Pass rate
73.7%
Below average — 1.1 pts ahead of the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 2,230 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £42–£115
2003 Subaru Forester MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 129,573 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
30.8% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 91.6% pass
- Avoid 2000 72.0% pass
Across the 22 years on record, a spread of 19.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 67.6%
- Typical mileage
- 130k mi
The 2003 Subaru Forester MOT pass rate is 73.7% of its MOT tests — 1.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 30.8% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.5× the national share
Suspension accounts for 30.8% of everything recorded on the 2003 Subaru Forester, against 21.0% nationally — 9.8 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
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 Subaru Forester? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Subaru Forester compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 1.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 67.6%. The median 2003 Subaru Forester in this dataset had covered 129,573 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 74.7% of the time, April–September 72.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp lens slightly defective", noted on 7.17% of tests.
- 2,230 recorded tests behind this page.
- 73.7% overall pass rate, 67.6% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Subaru Forester, the average is 78.9% — best year 2019 (91.6%), worst 2000 (72.0%).
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
- 2,230
- Typical mileage (median)
- 129,573 mi
- Make and model
- Subaru Forester
- 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 Forester MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 63% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Subaru Forester is most common
Across all Forester model years on record (2000–2021): 20,436 Subaru Forester cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 50,488 tests. Guildford (GU) has the most, with 568 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 | Guildford (GU) | 568 | 79.6% |
| 2 | Ashford (TN) | 550 | 81.9% |
| 3 | Sheffield (S) | 451 | 81.1% |
| 4 | Gloucester (GL) | 421 | 75.3% |
| 5 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 417 | 82.3% |
| 6 | Newton Abbot (TQ) | 411 | 78.7% |
| 7 | Exeter (EX) | 403 | 70.7% |
| 8 | Reading (RG) | 387 | 80.3% |
| 9 | Taunton (TA) | 369 | 78.2% |
| 10 | Birmingham (B) | 354 | 84.1% |
| 11 | Edinburgh (EH) | 353 | 77.4% |
| 12 | Oxford (OX) | 326 | 79.2% |
| 13 | Swindon (SN) | 316 | 78.7% |
| 14 | Coventry (CV) | 314 | 81.1% |
| 15 | High Wycombe (HP) | 311 | 84.3% |
| 16 | Ipswich (IP) | 308 | 76.7% |
| 17 | Leeds (LS) | 301 | 82.4% |
| 18 | Inverness (IV) | 300 | 78.9% |
| 19 | Crawley (RH) | 298 | 79.7% |
| 20 | Newport (NP) | 286 | 82.0% |
The twenty areas with the most Subaru Forester 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 Forester
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 641 | 77.2% |
| South West | 404 | 66.1% |
| East of England | 231 | 73.2% |
| West Midlands | 207 | 73.4% |
| Yorkshire | 176 | 76.7% |
| North West | 132 | 77.3% |
| Scotland | 115 | 69.6% |
| East Midlands | 97 | 75.3% |
| Wales | 86 | 73.3% |
| North East | 74 | 78.4% |
| London | 67 | 74.6% |
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 Forester
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 Forester
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 7.2% 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 suspension joints 5.7% 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 corrosion 5.7% of tests
“component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength”
Look under the sills, around the jacking points and where the suspension mounts meet the body. Flaking, holed or crumbly metal fails; a brown stain on sound metal does not.
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 Forester through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £42–£115 — and 45% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £42–£115
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: component mounting prescribed areas…
- £180–£450
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 45%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 2,230 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 Forester, side by side
22 model years on record, from 2000 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 72.0% to 91.6% — a spread of 19.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 72.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2001 72.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2002 74.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2003 73.7%headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2004 75.2% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2005 74.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 73.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 75.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 76.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 73.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 73.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 77.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 78.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 78.3% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2014 79.9% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2015 81.4% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2016 83.0% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2017 87.1% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2018 89.1% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2019 91.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 88.8% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2021 83.0% has a cut in excess of 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 2003 Subaru Forester 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
- Mazda Mx-5 73.6%
- Toyota Corolla 73.9%
- Nissan Almera 73.9%
- Volkswagen Bora 74.0%
- Audi A4 74.1%
- Vauxhall Agila 74.1%
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 Subaru Forester 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 6,841 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 | 2,135 | 30.80% | 20.98% | +9.82 |
| Brakes | 1,156 | 16.70% | 20.89% | −4.19 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 998 | 14.40% | 12.21% | +2.19 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 712 | 10.30% | 5.57% | +4.73 |
| Tyres | 588 | 8.50% | 19.76% | −11.26 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 507 | 7.30% | 5.52% | +1.78 |
| Visibility | 336 | 4.80% | 4.97% | −0.17 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 179 | 2.60% | 1.76% | +0.84 |
| Non-component advisories | 133 | 1.90% | 4.18% | −2.28 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 97 | 1.40% | 0.82% | +0.58 |
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 | 7.2% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 6.8% | £5–20 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 5.7% | £18–45 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 5.7% | £180–450 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 5.6% | £80–200 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.9% | £3–12 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.5% | £5–25 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.2% | £60–250 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 3.0% | £18–45 |
| Linkage ball joints ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.6% | £18–45 |
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 | 14.6% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 13.2% | £45–95 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 11.5% | £45–120 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 11.4% | £40–150 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 11.0% | £180–450 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 9.2% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 4 | 75.0% | 27,064 mi |
| 30-60k | 87 | 80.5% | 50,980 mi |
| 60-90k | 275 | 78.9% | 79,331 mi |
| 90-120k | 540 | 76.3% | 106,049 mi |
| 120k+ | 1,305 | 71.2% | 160,048 mi |
Source: 2,230 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 Forester MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Subaru Forester?
73.7% of the 2,230 2003 Subaru Forester tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 67.6%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Subaru Forester?
The three most recorded items are headlamp lens slightly defective (7.17%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (6.77%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (5.74%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Subaru Forester MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 75.0% of the time, falling to 71.2% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Subaru Forester in this dataset had covered 129,573 mi.
Does the season affect the 2003 Subaru Forester MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 74.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 72.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.