Pass rate
77.2%
Around average — 4.1 pts ahead of the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 1,705 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £33–£89
2008 Smart Fortwo Passion MOT pass rate
- 2008
- 2 trims combined
- typical 69,841 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
25.0% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Part only £25–£55 for Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2013 81.4% pass
- Avoid 2007 75.3% pass
Across the 7 years on record, a spread of 6.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 71.4%
- Typical mileage
- 70k mi
The 2008 Smart Fortwo Passion MOT pass rate is 77.2% of its MOT tests — 4.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 25.0% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Smart Fortwo Passion does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.4× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 17.7% of everything recorded on the 2008 Smart Fortwo Passion, against 12.2% nationally — 5.5 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 25.0%, 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.
- 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 73.1% and this one manages 77.2% — 4.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
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 Fortwo Passion? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Smart Fortwo Passion first registered in 2008 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2008 Smart Fortwo Passion compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, so this figure is 4.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 71.4%. The median 2008 Smart Fortwo Passion in this dataset had covered 69,841 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 75.8% of the time, April–September 78.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 3.93% of tests.
- 1,705 recorded tests behind this page.
- 77.2% overall pass rate, 71.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Smart Fortwo Passion, the average is 77.8% — best year 2013 (81.4%), worst 2007 (75.3%).
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
- 1,705
- Typical mileage (median)
- 69,841 mi
- Make and model
- Smart Fortwo Passion
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Coil Spring
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Fortwo Passion MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 64% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Fortwo Passion
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 578 | 75.6% |
| South West | 288 | 76.0% |
| East of England | 212 | 78.8% |
| London | 181 | 81.8% |
| West Midlands | 117 | 82.9% |
| North West | 94 | 78.7% |
| East Midlands | 72 | 69.4% |
| Wales | 50 | 80.0% |
| Yorkshire | 44 | 75.0% |
| Scotland | 35 | 71.4% |
| North East | 34 | 79.4% |
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 2008 Fortwo 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 2008 Fortwo 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 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.
-
Check the lights 3.4% of tests
“registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”
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 2.8% 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.
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 2008 Fortwo Passion through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £33–£89 — and 49% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £33–£89
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: fuel cap/sealing device ineffective
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 49%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 1,705 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 Fortwo Passion, side by side
7 model years on record, from 2007 to 2013. Across them the pass rate runs from 75.3% to 81.4% — a spread of 6.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2007 75.3% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2008 77.2%coil spring fractured or broken
- 2009 75.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2010 77.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2011 78.2% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2012 81.3% service brake performance…
- 2013 81.4% 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 2008 Smart Fortwo 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 2008 cars with a similar record
- Mercedes-Benz Cls 77.2%
- BMW 120 77.0%
- Mercedes-Benz Slk 77.0%
- Smart Mcc Fortwo Cabriolet 77.4%
- Saab 9-5 76.9%
- BMW 118 76.8%
Closest pass rates among 2008 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 2008 Smart Fortwo 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 2,928 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 | 741 | 25.00% | 20.89% | +4.11 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 523 | 17.70% | 12.21% | +5.49 |
| Tyres | 505 | 17.10% | 19.76% | −2.66 |
| Suspension | 499 | 16.90% | 20.98% | −4.08 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 190 | 6.40% | 5.57% | +0.83 |
| Visibility | 156 | 5.30% | 4.97% | +0.33 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 154 | 5.20% | 5.52% | −0.32 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 76 | 2.60% | 1.76% | +0.84 |
| Non-component advisories | 59 | 2.00% | 4.18% | −2.18 |
| Steering | 25 | 0.80% | 2.57% | −1.77 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 3.9% | £25–65 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.4% | £5–20 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.0% | £5–25 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.8% | £80–200 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 2.7% | £60–150 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.6% | £3–12 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 2.1% | £80–180 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.0% | £5–25 |
| Fuel cap/sealing device ineffective Body, chassis, structure | Major | 2.0% | £80–250 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.8% | £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 | 15.9% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 11.8% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 11.6% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 5.1% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 4.7% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 4.4% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 107 | 83.2% | 22,696 mi |
| 30-60k | 524 | 77.5% | 47,207 mi |
| 60-90k | 664 | 77.4% | 74,413 mi |
| 90-120k | 313 | 76.0% | 101,945 mi |
| 120k+ | 96 | 72.9% | 137,746 mi |
Source: 1,705 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.
2008 Fortwo Passion MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2008 Smart Fortwo Passion?
77.2% of the 1,705 2008 Smart Fortwo Passion tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 71.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2008 Smart Fortwo Passion?
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (3.93%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (3.40%), position lamp not working (2.99%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2008 Smart Fortwo Passion MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 83.2% of the time, falling to 72.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2008 Smart Fortwo Passion in this dataset had covered 69,841 mi.
Does the season affect the 2008 Smart Fortwo Passion MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 75.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 78.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.