Pass rate
75.3%
Around average — 2.7 pts ahead of the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 215 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £23–£74
2003 Smart City Passion MOT pass rate
- 2003
- 2 trims combined
- typical 65,257 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
23.4% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2005 76.7% pass
- Avoid 2006 73.5% pass
Across the 5 years on record, a spread of 3.2 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 68.3%
- Typical mileage
- 65k mi
The 2003 Smart City Passion MOT pass rate is 75.3% of its MOT tests — 2.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 23.4% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.6× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 19.9% of everything recorded on the 2003 Smart City Passion, against 12.2% nationally — 7.7 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 23.4%, but at 20.9% 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.
- Based on a small sample. 215 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 Passion? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Smart City Passion first registered in 2003 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2003 Smart City Passion compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 2.7 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 Passion in this dataset had covered 65,257 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 78.0% of the time, April–September 73.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect", noted on 5.12% of tests.
- 215 recorded tests behind this page.
- 75.3% overall pass rate, 68.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Smart City Passion, the average is 75.1% — best year 2005 (76.7%), worst 2006 (73.5%).
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
- 215
- Typical mileage (median)
- 65,257 mi
- Make and model
- Smart City Passion
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Headlight Alignment
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the City Passion MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 59% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Smart City Passion is most common
Across all City Passion model years on record (2003–2007): 919 Smart City Passion cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 2,118 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 29 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) | 29 | 77.8% |
| 2 | Portsmouth (PO) | 23 | 72.7% |
| 3 | Poole (BH) | 20 | 66.7% |
| 4 | Norwich (NR) | 20 | 73.1% |
| 5 | Wembley (HA) | 20 | 93.3% |
| 6 | Bristol (BS) | 19 | 69.2% |
| 7 | Sheffield (S) | 19 | 73.9% |
| 8 | Croydon (CR) | 19 | 91.4% |
| 9 | Peterborough (PE) | 18 | 67.4% |
| 10 | London (SE) | 18 | 72.2% |
| 11 | Guildford (GU) | 17 | 81.3% |
| 12 | Manchester (M) | 17 | 83.9% |
| 13 | Preston (PR) | 16 | 66.0% |
| 14 | Ashford (TN) | 16 | 68.9% |
| 15 | Chelmsford (CM) | 16 | 72.5% |
| 16 | Maidstone (ME) | 16 | — |
| 17 | Plymouth (PL) | 15 | 68.3% |
| 18 | Reading (RG) | 15 | 87.5% |
| 19 | Oxford (OX) | 15 | 75.0% |
| 20 | High Wycombe (HP) | 15 | 65.7% |
The twenty areas with the most Smart City Passion 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 →
Regional pass rates for the City Passion
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 77 | 85.7% |
| North West | 22 | 72.7% |
| Yorkshire | 22 | 59.1% |
| East of England | 21 | 61.9% |
| East Midlands | 20 | 75.0% |
| West Midlands | 15 | 73.3% |
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 Passion
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 Passion
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 5.1% 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 suspension joints 3.3% 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 wipers and washers 3.3% of tests
“washers provides insufficient washer liquid”
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 Passion through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £23–£74 — and 46% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £23–£74
- 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
- 46%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 215 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 Passion, side by side
5 model years on record, from 2003 to 2007. Across them the pass rate runs from 73.5% to 76.7% — a spread of 3.2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2003 75.3%headlamp aim projected beam image…
- 2004 76.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 76.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 73.5% headlamp aim projected beam image…
- 2007 73.8% 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 2003 Smart City Passion 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
- Mercedes-Benz Clk 75.5%
- Toyota Avensis 75.6%
- BMW 316 75.6%
- Land Rover Defender 75.7%
- Rover 25 75.7%
- SEAT Leon 75.8%
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 Passion 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 419 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 | 100 | 23.40% | 20.89% | +2.51 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 85 | 19.90% | 12.21% | +7.69 |
| Suspension | 84 | 19.70% | 20.98% | −1.28 |
| Tyres | 38 | 8.90% | 19.76% | −10.86 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 34 | 8.00% | 5.52% | +2.48 |
| Visibility | 22 | 5.20% | 4.97% | +0.23 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 21 | 4.90% | 5.57% | −0.67 |
| Steering | 17 | 4.00% | 2.57% | +1.43 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 11 | 2.60% | 1.76% | +0.84 |
| Road Wheels | 7 | 1.60% | 0.75% | +0.85 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 5.1% | £30–80 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 3.3% | £18–45 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.3% | £5–25 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 3.3% | £5–15 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 2.8% | £25–65 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.3% | £60–250 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.3% | £5–25 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 2.3% | £80–250 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.3% | £5–20 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.3% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 11.6% | £80–180 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 11.2% | £45–110 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 10.2% | £200–700 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 7.9% | £45–95 |
| Flexible brake hoses excessively deteriorated Brakes | Advisory | 7.0% | £25–70 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 5.6% | £25–65 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 15 | 73.3% | 21,658 mi |
| 30-60k | 68 | 67.6% | 48,123 mi |
| 60-90k | 83 | 81.9% | 73,636 mi |
| 90-120k | 42 | 76.2% | 104,368 mi |
| 120k+ | 6 | 83.3% | 125,244 mi |
Source: 215 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 Passion MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Smart City Passion?
75.3% of the 215 2003 Smart City Passion 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 Passion?
The three most recorded items are headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (5.12%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (3.26%), position lamp not working (3.26%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Smart City Passion MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 73.3% of the time, falling to 83.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Smart City Passion in this dataset had covered 65,257 mi.
Does the season affect the 2003 Smart City Passion MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 78.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 73.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.