Pass rate
72.2%
Below average — 1.1 pts behind the 73.3% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 79 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £50–£128
2001 Renault Espace MOT pass rate
- 2001
- typical 88,924 mi
Only 79 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
21.8% 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 2000 75.0% pass
- Avoid 2011 66.0% pass
Across the 13 years on record, a spread of 9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 68.7%
- Typical mileage
- 89k mi
The 2001 Renault Espace MOT pass rate is 72.2% of its MOT tests — 1.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 21.8% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Fewer problems with tyres
Tyres are 9.6% of this car’s recorded faults, against 19.8% nationally — the mirror image of the usual story on a car of this age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 28% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
- Based on a small sample. 79 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 Renault Espace? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2001 Renault Espace compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.3%, so this figure is 1.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 68.7%. The median 2001 Renault Espace in this dataset had covered 88,924 mi.
58% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 65.2% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 73.2% of the time, April–September 71.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier", noted on 12.66% of tests.
- 79 recorded tests behind this page.
- 72.2% overall pass rate, 68.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Renault Espace, the average is 68.5% — best year 2000 (75.0%), worst 2011 (66.0%).
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
- 79
- Typical mileage (median)
- 88,924 mi
- Make and model
- Renault Espace
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Battery
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Espace MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 0% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (58% of tests).
Where the Renault Espace is most common
Across all Espace model years on record (2000–2012): 2,030 Renault Espace cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 5,348 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 50 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) | 50 | 79.5% |
| 2 | Portsmouth (PO) | 41 | 63.3% |
| 3 | Nottingham (NG) | 40 | 66.0% |
| 4 | Norwich (NR) | 38 | 64.3% |
| 5 | Peterborough (PE) | 36 | 66.7% |
| 6 | Reading (RG) | 36 | 69.6% |
| 7 | Poole (BH) | 35 | 68.1% |
| 8 | Chester (CH) | 34 | 63.7% |
| 9 | Bristol (BS) | 34 | 58.2% |
| 10 | Leicester (LE) | 34 | 74.7% |
| 11 | Brighton (BN) | 33 | 64.5% |
| 12 | Doncaster (DN) | 33 | 63.7% |
| 13 | Guildford (GU) | 33 | 67.9% |
| 14 | Ashford (TN) | 31 | 70.4% |
| 15 | Sheffield (S) | 30 | 68.4% |
| 16 | Oxford (OX) | 28 | 64.3% |
| 17 | Southampton (SO) | 28 | 73.2% |
| 18 | Manchester (M) | 28 | 73.4% |
| 19 | Northampton (NN) | 27 | 69.1% |
| 20 | London (SE) | 27 | 75.0% |
The twenty areas with the most Renault Espace 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 →
Regional pass rates for the Espace
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 21 | 85.7% |
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 2001 Espace
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 2001 Espace
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 battery 12.7% of tests
“battery(ies) insecure”
Check the battery is secure and its terminals are clean and tight — a loose battery is a fail on its own, and a weak one shows up as slow cranking on a cold morning.
-
Check the steering 6.3% of tests
“steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt”
With the wheels straight, rock the steering wheel gently with the engine off — more than about an inch of free play before the wheels move is worth investigating. Split rack gaiters are cheap to replace and commonly recorded.
-
Check the wipers and washers 6.3% of tests
“washers provides insufficient washer liquid”
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.
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 2001 Espace through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £50–£128 — and 28% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £50–£128
- Cheapest common item: washers provides insufficient washer liquid
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: steering rack gaiter missing or no longer…
- £120–£300
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 28%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 79 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 Espace, side by side
13 model years on record, from 2000 to 2012. Across them the pass rate runs from 66.0% to 75.0% — a spread of 9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 75.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2001 72.2%battery(ies) insecure but not…
- 2002 68.8% steering rack gaiter missing or…
- 2003 72.6% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2004 71.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 71.5% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2006 69.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2007 66.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 67.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 68.1% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2010 68.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 66.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 70.4% joints constant velocity boot…
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 2001 Renault Espace 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 2001 cars with a similar record
- Audi Tt 72.2%
- Vauxhall Astra 72.3%
- Peugeot 406 72.3%
- Ford Puma 72.1%
- Volkswagen Golf 72.4%
- Honda Civic 72.0%
Closest pass rates among 2001 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 2001 Renault Espace 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 304 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 | 68 | 21.80% | 20.89% | +0.91 |
| Suspension | 58 | 18.60% | 20.98% | −2.38 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 35 | 11.20% | 12.21% | −1.01 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 32 | 10.30% | 5.57% | +4.73 |
| Tyres | 30 | 9.60% | 19.76% | −10.16 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 24 | 7.70% | 5.52% | +2.18 |
| Visibility | 23 | 7.40% | 4.97% | +2.43 |
| Non-component advisories | 17 | 5.40% | 4.18% | +1.22 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 9 | 2.90% | 1.76% | +1.14 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 8 | 2.60% | 0.82% | +1.78 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 12.7% | £60–140 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 6.3% | £60–150 |
| Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 6.3% | £120–300 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Rectified | 6.3% | £5–15 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 5.1% | £80–250 |
| Mirrors slightly damaged Visibility | Minor | 5.1% | £3–15 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.1% | £5–20 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 5.1% | £80–180 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 3.8% | £25–65 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.8% | £30–80 |
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 | 22.8% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 17.7% | £200–700 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 15.2% | £45–120 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Advisory | 15.2% | £60–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 13.9% | £45–110 |
| Non-component advisories Play in steering rack inner joint(s) Non-component advisories | Advisory | 13.9% | £120–300 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1 | 0.0% | 22,122 mi |
| 30-60k | 2 | 100.0% | 58,265 mi |
| 60-90k | 37 | 83.8% | 73,332 mi |
| 90-120k | 14 | 71.4% | 103,067 mi |
| 120k+ | 24 | 54.2% | 172,080 mi |
Source: 79 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.
2001 Espace MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2001 Renault Espace?
72.2% of the 79 2001 Renault Espace tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.3% for cars first used in 2001. First-attempt pass rate: 68.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2001 Renault Espace?
The three most recorded items are battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier (12.66%), service brake performance excessively binding (6.33%), steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (6.33%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2001 Renault Espace MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 0.0% of the time, falling to 54.2% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2001 Renault Espace in this dataset had covered 88,924 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2001 Renault Espace?
Diesel: 65.2% pass rate across 46 tests. Petrol: 81.8% pass rate across 33 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2001 Renault Espace MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 73.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 71.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.