Pass rate
87.4%
Above average — 14.5 pts ahead of the 72.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 111 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £19–£64
2002 Nissan Silvia MOT pass rate
- 2002
- typical 87,464 mi
Most common fault
Lamps & electrics
26.7% of faults · 12.2% nationally
Which year to buy
- Best 2017 96.7% pass
- Avoid 2002 87.4% pass · this year
Across the 8 years on record, a spread of 9.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 86.0%
- Typical mileage
- 87k mi
The 2002 Nissan Silvia MOT pass rate is 87.4% of its MOT tests — 14.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Lamps & electrics is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.7% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Nissan Silvia does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 2.2× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 26.7% of everything recorded on the 2002 Nissan Silvia, against 12.2% nationally — 14.5 points above. 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.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 72.9% and this one manages 87.4% — 14.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 59% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
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 Silvia? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2002 Nissan Silvia compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.9%, so this figure is 14.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 86.0%. The median 2002 Nissan Silvia in this dataset had covered 87,464 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 88.5% of the time, April–September 86.4%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect", noted on 1.80% of tests.
- 111 recorded tests behind this page.
- 87.4% overall pass rate, 86.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Nissan Silvia, the average is 90.4% — best year 2017 (96.7%), worst 2002 (87.4%).
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
- 111
- Typical mileage (median)
- 87,464 mi
- Make and model
- Nissan Silvia
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Headlight Alignment
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Silvia MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 73% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Silvia
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 20 | 90.0% |
| East of England | 18 | 88.9% |
| North East | 17 | 82.4% |
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 2002 Silvia
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 2002 Silvia
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 1.8% 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 horn 1.8% of tests
“horn not working”
Press it. That is the whole check, and a surprising number of cars fail on it.
-
Check the suspension joints 1.8% of tests
“track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated,”
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.
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 2002 Silvia through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £19–£64 — and 59% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £19–£64
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 59%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 111 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 Silvia, side by side
8 model years on record, from 2000 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 87.4% to 96.7% — a spread of 9.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 88.3% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2001 88.3% catalyst emissions lambda reading…
- 2002 87.4%headlamp aim projected beam image…
- 2015 93.2% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2016 88.5% battery(ies) insecure but not…
- 2017 96.7% washers provides insufficient…
- 2018 90.3% battery(ies) insecure but not…
- 2019 94.9% headlamp lens slightly 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 2002 Nissan Silvia 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 2002 cars with a similar record
- BMW M3 86.7%
- Porsche 911 85.5%
- Mercedes-Benz Sl 85.2%
- Honda S2000 84.6%
- Mercedes-Benz Slk 81.2%
- BMW Z3 80.7%
Closest pass rates among 2002 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 2002 Nissan Silvia 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 101 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 27 | 26.70% | 12.21% | +14.49 |
| Brakes | 17 | 16.80% | 20.89% | −4.09 |
| Tyres | 17 | 16.80% | 19.76% | −2.96 |
| Suspension | 11 | 10.90% | 20.98% | −10.08 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 10 | 9.90% | 5.57% | +4.33 |
| Steering | 8 | 7.90% | 2.57% | +5.33 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 5 | 5.00% | 5.52% | −0.52 |
| Visibility | 5 | 5.00% | 4.97% | +0.03 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 1 | 1.00% | 0.82% | +0.18 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £30–80 |
| Horn not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £8–25 |
| Position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.8% | £5–25 |
| Rear fog lamp missing Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £3–15 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £3–12 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 1.8% | £18–45 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.8% | £8–22 |
| Battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.90% | £60–140 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.90% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds default limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.90% | £60–250 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 3.6% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 3.6% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 3.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 2.7% | £45–110 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 2.7% | £45–120 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2 | 100.0% | 23,912 mi |
| 30-60k | 16 | 93.8% | 43,136 mi |
| 60-90k | 47 | 89.4% | 79,863 mi |
| 90-120k | 24 | 83.3% | 103,676 mi |
| 120k+ | 22 | 81.8% | 147,376 mi |
Source: 111 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.
2002 Silvia MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2002 Nissan Silvia?
87.4% of the 111 2002 Nissan Silvia tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.9% for cars first used in 2002. First-attempt pass rate: 86.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2002 Nissan Silvia?
The three most recorded items are headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (1.80%), horn not working (1.80%), position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning (1.80%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2002 Nissan Silvia MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 81.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2002 Nissan Silvia in this dataset had covered 87,464 mi.
Does the season affect the 2002 Nissan Silvia MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 88.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 86.4%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.