Pass rate
65.8%
Below average — 6.8 pts behind the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 875 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £65–£178
2003 SEAT Alhambra MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 144,235 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
28.7% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2020 89.4% pass
- Avoid 2003 65.8% pass · this year
Across the 21 years on record, a spread of 23.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 54.8%
- Typical mileage
- 144k mi
The 2003 SEAT Alhambra MOT pass rate is 65.8% of its MOT tests — 6.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 28.7% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how SEAT Alhambra does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.4× the national share
Suspension accounts for 28.7% of everything recorded on the 2003 SEAT Alhambra, against 21.0% nationally — 7.7 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 72.6%; this one manages 65.8% — 6.8 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 29% 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.
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 SEAT Alhambra? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 SEAT Alhambra compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 6.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 54.8%. The median 2003 SEAT Alhambra in this dataset had covered 144,235 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 93% of tests, with a 65.6% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 64.9% of the time, April–September 67.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated", noted on 8.11% of tests.
- 875 recorded tests behind this page.
- 65.8% overall pass rate, 54.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the SEAT Alhambra, the average is 82.0% — best year 2020 (89.4%), worst 2003 (65.8%).
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
- 875
- Typical mileage (median)
- 144,235 mi
- Make and model
- SEAT Alhambra
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Body Panel Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Alhambra MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 42% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (93% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Alhambra
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 188 | 60.6% |
| South East | 170 | 65.3% |
| North West | 113 | 65.5% |
| West Midlands | 87 | 75.9% |
| East of England | 86 | 67.4% |
| East Midlands | 72 | 69.4% |
| Yorkshire | 61 | 68.9% |
| Wales | 38 | 50.0% |
| Scotland | 23 | 73.9% |
| London | 20 | 75.0% |
| North East | 17 | 58.8% |
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 Alhambra
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 Alhambra
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 7.7% 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 lights 7.5% 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 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.
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 Alhambra through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £65–£178 — and 29% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £65–£178
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: component mounting prescribed areas…
- £180–£450
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 40%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 29%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 875 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 Alhambra, side by side
21 model years on record, from 2000 to 2020. Across them the pass rate runs from 65.8% to 89.4% — a spread of 23.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 73.8% component mounting prescribed…
- 2001 69.5% component mounting prescribed…
- 2002 66.5% component mounting prescribed…
- 2003 65.8%joints constant velocity boot…
- 2004 66.6% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2005 68.2% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2006 67.7% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2007 66.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2008 67.7% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2009 66.9% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2010 72.5% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2011 76.6% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2012 76.9% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2013 78.2% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2014 80.3% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2015 82.2% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2016 84.7% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2017 86.3% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2018 87.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 88.4% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 89.4% has a cut in excess of the…
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 SEAT Alhambra 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
- Vauxhall Combo 65.8%
- Volkswagen Beetle 67.1%
- Volvo V40 67.3%
- Ford Ka 68.0%
- Ford Galaxy 68.0%
- Citroen C3 68.2%
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 SEAT Alhambra 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 3,997 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 | 1,169 | 28.70% | 20.98% | +7.72 |
| Brakes | 829 | 20.40% | 20.89% | −0.49 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 512 | 12.60% | 5.57% | +7.03 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 458 | 11.30% | 12.21% | −0.91 |
| Tyres | 286 | 7.00% | 19.76% | −12.76 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 178 | 4.40% | 5.52% | −1.12 |
| Steering | 175 | 4.30% | 2.57% | +1.73 |
| Non-component advisories | 154 | 3.80% | 4.18% | −0.38 |
| Visibility | 126 | 3.10% | 4.97% | −1.87 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 110 | 2.70% | 1.76% | +0.94 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 8.1% | £80–250 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 7.7% | £180–450 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 7.5% | £5–25 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 6.9% | £80–250 |
| Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 6.3% | £120–300 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 6.2% | £80–200 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 6.1% | £18–45 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 5.7% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 5.0% | £5–20 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.2% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 31.1% | £80–180 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 27.2% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 21.0% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 17.7% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 15.3% | £200–700 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 13.3% | £25–65 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2 | 50.0% | 28,321 mi |
| 30-60k | 9 | 88.9% | 48,979 mi |
| 60-90k | 56 | 78.6% | 76,759 mi |
| 90-120k | 138 | 65.2% | 105,969 mi |
| 120k+ | 663 | 64.9% | 165,470 mi |
Source: 875 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 Alhambra MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 SEAT Alhambra?
65.8% of the 875 2003 SEAT Alhambra tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 54.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 SEAT Alhambra?
The three most recorded items are joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (8.11%), component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (7.66%), headlamp lens slightly defective (7.54%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 SEAT Alhambra MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 50.0% of the time, falling to 64.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 SEAT Alhambra in this dataset had covered 144,235 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2003 SEAT Alhambra?
Diesel: 65.6% pass rate across 816 tests. Petrol: 69.5% pass rate across 59 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2003 SEAT Alhambra MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 64.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 67.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.