Pass rate
74.0%
Below average — 1.8 pts ahead of the 72.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 154 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £25–£76
2004 Saab 9-3 Vector MOT pass rate
- 2004
- 2 trims combined
- typical 101,401 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
21.5% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2010 79.5% pass
- Avoid 2004 74.0% pass · this year
Across the 8 years on record, a spread of 5.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 66.7%
- Typical mileage
- 101k mi
The 2004 Saab 9-3 Vector MOT pass rate is 74.0% of its MOT tests — 1.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 21.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Saab 9-3 Vector does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.6× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 19.8% of everything recorded on the 2004 Saab 9-3 Vector, against 12.2% nationally — 7.6 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 21.5%, but at 21.0% 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.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 60% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
- Based on a small sample. 154 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 Saab 9-3 Vector? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Saab 9-3 Vector first registered in 2004 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2004 Saab 9-3 Vector compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.2%, so this figure is 1.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 66.7%. The median 2004 Saab 9-3 Vector in this dataset had covered 101,401 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 73.3% of the time, April–September 75.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp lens slightly defective", noted on 7.14% of tests.
- 154 recorded tests behind this page.
- 74.0% overall pass rate, 66.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Saab 9-3 Vector, the average is 76.6% — best year 2010 (79.5%), worst 2004 (74.0%).
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
- 154
- Typical mileage (median)
- 101,401 mi
- Make and model
- Saab 9-3 Vector
- 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 9-3 Vector MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 0% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 9-3 Vector
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 45 | 73.3% |
| East Midlands | 22 | 77.3% |
| North West | 19 | 52.6% |
| East of England | 18 | 72.2% |
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 2004 9-3 Vector
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 2004 9-3 Vector
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 7.1% 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 wipers and washers 3.9% of tests
“washers not working”
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.
-
Check the windscreen 3.9% 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 2004 9-3 Vector through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £25–£76 — and 60% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £25–£76
- Cheapest common item: washers not working
- £5–£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
- 60%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 154 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 9-3 Vector, side by side
8 model years on record, from 2004 to 2011. Across them the pass rate runs from 74.0% to 79.5% — a spread of 5.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2004 74.0%headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2005 75.5% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2006 75.3% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2007 75.8% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2008 78.8% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2009 78.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2010 79.5% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2011 78.9% coil spring fractured or broken
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 2004 Saab 9-3 Vector 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 2004 cars with a similar record
- Volkswagen Bora 74.0%
- Toyota Corolla 74.1%
- Mercedes-Benz Clk 73.9%
- Jaguar S-Type 74.1%
- Audi A4 74.2%
- Mazda Mx-5 74.2%
Closest pass rates among 2004 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 2004 Saab 9-3 Vector 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 468 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 | 102 | 21.50% | 20.98% | +0.52 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 94 | 19.80% | 12.21% | +7.59 |
| Brakes | 69 | 14.50% | 20.89% | −6.39 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 60 | 12.60% | 5.52% | +7.08 |
| Tyres | 52 | 10.90% | 19.76% | −8.86 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 44 | 9.30% | 5.57% | +3.73 |
| Visibility | 23 | 4.80% | 4.97% | −0.17 |
| Steering | 9 | 1.90% | 2.57% | −0.67 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 8 | 1.70% | 1.76% | −0.06 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 7 | 1.50% | 0.82% | +0.68 |
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 | 7.1% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 6.5% | £30–80 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 5.8% | £80–250 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.8% | £5–20 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.5% | £5–25 |
| Washers not working Visibility | Major | 3.9% | £5–15 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.9% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp not working on main beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.3% | £5–25 |
| Position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.6% | £5–25 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.9% | £18–45 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 32.5% | £200–700 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 13.0% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 13.0% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 12.3% | £40–150 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 9.7% | £45–120 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 9.7% | £180–450 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1 | 0.0% | 11,325 mi |
| 30-60k | 22 | 81.8% | 50,209 mi |
| 60-90k | 39 | 76.9% | 78,342 mi |
| 90-120k | 50 | 74.0% | 105,459 mi |
| 120k+ | 42 | 69.0% | 134,801 mi |
Source: 154 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.
2004 9-3 Vector MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2004 Saab 9-3 Vector?
74.0% of the 154 2004 Saab 9-3 Vector tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.2% for cars first used in 2004. First-attempt pass rate: 66.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2004 Saab 9-3 Vector?
The three most recorded items are headlamp lens slightly defective (7.14%), headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (6.49%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (5.84%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2004 Saab 9-3 Vector MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 0.0% of the time, falling to 69.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2004 Saab 9-3 Vector in this dataset had covered 101,401 mi.
Does the season affect the 2004 Saab 9-3 Vector MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 73.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 75.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.