Pass rate
84.9%
Around average — 12.3 pts ahead of the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 119 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £45–£135
2003 Porsche 911 Carrera MOT pass rate
- 2003
- 6 trims combined
- typical 71,919 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
22.1% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Part only £25–£55 for Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 97.1% pass
- Avoid 2013 81.8% pass
Across the 17 years on record, a spread of 15.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 82.9%
- Typical mileage
- 72k mi
The 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera MOT pass rate is 84.9% of its MOT tests — 12.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 22.1% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Porsche 911 Carrera does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.8× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 22.1% of everything recorded on the 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera, against 12.2% nationally — 9.9 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 22.1%, 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.
- 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 72.6% and this one manages 84.9% — 12.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Based on a small sample. 119 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 Porsche 911 Carrera? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Porsche 911 Carrera first registered in 2003 is combined here — 6 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 12.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 82.9%. The median 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera in this dataset had covered 71,919 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 87.0% of the time, April–September 83.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Position lamp not working", noted on 4.20% of tests.
- 119 recorded tests behind this page.
- 84.9% overall pass rate, 82.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Porsche 911 Carrera, the average is 94.0% — best year 2022 (97.1%), worst 2013 (81.8%).
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
- 119
- Typical mileage (median)
- 71,919 mi
- Make and model
- Porsche 911 Carrera
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Headlight Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the 911 Carrera MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 69% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 911 Carrera
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 35 | 85.7% |
| London | 16 | 81.3% |
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 2003 911 Carrera
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 2003 911 Carrera
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 4.2% of tests
“position lamp not working”
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 exhaust and emissions 3.4% 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 brake pipes 3.4% of tests
“rigid brake pipes excessively corroded”
Brake pipes run under the car, usually in front of the rear wheels. Flaking or crusty metal is what fails; a light dusting of surface rust does not. Worth asking a garage to look while it is on a ramp.
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 2003 911 Carrera through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £45–£135 — and 37% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £45–£135
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 37%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 119 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 911 Carrera, side by side
17 model years on record, from 2001 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 81.8% to 97.1% — a spread of 15.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2001 86.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2002 83.5% catalyst emissions lambda reading…
- 2003 84.9%position lamp not working
- 2004 82.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 85.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 90.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2007 86.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2008 91.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2009 90.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2010 89.1% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2011 94.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2012 90.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2013 81.8% catalyst emissions lambda reading…
- 2019 94.3% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 95.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2021 96.3% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 97.1% has a cut in excess of the…
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 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera 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 2003 cars with a similar record
- Mercedes-Benz Sl 85.2%
- Honda S2000 83.5%
- BMW M3 87.7%
- Mercedes-Benz S-Class 81.7%
- Subaru Impreza 80.0%
- Jaguar Xj 78.8%
Closest pass rates among 2003 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 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera 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 136 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 | 30 | 22.10% | 20.89% | +1.21 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 30 | 22.10% | 12.21% | +9.89 |
| Suspension | 22 | 16.20% | 20.98% | −4.78 |
| Tyres | 19 | 14.00% | 19.76% | −5.76 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 12 | 8.80% | 5.57% | +3.23 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 10 | 7.40% | 5.52% | +1.88 |
| Visibility | 6 | 4.40% | 4.97% | −0.57 |
| Non-component advisories | 3 | 2.20% | 4.18% | −1.98 |
| Steering | 3 | 2.20% | 2.57% | −0.37 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1 | 0.70% | 1.76% | −1.06 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.2% | £5–25 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.4% | £60–250 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 3.4% | £80–250 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 3.4% | £80–180 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.4% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.5% | £5–25 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 2.5% | £80–250 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 2.5% | £18–45 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.5% | £5–20 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.7% | £5–25 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 15.1% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 5.9% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.0% | £45–95 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 4.2% | £18–45 |
| Individual direction indicators incorrect colour Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Advisory | 4.2% | £3–12 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 4.2% | £30–75 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 9 | 88.9% | 24,732 mi |
| 30-60k | 14 | 92.9% | 51,084 mi |
| 60-90k | 55 | 81.8% | 71,192 mi |
| 90-120k | 23 | 91.3% | 104,199 mi |
| 120k+ | 18 | 77.8% | 132,765 mi |
Source: 119 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.
2003 911 Carrera MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera?
84.9% of the 119 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 82.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera?
The three most recorded items are position lamp not working (4.20%), catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits (3.36%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (3.36%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.9% of the time, falling to 77.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera in this dataset had covered 71,919 mi.
Does the season affect the 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 87.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 83.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.