2016 Subaru Forestr MOT pass rate

2016
typical 71,200 mi

Pass rate

74.4%

Below average — 9.6 pts behind the 84.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.

Across 133 recorded tests.

Typical repair bill £39–£109

Most common fault

Suspension

36.1% of faults · 21.0% nationally

mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.

Part only £35–£75 for Suspension pin or bush excessively worn. What fitting it takes →

Every failure, with what it costs →

Which year to buy

Best 2015 81.0% pass
Avoid 2016 74.4% pass · this year

Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 6.6 points. See every year →

First-attempt pass: 66.0%
Typical mileage: 71k mi

The 2016 Subaru Forestr MOT pass rate is 74.4% of its MOT tests — 9.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 36.1% of what testers record.

Check your postcode

MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Subaru Forestr does in your corner of the country.

How one model's pass rate varies by postcode →

Expert verdict

Suspension: 1.7× the national share

Suspension accounts for 36.1% of everything recorded on the 2016 Subaru Forestr, against 21.0% nationally — 15.1 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.

Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 84.0%; this one manages 74.4% — 9.6 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
When it fails, it costs. Only 14% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.

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

How does the 2016 Subaru Forestr compare?

Cars of this age and mileage average 84.0%, so this figure is 9.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 66.0%. The median 2016 Subaru Forestr in this dataset had covered 71,200 mi.

Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 75.0% of the time, April–September 73.7%.

The single most recorded failure item is "Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn", noted on 10.53% of tests.

133 recorded tests behind this page.
74.4% overall pass rate, 66.0% on a first attempt.
Across every year of the Subaru Forestr, the average is 79.7% — best year 2015 (81.0%), worst 2016 (74.4%).

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: 133
Typical mileage (median): 71,200 mi
Make and model: Subaru Forestr
Updated: 2026-11-05

Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.

Top part to budget for

Suspension Component

Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.

Does mileage affect the Forestr MOT pass rate?

0-30k 62.5%

30-60k 78.4%

60-90k 77.6%

90-120k 65.2%

120k+ 71.4%

Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 54% so small gaps stay visible.

Regional pass rates for the Forestr

Region	Tests	Pass rate
Scotland	34	64.7%
South West	22	72.7%

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 2016 Forestr

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.

Suspension 36.1%

+15.1 pts vs national national 21.0% Price suspension parts

Brakes 23.2%

+2.3 pts vs national national 20.9% Price brakes parts

Tyres 19.1%

−0.7 pts vs national national 19.8% Compare tyre prices

Lamps & electrics 9.3%

−2.9 pts vs national national 12.2% Order bulbs & wipers

Show the other 6 fault categories

Visibility 5.2%
Emissions & leaks 2.6%
Body & chassis 2.1%
Advisories 1.0%
Steering 1.0%
Identification 0.5%

Shares are of every item recorded on 2016 Subaru Forestr tests — a composition, so they add to 100% across all sections, not per test.

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 2016 Forestr

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 10.5% of tests

“pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn”

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 coil springs 9.8% 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 windscreen 6.0% 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 2016 Forestr through its MOT

Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £39–£109 — and 14% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.

Average repair across the 10 common items: £39–£109
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: 70%
Repairs that still cost under £30: 14%

Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 133 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 Forestr, side by side

2 model years on record, from 2015 to 2016. Across them the pass rate runs from 74.4% to 81.0% — a spread of 6.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.

2015 81.0% pins and bushes pin or bush…
2016 74.4%
pins and bushes pin or bush…

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 2016 Subaru Forestr 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.

Compare 2016 with another year →

Compare two different cars instead →

Other 2016 cars with a similar record

Closest pass rates among 2016 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 2016 Subaru Forestr 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 194 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	70	36.10%	20.98%	+15.12
Brakes	45	23.20%	20.89%	+2.31
Tyres	37	19.10%	19.76%	−0.66
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment	18	9.30%	12.21%	−2.91
Visibility	10	5.20%	4.97%	+0.23
Noise, emissions and leaks	5	2.60%	5.52%	−2.92
Body, chassis, structure	4	2.10%	5.57%	−3.47
Non-component advisories	2	1.00%	4.18%	−3.18
Steering	2	1.00%	2.57%	−1.57
Identification of the vehicle	1	0.50%	1.76%	−1.26

The exact failure items, in the tester's words

Share of the 133 tests on this vehicle that recorded each item
Recorded item	Severity	Tests	Est. cost	Part
Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension	Major	10.5%	£40–150	Suspension Component →
Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension	Major	9.8%	£25–65	Coil Spring →
Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility	Minor	6.0%	£80–200	Windscreen →
Ball joint excessively worn Suspension	Major	3.0%	£18–45	Ball Joint →
Battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment	Minor	3.0%	£60–140	Battery →
Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment	Minor	3.0%	£5–20	Number Plate Lamp →
Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres	Major	2.3%	£45–95	Tyres →
Headlamp cleaning device inoperative Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment	Minor	1.5%	£5–25	Headlight Bulb →
Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks	Major	1.5%	£3–12	Indicator Bulb →
Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes	Major	1.5%	£80–180	Brake Pipe →

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.

Items recorded as advisory on this vehicle
Recorded item	Severity	Tests	Est. cost
Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension	Advisory	24.1%	£40–150
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres	Advisory	16.5%	£45–95
Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes	Advisory	9.0%	£18–45
Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes	Advisory	7.5%	£45–110
Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes	Advisory	6.8%	£80–180
Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres	Advisory	4.5%	£45–95

Pass rate by mileage

Mileage	Tests	Pass rate	Median odometer
0-30k	8	62.5%	24,932 mi
30-60k	37	78.4%	45,317 mi
60-90k	58	77.6%	74,902 mi
90-120k	23	65.2%	102,741 mi
120k+	7	71.4%	128,862 mi

Source: 133 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.

2016 Forestr MOT questions

What is the MOT pass rate for a 2016 Subaru Forestr?

74.4% of the 133 2016 Subaru Forestr tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 84.0% for cars first used in 2016. First-attempt pass rate: 66.0%.

What are the most common MOT failures on a 2016 Subaru Forestr?

The three most recorded items are pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn (10.53%), coil spring fractured or broken (9.77%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (6.02%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.

Does mileage affect the 2016 Subaru Forestr MOT pass rate?

Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 62.5% of the time, falling to 71.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2016 Subaru Forestr in this dataset had covered 71,200 mi.

Does the season affect the 2016 Subaru Forestr MOT pass rate?

Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 75.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 73.7%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.