Pass rate
71.3%
Below average — 0.9 pts behind the 72.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 801 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £24–£66
2004 Smart Mcc Forfour MOT pass rate
- 2004
- typical 104,431 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
22.1% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 88.3% pass
- Avoid 2007 68.0% pass
Across the 9 years on record, a spread of 20.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 63.0%
- Typical mileage
- 104k mi
The 2004 Smart Mcc Forfour MOT pass rate is 71.3% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 22.1% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.8× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 21.5% of everything recorded on the 2004 Smart Mcc Forfour, against 12.2% nationally — 9.3 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 22.1%, but at 21.0% 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.
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 Mcc Forfour? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2004 Smart Mcc Forfour compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.2%, so this figure is 0.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 63.0%. The median 2004 Smart Mcc Forfour in this dataset had covered 104,431 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 82% of tests, with a 73.0% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 70.8% of the time, April–September 72.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated", noted on 9.11% of tests.
- 801 recorded tests behind this page.
- 71.3% overall pass rate, 63.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Smart Mcc Forfour, the average is 82.6% — best year 2019 (88.3%), worst 2007 (68.0%).
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
- 801
- Typical mileage (median)
- 104,431 mi
- Make and model
- Smart Mcc Forfour
- 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 Forfour MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 58% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (82% of tests).
Where the Smart Mcc Forfour is most common
Across all Forfour model years on record (2004–2019): 33,514 Smart Mcc Forfour cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 78,820 tests. Chelmsford (CM) has the most, with 1,139 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 | Chelmsford (CM) | 1,139 | 80.8% |
| 2 | Enfield (EN) | 1,053 | 86.3% |
| 3 | London (E) | 897 | 86.4% |
| 4 | Romford (RM) | 874 | 85.7% |
| 5 | London (N) | 874 | 87.2% |
| 6 | London (SE) | 741 | 87.0% |
| 7 | Birmingham (B) | 739 | 85.7% |
| 8 | Bristol (BS) | 707 | 81.6% |
| 9 | Ilford (IG) | 670 | 85.6% |
| 10 | Stevenage (SG) | 632 | 84.1% |
| 11 | London (NW) | 619 | 86.2% |
| 12 | Croydon (CR) | 577 | 86.6% |
| 13 | Basildon (SS) | 536 | 85.3% |
| 14 | Brighton (BN) | 523 | 81.4% |
| 15 | Kingston upon Thames (KT) | 517 | 88.4% |
| 16 | Dartford (DA) | 511 | 85.8% |
| 17 | Reading (RG) | 460 | 83.5% |
| 18 | Wembley (HA) | 458 | 88.0% |
| 19 | Northampton (NN) | 455 | 79.3% |
| 20 | Nottingham (NG) | 453 | 80.4% |
The twenty areas with the most Smart Mcc Forfour 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 Forfour
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 165 | 72.7% |
| South West | 127 | 72.4% |
| East of England | 107 | 66.4% |
| North West | 83 | 65.1% |
| Yorkshire | 78 | 73.1% |
| East Midlands | 73 | 61.6% |
| West Midlands | 62 | 85.5% |
| London | 42 | 83.3% |
| Scotland | 27 | 66.7% |
| North East | 19 | 68.4% |
| Wales | 18 | 72.2% |
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 suspension joints 9.1% 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 lights 7.5% 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 4.7% 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 2004 Forfour through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £24–£66 — and 40% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £24–£66
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp with a multiple light source up to…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: door condition cannot be opened from outside…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 40%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 801 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
9 model years on record, from 2004 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 68.0% to 88.3% — a spread of 20.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2004 71.3%ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2005 73.9% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2006 72.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 68.0% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2015 79.4% ball joint excessively worn
- 2016 81.6% ball joint excessively worn
- 2017 84.7% tread depth below requirements of…
- 2018 87.6% wipers does not clear the…
- 2019 88.3% wipers does not clear 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 2004 Smart Mcc 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
- Nissan Navara 71.3%
- Peugeot 206 71.2%
- Suzuki Carry 71.2%
- Volvo XC70 71.5%
- Vauxhall Astra 71.6%
- Suzuki Grand Vitara 71.6%
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 Mcc 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 2,472 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 | 559 | 22.10% | 20.98% | +1.12 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 543 | 21.50% | 12.21% | +9.29 |
| Brakes | 422 | 16.70% | 20.89% | −4.19 |
| Tyres | 295 | 11.70% | 19.76% | −8.06 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 173 | 6.80% | 5.57% | +1.23 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 124 | 4.90% | 5.52% | −0.62 |
| Steering | 121 | 4.80% | 2.57% | +2.23 |
| Visibility | 120 | 4.80% | 4.97% | −0.17 |
| Non-component advisories | 59 | 2.30% | 4.18% | −1.88 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 56 | 2.20% | 1.76% | +0.44 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 9.1% | £18–45 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 7.5% | £5–20 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 6.2% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 5.9% | £30–80 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 5.0% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.7% | £80–200 |
| Stop lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.5% | £3–12 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 4.2% | £18–45 |
| Door condition cannot be opened from outside the vehicle Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.6% | £80–250 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 3.3% | £8–22 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 16.4% | £45–110 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 14.7% | £25–65 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 14.5% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 13.1% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 8.5% | £200–700 |
| Headlamp has a product on the lens so that the light output is severely reduced Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Advisory | 7.7% | £5–25 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 9 | 100.0% | 27,700 mi |
| 30-60k | 72 | 83.3% | 48,440 mi |
| 60-90k | 204 | 73.0% | 77,154 mi |
| 90-120k | 238 | 71.0% | 105,150 mi |
| 120k+ | 266 | 66.5% | 149,813 mi |
Source: 801 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 Mcc Forfour?
71.3% of the 801 2004 Smart Mcc Forfour tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.2% for cars first used in 2004. First-attempt pass rate: 63.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2004 Smart Mcc Forfour?
The three most recorded items are ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (9.11%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (7.49%), headlamp lens slightly defective (6.24%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2004 Smart Mcc Forfour MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 66.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2004 Smart Mcc Forfour in this dataset had covered 104,431 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2004 Smart Mcc Forfour?
Petrol: 73.0% pass rate across 653 tests. Diesel: 63.5% pass rate across 148 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2004 Smart Mcc Forfour MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 70.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 72.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.