Pass rate
76.3%
Around average — 3.7 pts ahead of the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 80 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £22–£61
2003 Renault Grand Espace MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 90,945 mi
Only 80 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.
Most common fault
Brakes
20.8% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2003 76.3% pass · this year
- Avoid 2001 67.0% pass
Across the 12 years on record, a spread of 9.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 70.8%
- Typical mileage
- 91k mi
The 2003 Renault Grand Espace MOT pass rate is 76.3% of its MOT tests — 3.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 20.8% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Renault Grand Espace does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.6× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 20.0% of everything recorded on the 2003 Renault Grand Espace, against 12.2% nationally — 7.8 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 20.8%, 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 76.3% — 3.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Based on a small sample. 80 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 Grand Espace? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Renault Grand Espace compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 3.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 70.8%. The median 2003 Renault Grand Espace in this dataset had covered 90,945 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 60% of tests, with a 75.0% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 75.7% of the time, April–September 76.7%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp lens slightly defective", noted on 12.50% of tests.
- 80 recorded tests behind this page.
- 76.3% overall pass rate, 70.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Renault Grand Espace, the average is 70.1% — best year 2003 (76.3%), worst 2001 (67.0%).
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
- 80
- Typical mileage (median)
- 90,945 mi
- Make and model
- Renault Grand 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 Grand Espace MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 63% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (60% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Grand Espace
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| East of England | 26 | 80.8% |
| South East | 21 | 76.2% |
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 Grand 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 Grand 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 12.5% 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 suspension joints 7.5% of tests
“track rod end ball joint has excessive play”
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 windscreen 7.5% 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.
What it costs to get a 2003 Grand Espace through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £22–£61 — and 48% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £22–£61
- Cheapest common item: anti-lock braking system warning lamp…
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 48%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 80 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 Grand Espace, side by side
12 model years on record, from 2001 to 2012. Across them the pass rate runs from 67.0% to 76.3% — a spread of 9.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2001 67.0% battery(ies) insecure but not…
- 2002 72.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2003 76.3%headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2004 71.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2005 71.9% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2006 69.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 68.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 69.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 68.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 70.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 70.9% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2012 73.9% track rod end ball joint has…
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 Grand 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
- Toyota MR2 76.4%
- Land Rover Discovery 76.1%
- MG Tf 76.5%
- Land Rover Range Rover 76.0%
- Toyota RAV4 75.9%
- Toyota Rav-4 75.9%
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 Grand 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 260 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 | 54 | 20.80% | 20.89% | −0.09 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 52 | 20.00% | 12.21% | +7.79 |
| Suspension | 37 | 14.20% | 20.98% | −6.78 |
| Tyres | 32 | 12.30% | 19.76% | −7.46 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 23 | 8.80% | 5.52% | +3.28 |
| Non-component advisories | 18 | 6.90% | 4.18% | +2.72 |
| Visibility | 16 | 6.20% | 4.97% | +1.23 |
| Steering | 13 | 5.00% | 2.57% | +2.43 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 11 | 4.20% | 5.57% | −1.37 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 4 | 1.50% | 1.76% | −0.26 |
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 | 12.5% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 8.8% | £5–20 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 7.5% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 7.5% | £80–200 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 5.0% | £18–45 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 3.8% | £25–65 |
| Anti-lock braking system warning lamp indicates an ABS fault Brakes | Major | 2.5% | £3–15 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 2.5% | £18–45 |
| Battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.5% | £60–140 |
| Electronic stability control warning lamp indicates a fault Brakes | Major | 2.5% | £3–15 |
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 | 30.0% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 23.8% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 18.8% | £200–700 |
| Non-component advisories Play in steering rack inner joint(s) Non-component advisories | Advisory | 16.3% | £120–300 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 12.5% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 12.5% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 3 | 100.0% | 24,930 mi |
| 30-60k | 13 | 76.9% | 43,973 mi |
| 60-90k | 22 | 72.7% | 75,984 mi |
| 90-120k | 21 | 71.4% | 105,010 mi |
| 120k+ | 21 | 81.0% | 159,990 mi |
Source: 80 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 Grand Espace MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Renault Grand Espace?
76.3% of the 80 2003 Renault Grand Espace tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 70.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Renault Grand Espace?
The three most recorded items are headlamp lens slightly defective (12.50%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (8.75%), track rod end ball joint has excessive play (7.50%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Renault Grand Espace MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 81.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Renault Grand Espace in this dataset had covered 90,945 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2003 Renault Grand Espace?
Petrol: 75.0% pass rate across 48 tests. Diesel: 78.1% pass rate across 32 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2003 Renault Grand Espace MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 75.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 76.7%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.