Pass rate
72.6%
Below average — 0.0 pts in line with the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 164 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £29–£80
2003 Renault Espace MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 94,808 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
18.2% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
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
- 64.3%
- Typical mileage
- 95k mi
The 2003 Renault Espace MOT pass rate is 72.6% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 18.2% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Renault Espace does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Fewer problems with tyres
Tyres are 11.0% of this car’s recorded faults, against 19.8% nationally — the mirror image of the usual story on a car of this age.
- Based on a small sample. 164 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 2003 Renault Espace compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 0.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 64.3%. The median 2003 Renault Espace in this dataset had covered 94,808 mi.
53% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 70.1% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 68.3% of the time, April–September 79.4%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp lens slightly defective", noted on 8.54% of tests.
- 164 recorded tests behind this page.
- 72.6% overall pass rate, 64.3% 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
- 164
- Typical mileage (median)
- 94,808 mi
- Make and model
- Renault Espace
- 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 Espace MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 56% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (53% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Espace
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 43 | 67.4% |
| East of England | 24 | 79.2% |
| Yorkshire | 15 | 73.3% |
| West Midlands | 15 | 80.0% |
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 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 2003 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 lights 8.5% of tests
“headlamp lens slightly defective”
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 windscreen 6.1% 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 suspension joints 4.3% 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.
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 Espace through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £29–£80 — and 45% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £29–£80
- Cheapest common item: anti-lock braking system warning lamp…
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 45%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 164 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 2003 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 2003 cars with a similar record
- Honda Jazz 72.6%
- Mitsubishi Shogun 72.6%
- Skoda Octavia 72.6%
- Vauxhall Astra 72.5%
- Peugeot 106 72.5%
- Ford Fiesta 72.4%
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 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 534 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 | 98 | 18.20% | 20.89% | −2.69 |
| Suspension | 94 | 17.50% | 20.98% | −3.48 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 86 | 16.00% | 12.21% | +3.79 |
| Tyres | 59 | 11.00% | 19.76% | −8.76 |
| Non-component advisories | 42 | 7.80% | 4.18% | +3.62 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 41 | 7.60% | 5.52% | +2.08 |
| Steering | 40 | 7.40% | 2.57% | +4.83 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 38 | 7.10% | 5.57% | +1.53 |
| Visibility | 24 | 4.50% | 4.97% | −0.47 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 12 | 2.20% | 1.76% | +0.44 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 8.5% | £5–25 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 6.1% | £80–200 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 5.5% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.9% | £30–80 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 4.3% | £18–45 |
| Battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.3% | £60–140 |
| Anti-lock braking system warning lamp indicates an ABS fault Brakes | Major | 3.7% | £3–15 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 3.7% | £18–45 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 3.7% | £8–22 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 3.0% | £80–250 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 23.8% | £45–110 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 17.1% | £200–700 |
| Non-component advisories Play in steering rack inner joint(s) Non-component advisories | Advisory | 17.1% | £120–300 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 14.0% | £25–65 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 13.4% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 13.4% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 6 | 83.3% | 8,885 mi |
| 30-60k | 30 | 70.0% | 48,678 mi |
| 60-90k | 40 | 82.5% | 78,746 mi |
| 90-120k | 50 | 64.0% | 107,624 mi |
| 120k+ | 37 | 73.0% | 143,700 mi |
Source: 164 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 Espace MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Renault Espace?
72.6% of the 164 2003 Renault Espace tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 64.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Renault Espace?
The three most recorded items are headlamp lens slightly defective (8.54%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (6.10%), position lamp not working (5.49%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Renault Espace MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 83.3% of the time, falling to 73.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Renault Espace in this dataset had covered 94,808 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2003 Renault Espace?
Diesel: 70.1% pass rate across 87 tests. Petrol: 75.3% pass rate across 77 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2003 Renault Espace MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 68.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 79.4%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.