Pass rate
73.6%
Below average — 1.4 pts ahead of the 72.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 53 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £27–£73
2004 Nissan Serena MOT pass rate
- 2004
- typical 97,403 mi
Only 53 tests of this exact model and year are in the DVSA data, below the 100 we ask for before a page goes in the index. The figures are still shown, because they are the only ones there are.
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
19.8% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2013 89.0% pass
- Avoid 2005 71.8% pass
Across the 18 years on record, a spread of 17.2 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 70.5%
- Typical mileage
- 97k mi
The 2004 Nissan Serena MOT pass rate is 73.6% of its MOT tests — 1.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 19.8% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.5× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 18.6% of everything recorded on the 2004 Nissan Serena, against 12.2% nationally — 6.4 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 19.8%, 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.
- Based on a small sample. 53 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 Serena? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2004 Nissan Serena compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.2%, so this figure is 1.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 70.5%. The median 2004 Nissan Serena in this dataset had covered 97,403 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Has ply or cords exposed", noted on 7.55% of tests.
- 53 recorded tests behind this page.
- 73.6% overall pass rate, 70.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Nissan Serena, the average is 83.4% — best year 2013 (89.0%), worst 2005 (71.8%).
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
- 53
- Typical mileage (median)
- 97,403 mi
- Make and model
- Nissan Serena
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Tyres
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Serena MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 52% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Nissan Serena is most common
Across all Serena model years on record (2004–2021): 4,338 Nissan Serena cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 8,360 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 304 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham (B) | 304 | 92.3% |
| 2 | Bristol (BS) | 152 | 75.9% |
| 3 | London (E) | 147 | 90.5% |
| 4 | Wembley (HA) | 132 | 92.3% |
| 5 | Romford (RM) | 130 | 92.5% |
| 6 | Manchester (M) | 122 | 87.3% |
| 7 | Southampton (SO) | 115 | 85.5% |
| 8 | Bradford (BD) | 109 | 92.4% |
| 9 | Enfield (EN) | 102 | 93.3% |
| 10 | Sheffield (S) | 101 | 89.0% |
| 11 | Hayes (UB) | 98 | 92.9% |
| 12 | London (SE) | 88 | 88.7% |
| 13 | Leicester (LE) | 81 | 92.5% |
| 14 | Ilford (IG) | 79 | 91.2% |
| 15 | Coventry (CV) | 73 | 94.1% |
| 16 | Croydon (CR) | 72 | 89.5% |
| 17 | London (N) | 71 | 93.4% |
| 18 | Hounslow (TW) | 69 | 87.3% |
| 19 | Chelmsford (CM) | 67 | 90.3% |
| 20 | Portsmouth (PO) | 65 | 75.8% |
The twenty areas with the most Nissan Serena cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
What fails a 2004 Serena
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 2004 Serena
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 wipers and washers 7.5% 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.
-
Check the lights 5.7% of tests
“headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect”
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 tyre tread 5.7% of tests
“tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm”
Check all four tyres cold, including the inner shoulder where wear hides — 1.6mm across the central three-quarters is the legal limit, and most testers fail at 1.6mm without argument.
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 2004 Serena through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £27–£73 — and 45% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £27–£73
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp with a multiple light source up to…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: emissions not tested unable to be completed
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 45%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 53 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 Serena, side by side
18 model years on record, from 2004 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 71.8% to 89.0% — a spread of 17.2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2004 73.6%has ply or cords exposed
- 2005 71.8% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2006 77.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 76.5% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2008 79.7% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2009 82.7% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2010 81.6% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2011 84.8% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2012 83.9% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2013 89.0% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2014 89.0% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2015 86.3% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2016 86.1% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2017 83.0% ball joint excessively worn
- 2018 80.5% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2019 85.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2020 81.2% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2021 78.9% track rod end ball joint dust…
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 2004 Nissan Serena 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 2004 cars with a similar record
- Saab 9-3 73.5%
- Volvo S60 73.8%
- Volkswagen Lupo 73.8%
- Mercedes-Benz Clk 73.9%
- Suzuki Wagon-R+ 73.2%
- Volkswagen Bora 74.0%
Closest pass rates among 2004 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 2004 Nissan Serena 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 9 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 177 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 | 35 | 19.80% | 20.89% | −1.09 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 33 | 18.60% | 12.21% | +6.39 |
| Suspension | 30 | 16.90% | 20.98% | −4.08 |
| Tyres | 28 | 15.80% | 19.76% | −3.96 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 15 | 8.50% | 5.57% | +2.93 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 13 | 7.30% | 5.52% | +1.78 |
| Visibility | 12 | 6.80% | 4.97% | +1.83 |
| Non-component advisories | 6 | 3.40% | 4.18% | −0.78 |
| Steering | 5 | 2.80% | 2.57% | +0.23 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 7.5% | £45–95 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 7.5% | £8–22 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 5.7% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.7% | £5–25 |
| Position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.7% | £5–25 |
| Stop lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.7% | £3–12 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 5.7% | £45–95 |
| Emissions not tested unable to be completed Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.8% | £60–250 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.8% | £45–120 |
| Has ply or cords damaged Tyres | Major | 3.8% | £45–95 |
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 | 22.6% | £45–95 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 20.8% | £80–180 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 15.1% | £200–700 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 13.2% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 13.2% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 11.3% | £25–65 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 5 | 100.0% | 42,731 mi |
| 60-90k | 12 | 83.3% | 71,541 mi |
| 90-120k | 20 | 60.0% | 100,704 mi |
| 120k+ | 15 | 73.3% | 142,684 mi |
Source: 53 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.
2004 Serena MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2004 Nissan Serena?
73.6% of the 53 2004 Nissan Serena tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.2% for cars first used in 2004. First-attempt pass rate: 70.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2004 Nissan Serena?
The three most recorded items are has ply or cords exposed (7.55%), wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (7.55%), headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (5.66%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2004 Nissan Serena MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 73.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2004 Nissan Serena in this dataset had covered 97,403 mi.