Pass rate
74.6%
Below average — 2.0 pts ahead of the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 126 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £21–£70
2003 Smart City MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 68,374 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
23.3% 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 74.6% pass · this year
- Avoid 2004 71.4% pass
Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 3.2 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 68.3%
- Typical mileage
- 68k mi
The 2003 Smart City MOT pass rate is 74.6% of its MOT tests — 2.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 23.3% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Emissions & leaks: 2.3× the national share
Emissions & leaks make up 12.7% of everything recorded on the 2003 Smart City, against 5.5% nationally — 7.2 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 23.3%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. A smoky diesel or a leaking joint fails on emissions more often than on wear, so ask for a recent emissions printout.
- Based on a small sample. 126 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 Smart City? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Smart City compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 2.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 68.3%. The median 2003 Smart City in this dataset had covered 68,374 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 78.8% of the time, April–September 71.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt", noted on 5.56% of tests.
- 126 recorded tests behind this page.
- 74.6% overall pass rate, 68.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Smart City, the average is 73.1% — best year 2003 (74.6%), worst 2004 (71.4%).
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
- 126
- Typical mileage (median)
- 68,374 mi
- Make and model
- Smart City
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the City MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 65% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the City
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 38 | 68.4% |
| South West | 22 | 77.3% |
| West Midlands | 20 | 65.0% |
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 City
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 City
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 suspension joints 5.6% of tests
“ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt”
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 lights 5.6% of tests
“headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect”
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 5.6% of tests
“wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively”
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.
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 City through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £21–£70 — and 51% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £21–£70
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 51%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 126 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 City, side by side
2 model years on record, from 2003 to 2004. Across them the pass rate runs from 71.4% to 74.6% — a spread of 3.2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2003 74.6%ball joint dust cover no longer…
- 2004 71.4% headlamp lens slightly defective
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 Smart City 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
- Saab 9-3 74.6%
- Audi A6 74.5%
- Toyota Land Cruiser 74.7%
- BMW 525 74.7%
- BMW X5 74.3%
- Jaguar S-Type 74.3%
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 Smart City 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 327 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 | 77 | 23.30% | 20.89% | +2.41 |
| Suspension | 64 | 19.40% | 20.98% | −1.58 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 58 | 17.60% | 12.21% | +5.39 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 42 | 12.70% | 5.52% | +7.18 |
| Tyres | 32 | 9.70% | 19.76% | −10.06 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 20 | 6.10% | 5.57% | +0.53 |
| Visibility | 16 | 4.80% | 4.97% | −0.17 |
| Steering | 8 | 2.40% | 2.57% | −0.17 |
| Non-component advisories | 5 | 1.50% | 4.18% | −2.68 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 5 | 1.50% | 1.76% | −0.26 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 5.6% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 5.6% | £30–80 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 5.6% | £8–22 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.8% | £5–25 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 4.0% | £60–250 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.0% | £5–20 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.0% | £3–12 |
| Stop lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.0% | £3–12 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.2% | £18–45 |
| Fuel cap/sealing device ineffective Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.2% | £80–250 |
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 | 15.1% | £200–700 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 14.3% | £45–110 |
| Flexible brake hoses excessively deteriorated Brakes | Advisory | 12.7% | £25–70 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 12.7% | £80–180 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 11.9% | £45–95 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 6.3% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 41 | 75.6% | 49,244 mi |
| 60-90k | 68 | 73.5% | 76,309 mi |
| 90-120k | 13 | 76.9% | 93,410 mi |
Source: 126 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 City MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Smart City?
74.6% of the 126 2003 Smart City tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 68.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Smart City?
The three most recorded items are ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (5.56%), headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (5.56%), wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (5.56%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Smart City MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 75.6% of the time, falling to 76.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Smart City in this dataset had covered 68,374 mi.
Does the season affect the 2003 Smart City MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 78.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 71.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.