Pass rate
91.7%
Above average — 13.1 pts ahead of the 78.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 109 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £26–£68
2013 Subaru Impreza MOT pass rate
- 2013
- typical 71,811 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Lamps & electrics
21.8% of faults · 12.2% nationally
Which year to buy
- Best 2018 91.8% pass
- Avoid 2001 79.3% pass
Across the 22 years on record, a spread of 12.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 91.1%
- Typical mileage
- 72k mi
The 2013 Subaru Impreza MOT pass rate is 91.7% of its MOT tests — 13.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Lamps & electrics is the biggest single reason it fails, at 21.8% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.8× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 21.8% of everything recorded on the 2013 Subaru Impreza, against 12.2% nationally — 9.6 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 78.6% and this one manages 91.7% — 13.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Based on a small sample. 109 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 Impreza? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2013 Subaru Impreza compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 78.6%, so this figure is 13.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 91.1%. The median 2013 Subaru Impreza in this dataset had covered 71,811 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 91.8% of the time, April–September 91.7%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp aim too low", noted on 2.75% of tests.
- 109 recorded tests behind this page.
- 91.7% overall pass rate, 91.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Subaru Impreza, the average is 81.2% — best year 2018 (91.8%), worst 2001 (79.3%).
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
- 109
- Typical mileage (median)
- 71,811 mi
- Make and model
- Subaru Impreza
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Headlight Alignment
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Impreza MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 78% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the Subaru Impreza is most common
Across all Impreza model years on record (2000–2021): 25,960 Subaru Impreza cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 54,700 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 861 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 | Birmingham (B) | 861 | 88.5% |
| 2 | Sheffield (S) | 697 | 85.2% |
| 3 | Coventry (CV) | 551 | 85.3% |
| 4 | Bradford (BD) | 515 | 90.3% |
| 5 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 448 | 83.1% |
| 6 | Ashford (TN) | 440 | 80.9% |
| 7 | Guildford (GU) | 436 | 80.7% |
| 8 | Leicester (LE) | 431 | 83.7% |
| 9 | Nottingham (NG) | 430 | 78.9% |
| 10 | Reading (RG) | 420 | 81.6% |
| 11 | Peterborough (PE) | 412 | 78.0% |
| 12 | Gloucester (GL) | 405 | 76.0% |
| 13 | Derby (DE) | 396 | 80.3% |
| 14 | Portsmouth (PO) | 385 | 76.3% |
| 15 | Blackburn (BB) | 382 | 90.8% |
| 16 | Bristol (BS) | 354 | 76.4% |
| 17 | Glasgow (G) | 350 | 84.4% |
| 18 | High Wycombe (HP) | 345 | 85.4% |
| 19 | Aberdeen (AB) | 344 | 76.4% |
| 20 | Edinburgh (EH) | 328 | 78.8% |
The twenty areas with the most Subaru Impreza 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 Impreza
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| West Midlands | 23 | 95.7% |
| East of England | 21 | 90.5% |
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 2013 Impreza
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 2013 Impreza
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 2.8% of tests
“headlamp aim too low”
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 1.8% 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 tyre tread 1.8% of tests
“tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm”
Check all four tyres cold, including the inner shoulder where wear hides — 1.6mm across the central three-quarters is the legal limit, and most testers fail at 1.6mm without argument.
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 2013 Impreza through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £26–£68 — and 42% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £26–£68
- Cheapest common item: rear fog lamp missing
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 42%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 109 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 Impreza, side by side
22 model years on record, from 2000 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 79.3% to 91.8% — a spread of 12.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 82.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2001 79.3% component mounting prescribed…
- 2002 80.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2003 80.0% component mounting prescribed…
- 2004 82.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 80.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 80.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 79.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 79.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 80.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 81.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 82.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 90.9% position lamp not working
- 2013 91.7%headlamp aim too low
- 2014 84.5% ball joint excessively worn
- 2015 87.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 89.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 90.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 91.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 86.1% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2020 91.0% catalyst emissions lambda reading…
- 2021 86.6% windscreen damaged but not…
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 2013 Subaru Impreza 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 2013 cars with a similar record
- Jaguar F-Type 91.0%
- Audi A8 91.0%
- Porsche Cayman 92.7%
- Jaguar Xk 90.5%
- Lexus Rx 90.2%
- Porsche Boxster 93.5%
Closest pass rates among 2013 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 2013 Subaru Impreza 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 9 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 110 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 | 24 | 21.80% | 12.21% | +9.59 |
| Tyres | 21 | 19.10% | 19.76% | −0.66 |
| Suspension | 19 | 17.30% | 20.98% | −3.68 |
| Brakes | 18 | 16.40% | 20.89% | −4.49 |
| Visibility | 10 | 9.10% | 4.97% | +4.13 |
| Non-component advisories | 8 | 7.30% | 4.18% | +3.12 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 5 | 4.50% | 5.52% | −1.02 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 3 | 2.70% | 5.57% | −2.87 |
| Steering | 2 | 1.80% | 2.57% | −0.77 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 2.8% | £30–80 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.8% | £18–45 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.8% | £5–25 |
| Rear fog lamp missing Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £3–15 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.8% | £45–95 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Rectified | 1.8% | £5–15 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.8% | £80–200 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 1.8% | £8–22 |
| Battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.92% | £60–140 |
| Bonnet cannot be secured in the closed position Visibility | Rectified | 0.92% | £20–80 |
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 pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.3% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 8.3% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 8.3% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 4.6% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 4.6% | £20–80 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.8% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 10 | 100.0% | 19,370 mi |
| 30-60k | 34 | 97.1% | 47,383 mi |
| 60-90k | 37 | 86.5% | 76,706 mi |
| 90-120k | 23 | 87.0% | 105,162 mi |
| 120k+ | 5 | 100.0% | 138,844 mi |
Source: 109 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.
2013 Impreza MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2013 Subaru Impreza?
91.7% of the 109 2013 Subaru Impreza tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 78.6% for cars first used in 2013. First-attempt pass rate: 91.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2013 Subaru Impreza?
The three most recorded items are headlamp aim too low (2.75%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (1.83%), position lamp not working (1.83%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2013 Subaru Impreza MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2013 Subaru Impreza in this dataset had covered 71,811 mi.
Does the season affect the 2013 Subaru Impreza MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 91.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 91.7%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.