6.4 pts behind the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 45,917 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £29–£84
Most common fault
Suspension
34.4% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £35–£75 for Suspension pin or bush excessively worn. What fitting it takes →
4.1 pts up across model years — 0.6% in 2000, 4.7% in 2022.
Which year to buy
Across the 24 years on record, a spread of 24.4 points. See every year →
The 2017 Nissan Micra MOT pass rate is 79.6% of its MOT tests — 6.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 34.4% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Nissan Micra does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension accounts for 34.4% of everything recorded on the 2017 Nissan Micra, against 21.0% nationally — 13.4 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
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 .
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 6.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 74.7%. The median 2017 Nissan Micra in this dataset had covered 38,568 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 90% of tests, with a 80.2% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 80.7% of the time, April–September 78.4%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 8.16% 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.
Coil Spring
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 64% so small gaps stay visible.
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (90% of tests).
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| North West | 7,848 | 79.5% |
| South East | 6,939 | 82.7% |
| Scotland | 4,482 | 74.1% |
| Yorkshire | 4,330 | 79.0% |
| West Midlands | 4,178 | 80.3% |
| East of England | 3,968 | 82.4% |
| South West | 3,931 | 80.9% |
| North East | 3,555 | 75.9% |
| East Midlands | 2,732 | 77.0% |
| Wales | 2,316 | 77.0% |
| London | 1,635 | 87.6% |
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 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 suspension joints 4.8% of tests
“pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn”
With the car parked on level ground, rock the top of each front wheel in and out while someone watches the suspension arm. Clunks, or rubber boots split and greasy, are what testers record here.
Check the wipers and washers 1.8% of tests
“wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively”
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.
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 £29–£84 — and 20% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 45,917 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 →
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.
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 2017 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 57,971 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 | 20,079 | 34.40% | 20.98% | +13.42 |
| Tyres | 15,022 | 25.80% | 19.76% | +6.04 |
| Brakes | 10,616 | 18.20% | 20.89% | −2.69 |
| Visibility | 3,204 | 5.50% | 4.97% | +0.53 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 2,274 | 3.90% | 12.21% | −8.31 |
| Non-component advisories | 2,221 | 3.80% | 4.18% | −0.38 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 1,961 | 3.40% | 5.52% | −2.12 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1,044 | 1.80% | 5.57% | −3.77 |
| Road Wheels | 839 | 1.40% | 0.75% | +0.65 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 711 | 1.20% | 1.76% | −0.56 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 8.2% | £25–65 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 4.8% | £40–150 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.8% | £8–22 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.8% | £8–22 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 1.4% | £60–150 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.1% | £18–45 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.92% | £45–95 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 0.91% | £8–22 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 0.86% | £80–200 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 0.83% | £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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 17.9% | £40–150 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 13.4% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 12.0% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 5.7% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 5.3% | £45–110 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 3.8% | £25–65 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 14,888 | 85.6% | 20,336 mi |
| 30-60k | 23,326 | 77.5% | 43,292 mi |
| 60-90k | 6,490 | 74.3% | 70,721 mi |
| 90-120k | 982 | 73.2% | 100,615 mi |
| 120k+ | 223 | 72.2% | 143,209 mi |
Source: 45,917 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.
79.6% of the 45,917 2017 Nissan Micra tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 74.7%.
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (8.16%), pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn (4.75%), wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (1.82%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 85.6% of the time, falling to 72.2% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 Nissan Micra in this dataset had covered 38,568 mi.
Petrol: 80.2% pass rate across 41,525 tests. Diesel: 73.7% pass rate across 4,392 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 80.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 78.4%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.