Pass rate
77.5%
Around average — 4.6 pts behind the 82.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 28,215 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £25–£64
2015 Nissan Pulsar MOT pass rate
- 2015
- typical 64,118 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
29.0% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Part only £25–£40 for Brake pads under 1.5 mm. What fitting it takes →
0.5 pts down across model years — 5.1% in 2014, 4.6% in 2018.
Which year to buy
- Best 2018 88.1% pass
- Avoid 2014 74.7% pass
Across the 5 years on record, a spread of 13.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 71.5%
- Typical mileage
- 64k mi
The 2015 Nissan Pulsar MOT pass rate is 77.5% of its MOT tests — 4.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 29.0% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Nissan Pulsar does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Brakes: 1.4× the national share
Brakes make up 29.0% of everything recorded on the 2015 Nissan Pulsar, against 20.9% nationally — 8.1 points above. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 82.1%; this one manages 77.5% — 4.6 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 18% 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 Pulsar? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2015 Nissan Pulsar compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 82.1%, so this figure is 4.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 71.5%. The median 2015 Nissan Pulsar in this dataset had covered 64,118 mi.
64% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 80.3% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 77.3% of the time, April–September 77.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint excessively worn", noted on 6.62% of tests.
- 28,215 recorded tests behind this page.
- 77.5% overall pass rate, 71.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Nissan Pulsar, the average is 80.7% — best year 2018 (88.1%), worst 2014 (74.7%).
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
- 28,215
- Typical mileage (median)
- 64,118 mi
- Make and model
- Nissan Pulsar
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Pulsar 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. Petrol is the most common here (64% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Pulsar
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 5,141 | 83.2% |
| North West | 4,117 | 75.4% |
| East of England | 2,892 | 80.6% |
| South West | 2,481 | 78.1% |
| West Midlands | 2,465 | 78.2% |
| Scotland | 2,458 | 68.3% |
| Yorkshire | 2,370 | 75.1% |
| North East | 1,828 | 70.7% |
| East Midlands | 1,577 | 76.7% |
| Wales | 1,463 | 73.5% |
| London | 1,423 | 88.1% |
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.
What fails a 2015 Pulsar
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 2015 Pulsar
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 suspension joints 6.6% of tests
“ball joint 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 coil springs 5.1% 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 lights 2.0% of tests
“position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning”
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.
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 2015 Pulsar through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £25–£64 — and 18% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £25–£64
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 18%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 28,215 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 Pulsar, side by side
5 model years on record, from 2014 to 2018. Across them the pass rate runs from 74.7% to 88.1% — a spread of 13.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2014 74.7% ball joint excessively worn
- 2015 77.5%ball joint excessively worn
- 2016 81.3% ball joint excessively worn
- 2017 85.0% ball joint excessively worn
- 2018 88.1% tread depth below requirements of…
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 2015 Nissan Pulsar 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 2015 cars with a similar record
- Vauxhall Corsa 77.7%
- Dacia Logan 77.3%
- Fiat 500 77.2%
- Renault Twingo 77.8%
- Renault Scenic 77.2%
- Fiat 500L 77.8%
Closest pass rates among 2015 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 2015 Nissan Pulsar 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 42,990 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 | 12,639 | 29.00% | 20.89% | +8.11 |
| Suspension | 9,824 | 22.60% | 20.98% | +1.62 |
| Tyres | 9,821 | 22.50% | 19.76% | +2.74 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 2,721 | 6.20% | 12.21% | −6.01 |
| Non-component advisories | 1,946 | 4.50% | 4.18% | +0.32 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 1,883 | 4.30% | 5.52% | −1.22 |
| Steering | 1,774 | 4.10% | 2.57% | +1.53 |
| Visibility | 1,358 | 3.10% | 4.97% | −1.87 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 671 | 1.50% | 5.57% | −4.07 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 353 | 0.80% | 1.76% | −0.96 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 6.6% | £18–45 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 5.1% | £25–65 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 3.4% | £18–45 |
| Position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.0% | £5–25 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.8% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.7% | £80–200 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.4% | £45–95 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.3% | £3–12 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.3% | £5–20 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 1.2% | £80–180 |
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 | 17.3% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 13.1% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 9.3% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 9.1% | £45–110 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 8.0% | £40–150 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 6.2% | £80–180 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1,751 | 90.3% | 23,290 mi |
| 30-60k | 10,480 | 82.0% | 46,831 mi |
| 60-90k | 10,879 | 74.6% | 73,249 mi |
| 90-120k | 3,870 | 70.5% | 101,813 mi |
| 120k+ | 1,225 | 68.6% | 141,555 mi |
Source: 28,215 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.
2015 Pulsar MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2015 Nissan Pulsar?
77.5% of the 28,215 2015 Nissan Pulsar tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 82.1% for cars first used in 2015. First-attempt pass rate: 71.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2015 Nissan Pulsar?
The three most recorded items are ball joint excessively worn (6.62%), coil spring fractured or broken (5.14%), track rod end ball joint has excessive play (3.36%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2015 Nissan Pulsar MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 90.3% of the time, falling to 68.6% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2015 Nissan Pulsar in this dataset had covered 64,118 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2015 Nissan Pulsar?
Petrol: 80.3% pass rate across 17,945 tests. Diesel: 72.6% pass rate across 10,270 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2015 Nissan Pulsar MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 77.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 77.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.