Pass rate
Around average — 2.0 pts behind the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 59,363 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £28–£72
Pass rate
Around average — 2.0 pts behind the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 59,363 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £28–£72
Most common fault
Brakes
28.2% 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 →
0.7 pts up across model years — 6.6% in 2002, 7.3% in 2021.
Which year to buy
Across the 23 years on record, a spread of 29 points. See every year →
The 2017 Nissan X-Trail MOT pass rate is 84.0% of its MOT tests — 2.0 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 28.2% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Nissan X-Trail does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Brakes make up 28.2% of everything recorded on the 2017 Nissan X-Trail, against 20.9% nationally — 7.3 points above. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.
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 X-Trail? Get an email when these numbers change .
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 2.0 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 81.2%. The median 2017 Nissan X-Trail in this dataset had covered 60,812 mi.
84% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 84.1% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 84.1% of the time, April–September 83.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint excessively worn", noted on 3.16% 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.
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 69% so small gaps stay visible.
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (84% of tests).
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 11,483 | 86.1% |
| North West | 7,670 | 84.0% |
| Scotland | 6,331 | 79.3% |
| East of England | 5,823 | 85.4% |
| West Midlands | 5,260 | 85.1% |
| South West | 5,244 | 83.2% |
| Yorkshire | 5,171 | 82.0% |
| East Midlands | 3,690 | 82.9% |
| North East | 3,120 | 83.0% |
| London | 3,072 | 88.9% |
| Wales | 2,499 | 83.4% |
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.
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 suspension joints 3.2% 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 brakes 2.7% of tests
“brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick”
Look through the spokes of each wheel at the pad — less than 3mm of friction material, or a lip on the disc edge, is the usual failure. Check the handbrake holds on a slope with a few clicks, not at the top of its travel.
Check the windscreen 1.6% 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.
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £28–£72 — and 14% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 59,363 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 →
23 model years on record, from 2001 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 67.6% to 96.6% — a spread of 29 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 79,465 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 | 22,592 | 28.20% | 20.89% | +7.31 |
| Tyres | 19,772 | 24.70% | 19.76% | +4.94 |
| Suspension | 17,584 | 22.00% | 20.98% | +1.02 |
| Non-component advisories | 5,756 | 7.20% | 4.18% | +3.02 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 3,623 | 4.50% | 5.52% | −1.02 |
| Visibility | 3,200 | 4.00% | 4.97% | −0.97 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 3,156 | 3.90% | 12.21% | −8.31 |
| Steering | 2,508 | 3.10% | 2.57% | +0.53 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 810 | 1.00% | 1.76% | −0.76 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 464 | 0.60% | 5.57% | −4.97 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.2% | £18–45 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 2.7% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.9% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.6% | £80–200 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.3% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £40–150 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.2% | £3–12 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.2% | £45–95 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.1% | £8–22 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 1.0% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 17.2% | £18–45 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 16.4% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 12.8% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 10.2% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 9.1% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 4.7% | £20–80 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 3,155 | 91.6% | 23,318 mi |
| 30-60k | 25,679 | 86.1% | 47,334 mi |
| 60-90k | 22,917 | 82.3% | 72,641 mi |
| 90-120k | 6,198 | 79.3% | 101,196 mi |
| 120k+ | 1,402 | 77.0% | 140,034 mi |
Source: 59,363 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.
84.0% of the 59,363 2017 Nissan X-Trail tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 81.2%.
The three most recorded items are ball joint excessively worn (3.16%), brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick (2.70%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (1.89%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.6% of the time, falling to 77.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 Nissan X-Trail in this dataset had covered 60,812 mi.
Diesel: 84.1% pass rate across 49,791 tests. Petrol: 83.5% pass rate across 9,556 tests. Hybrid: 93.8% pass rate across 16 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 84.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 83.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.