Pass rate
Below average — 4.8 pts behind the 73.8% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 857 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £77–£206
Pass rate
Below average — 4.8 pts behind the 73.8% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 857 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £77–£206
Most common fault
Suspension
26.1% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
Across the 7 years on record, a spread of 4.6 points. See every year →
The 2000 Rover 45 MOT pass rate is 69.0% of its MOT tests — 4.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.1% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Body & chassis accounts for 13.8% of everything recorded on the 2000 Rover 45, against 5.6% nationally — 8.2 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 26.1%, but at 21.0% nationally that one is ordinary. Look underneath for corrosion near the jacking points and suspension mounts; surface rust is normal, flaking metal is not.
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 Rover 45? Get an email when these numbers change .
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.8%, so this figure is 4.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 60.7%. The median 2000 Rover 45 in this dataset had covered 76,815 mi.
92% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 69.6% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 69.1% of the time, April–September 68.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength", noted on 8.40% 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.
Corrosion Welding Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 55% so small gaps stay visible.
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (92% of tests).
Across all 45 model years on record (2000–2006): 3,042 Rover 45 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 7,671 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 200 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) | 200 | 76.0% |
| 2 | Peterborough (PE) | 90 | 70.4% |
| 3 | Stourbridge (DY) | 81 | 69.1% |
| 4 | Coventry (CV) | 65 | 72.5% |
| 5 | Derby (DE) | 59 | 71.3% |
| 6 | Ashford (TN) | 59 | 74.6% |
| 7 | Bristol (BS) | 58 | 65.0% |
| 8 | Walsall (WS) | 55 | 73.4% |
| 9 | Leicester (LE) | 51 | 76.4% |
| 10 | Sheffield (S) | 51 | 71.9% |
| 11 | Portsmouth (PO) | 50 | 65.5% |
| 12 | Oxford (OX) | 50 | 72.3% |
| 13 | Guildford (GU) | 47 | 75.0% |
| 14 | Nottingham (NG) | 46 | 69.1% |
| 15 | Gloucester (GL) | 45 | 64.3% |
| 16 | Plymouth (PL) | 44 | 62.2% |
| 17 | Exeter (EX) | 42 | 65.6% |
| 18 | Yeovil (BA) | 42 | 62.7% |
| 19 | Taunton (TA) | 41 | 76.0% |
| 20 | Stockport (SK) | 41 | 68.3% |
The twenty areas with the most Rover 45 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 →
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 167 | 70.7% |
| West Midlands | 142 | 69.7% |
| South West | 137 | 69.3% |
| East of England | 121 | 75.2% |
| Yorkshire | 93 | 63.4% |
| North West | 76 | 68.4% |
| East Midlands | 64 | 62.5% |
| Scotland | 26 | 53.8% |
| Wales | 15 | 66.7% |
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.
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 corrosion 8.4% of tests
“component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength”
Look under the sills, around the jacking points and where the suspension mounts meet the body. Flaking, holed or crumbly metal fails; a brown stain on sound metal does not.
Check the suspension joints 4.1% of tests
“ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated”
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 3.3% 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.
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £77–£206 — and 14% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 857 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 →
7 model years on record, from 2000 to 2006. Across them the pass rate runs from 69.0% to 73.6% — a spread of 4.6 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 2000 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 2,705 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 718 | 26.10% | 20.98% | +5.12 |
| Brakes | 535 | 19.40% | 20.89% | −1.49 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 379 | 13.80% | 5.57% | +8.23 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 257 | 9.30% | 12.21% | −2.91 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 236 | 8.60% | 5.52% | +3.08 |
| Tyres | 231 | 8.40% | 19.76% | −11.36 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 111 | 4.00% | 1.76% | +2.24 |
| Steering | 91 | 3.30% | 2.57% | +0.73 |
| Visibility | 81 | 2.90% | 4.97% | −2.07 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 66 | 2.40% | 0.82% | +1.58 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 8.4% | £180–450 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 5.7% | £80–250 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 4.5% | £80–250 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 4.1% | £18–45 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 3.6% | £60–150 |
| Service brake imbalance across an axle Brakes | Major | 3.5% | £45–110 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.3% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.1% | £5–25 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 2.7% | £45–120 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.7% | £5–20 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 21.2% | £40–150 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 17.9% | £80–180 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 17.3% | £200–700 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Advisory | 12.0% | £20–80 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 11.2% | £45–95 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Advisory | 11.0% | £180–450 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 31 | 80.6% | 22,949 mi |
| 30-60k | 228 | 72.8% | 47,903 mi |
| 60-90k | 310 | 69.0% | 74,837 mi |
| 90-120k | 181 | 64.6% | 102,942 mi |
| 120k+ | 105 | 63.8% | 147,012 mi |
Source: 857 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.
69.0% of the 857 2000 Rover 45 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.8% for cars first used in 2000. First-attempt pass rate: 60.7%.
The three most recorded items are component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (8.40%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (5.72%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (4.55%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 80.6% of the time, falling to 63.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2000 Rover 45 in this dataset had covered 76,815 mi.
Petrol: 69.6% pass rate across 787 tests. Diesel: 61.4% pass rate across 70 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 69.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 68.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.