Pass rate
Above average — 17.3 pts ahead of the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 4,277 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £58–£164
Pass rate
Above average — 17.3 pts ahead of the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 4,277 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £58–£164
Most common fault
Brakes
27.3% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
Across the 23 years on record, a spread of 11.1 points. See every year →
The 2009 Porsche 911 MOT pass rate is 91.3% of its MOT tests — 17.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.3% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Porsche 911 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Brakes make up 27.3% of everything recorded on the 2009 Porsche 911, against 20.9% nationally — 6.4 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 Porsche 911? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Porsche 911 first registered in 2009 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
Cars of this age and mileage average 74.0%, so this figure is 17.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 90.7%. The median 2009 Porsche 911 in this dataset had covered 58,463 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 90.6% of the time, April–September 92.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 1.94% 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.
Windscreen
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 79% so small gaps stay visible.
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 1,394 | 91.4% |
| East of England | 564 | 91.8% |
| South West | 433 | 88.0% |
| London | 414 | 92.3% |
| North West | 298 | 91.6% |
| West Midlands | 291 | 91.8% |
| Yorkshire | 271 | 93.7% |
| East Midlands | 265 | 92.1% |
| Scotland | 205 | 88.8% |
| North East | 83 | 90.4% |
| Wales | 59 | 96.6% |
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 windscreen 1.9% 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.
Check the exhaust and emissions 0.7% of tests
“catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits”
Listen for a blow at idle and have someone rev it gently. Then look at the tailpipe smoke: blue is oil, white when warm is coolant, black is over-fuelling. Any of those and the emissions test is the least of it.
Check the lights 0.6% of tests
“headlamp aim too high”
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.
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £58–£164 — and 7% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 4,277 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 2000 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 85.5% to 96.6% — a spread of 11.1 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 2009 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 2,891 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 | 796 | 27.30% | 20.89% | +6.41 |
| Tyres | 699 | 24.00% | 19.76% | +4.24 |
| Suspension | 470 | 16.10% | 20.98% | −4.88 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 256 | 8.80% | 12.21% | −3.41 |
| Non-component advisories | 155 | 5.30% | 4.18% | +1.12 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 152 | 5.20% | 5.52% | −0.32 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 140 | 4.80% | 5.57% | −0.77 |
| Visibility | 125 | 4.30% | 4.97% | −0.67 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 52 | 1.80% | 1.76% | +0.04 |
| Steering | 46 | 1.60% | 2.57% | −0.97 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.9% | £80–200 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.4% | £80–250 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.70% | £60–250 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 0.68% | £80–250 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.63% | £30–80 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.61% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.58% | £30–80 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.56% | £45–95 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.56% | £5–20 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 0.51% | £30–75 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 7.5% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 7.3% | £45–110 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 6.4% | £80–180 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 4.1% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 2.6% | £40–150 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 2.3% | £18–45 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 445 | 94.4% | 21,308 mi |
| 30-60k | 1,800 | 92.9% | 46,318 mi |
| 60-90k | 1,591 | 89.4% | 73,108 mi |
| 90-120k | 369 | 89.2% | 100,896 mi |
| 120k+ | 72 | 87.5% | 144,787 mi |
Source: 4,277 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.
91.3% of the 4,277 2009 Porsche 911 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.0% for cars first used in 2009. First-attempt pass rate: 90.7%.
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.94%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (1.38%), catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits (0.70%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 94.4% of the time, falling to 87.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2009 Porsche 911 in this dataset had covered 58,463 mi.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 90.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 92.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.