Pass rate
71.2%
Below average — 1.7 pts behind the 72.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 1,223 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £36–£106
2002 SEAT Ibiza MOT pass rate
- 2002
- typical 88,100 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
21.2% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 91.9% pass
- Avoid 2008 69.2% pass
Across the 24 years on record, a spread of 22.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 62.8%
- Typical mileage
- 88k mi
The 2002 SEAT Ibiza MOT pass rate is 71.2% of its MOT tests — 1.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 21.2% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how SEAT Ibiza does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Fewer problems with tyres
Tyres are 13.2% of this car’s recorded faults, against 19.8% nationally — the mirror image of the usual story on a car of this age.
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 Ibiza? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2002 SEAT Ibiza compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.9%, so this figure is 1.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 62.8%. The median 2002 SEAT Ibiza in this dataset had covered 88,100 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 88% of tests, with a 71.1% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 70.6% of the time, April–September 71.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated", noted on 7.20% of tests.
- 1,223 recorded tests behind this page.
- 71.2% overall pass rate, 62.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the SEAT Ibiza, the average is 77.6% — best year 2023 (91.9%), worst 2008 (69.2%).
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
- 1,223
- Typical mileage (median)
- 88,100 mi
- Make and model
- SEAT Ibiza
- 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 Ibiza MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 59% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (88% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Ibiza
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 322 | 73.3% |
| South West | 269 | 66.2% |
| East of England | 150 | 74.7% |
| West Midlands | 110 | 74.5% |
| Yorkshire | 97 | 69.1% |
| North West | 76 | 69.7% |
| East Midlands | 63 | 74.6% |
| Wales | 46 | 65.2% |
| North East | 32 | 71.9% |
| London | 30 | 76.7% |
| Scotland | 28 | 71.4% |
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 2002 Ibiza
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 2002 Ibiza
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 windscreen 4.9% 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.
-
Check the lights 4.5% 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 coil springs 3.9% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
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 2002 Ibiza through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £36–£106 — and 53% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £36–£106
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- 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
- 53%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 1,223 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 Ibiza, side by side
24 model years on record, from 2000 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 69.2% to 91.9% — a spread of 22.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 73.8% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2001 75.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2002 71.2%joints constant velocity boot…
- 2003 70.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2004 70.2% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2005 69.8% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2006 70.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2007 69.5% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2008 69.2% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2009 71.2% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2010 72.8% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2011 73.5% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2012 74.7% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2013 75.2% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2014 76.7% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2015 78.0% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2016 78.5% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2017 79.7% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2018 82.8% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2019 89.3% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2020 90.5% track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2021 91.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 91.4% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 91.9% 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 2002 SEAT Ibiza 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 2002 cars with a similar record
- Vauxhall Zafira 71.3%
- Toyota Hilux 71.3%
- Nissan Micra 71.1%
- Volvo V70 71.4%
- Rover 75 71.4%
- Suzuki Grand Vitara 71.4%
Closest pass rates among 2002 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 2002 SEAT Ibiza 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 3,718 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 | 804 | 21.20% | 20.98% | +0.22 |
| Brakes | 594 | 15.70% | 20.89% | −5.19 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 517 | 13.60% | 12.21% | +1.39 |
| Tyres | 500 | 13.20% | 19.76% | −6.56 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 377 | 10.00% | 5.57% | +4.43 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 358 | 9.50% | 5.52% | +3.98 |
| Visibility | 229 | 6.00% | 4.97% | +1.03 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 129 | 3.40% | 1.76% | +1.64 |
| Steering | 119 | 3.10% | 2.57% | +0.53 |
| Non-component advisories | 91 | 2.40% | 4.18% | −1.78 |
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 | 7.2% | £80–250 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.9% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.5% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.5% | £5–20 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 3.9% | £25–65 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.6% | £5–25 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.4% | £80–250 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 3.0% | £8–22 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 3.0% | £8–22 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.9% | £3–12 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 18.3% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 13.9% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 13.2% | £200–700 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 11.5% | £25–65 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 10.8% | £45–110 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Advisory | 9.7% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 37 | 78.4% | 23,191 mi |
| 30-60k | 210 | 72.9% | 47,658 mi |
| 60-90k | 385 | 72.2% | 74,213 mi |
| 90-120k | 303 | 67.7% | 102,684 mi |
| 120k+ | 282 | 72.0% | 154,627 mi |
Source: 1,223 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.
2002 Ibiza MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2002 SEAT Ibiza?
71.2% of the 1,223 2002 SEAT Ibiza tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.9% for cars first used in 2002. First-attempt pass rate: 62.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2002 SEAT Ibiza?
The three most recorded items are joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (7.20%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (4.91%), headlamp lens slightly defective (4.50%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2002 SEAT Ibiza MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 78.4% of the time, falling to 72.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2002 SEAT Ibiza in this dataset had covered 88,100 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2002 SEAT Ibiza?
Petrol: 71.1% pass rate across 1,073 tests. Diesel: 72.0% pass rate across 150 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2002 SEAT Ibiza MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 70.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 71.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.