Pass rate
77.1%
Around average — 4.9 pts ahead of the 72.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 83 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £19–£56
2004 Smart Forfour MOT pass rate
- 2004
- typical 100,528 mi
Only 83 tests of this exact model and year are in the DVSA data, below the 100 we ask for before a page goes in the index. The figures are still shown, because they are the only ones there are.
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Lamps & electrics
27.6% of faults · 12.2% nationally
Part only £6–£18 for Registration plate lamp inoperative (multiple lamps). What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2004 77.1% pass · this year
- Avoid 2006 74.2% pass
Across the 3 years on record, a spread of 2.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 72.1%
- Typical mileage
- 101k mi
The 2004 Smart Forfour MOT pass rate is 77.1% of its MOT tests — 4.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Lamps & electrics is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.6% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 2.3× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 27.6% of everything recorded on the 2004 Smart Forfour, against 12.2% nationally — 15.4 points above. 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.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 72.2% and this one manages 77.1% — 4.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 67% 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.
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 Forfour? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2004 Smart Forfour compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.2%, so this figure is 4.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 72.1%. The median 2004 Smart Forfour in this dataset had covered 100,528 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 78.7% of the time, April–September 75.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp lens slightly defective", noted on 12.05% of tests.
- 83 recorded tests behind this page.
- 77.1% overall pass rate, 72.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Smart Forfour, the average is 75.2% — best year 2004 (77.1%), worst 2006 (74.2%).
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
- 83
- Typical mileage (median)
- 100,528 mi
- Make and model
- Smart Forfour
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
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 Forfour MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 62% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Forfour
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 26 | 69.2% |
| South West | 17 | 64.7% |
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 Forfour
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 Forfour
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 12.1% 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 windscreen 8.4% 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 suspension joints 3.6% 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.
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 Forfour through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £19–£56 — and 67% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £19–£56
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 67%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 83 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 Forfour, side by side
3 model years on record, from 2004 to 2006. Across them the pass rate runs from 74.2% to 77.1% — a spread of 2.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2004 77.1%headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2005 75.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 74.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
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 Smart Forfour 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
- BMW X3 76.6%
- Toyota Landcruiser 76.6%
- BMW 3 Series 76.5%
- Toyota RAV4 76.5%
- Chrysler Crossfire 76.5%
- Jaguar Xj 77.7%
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 Smart Forfour 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 269 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 75 | 27.60% | 12.21% | +15.39 |
| Suspension | 45 | 16.50% | 20.98% | −4.48 |
| Brakes | 45 | 16.50% | 20.89% | −4.39 |
| Tyres | 43 | 15.80% | 19.76% | −3.96 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 18 | 6.60% | 5.57% | +1.03 |
| Visibility | 14 | 5.10% | 4.97% | +0.13 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 13 | 4.80% | 5.52% | −0.72 |
| Non-component advisories | 8 | 2.90% | 4.18% | −1.28 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 6 | 2.20% | 1.76% | +0.44 |
| Steering | 2 | 0.70% | 2.57% | −1.87 |
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 | 12.1% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 9.6% | £5–20 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 8.4% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 7.2% | £30–80 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 3.6% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp has a product on the lens so that the light output is severely reduced Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.6% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp lens seriously defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.6% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 3.6% | £5–25 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.6% | £3–12 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.6% | £5–25 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 30.1% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 20.5% | £25–65 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 15.7% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 14.5% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp has a product on the lens so that the light output is severely reduced Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Advisory | 9.6% | £5–25 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 8.4% | £45–120 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 16 | 93.8% | 49,291 mi |
| 60-90k | 11 | 81.8% | 79,262 mi |
| 90-120k | 41 | 70.7% | 104,415 mi |
| 120k+ | 15 | 73.3% | 130,824 mi |
Source: 83 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 Forfour MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2004 Smart Forfour?
77.1% of the 83 2004 Smart Forfour tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.2% for cars first used in 2004. First-attempt pass rate: 72.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2004 Smart Forfour?
The three most recorded items are headlamp lens slightly defective (12.05%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (9.64%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (8.43%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2004 Smart Forfour MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.8% of the time, falling to 73.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2004 Smart Forfour in this dataset had covered 100,528 mi.
Does the season affect the 2004 Smart Forfour MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 78.7% 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.