Pass rate
92.4%
Above average — 1.2 pts ahead of the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 118 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £30–£78
2021 Subaru Outback Touring Sym MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 27,230 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
42.6% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 93.4% pass
- Avoid 2021 92.4% pass · this year
Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 91.7%
- Typical mileage
- 27k mi
The 2021 Subaru Outback Touring Sym MOT pass rate is 92.4% of its MOT tests — 1.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 42.6% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Subaru Outback Touring Sym does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.2× the national share
Tyres make up 42.6% of everything recorded on the 2021 Subaru Outback Touring Sym, against 19.8% nationally — 22.8 points above. Check all four tyres yourself, including the inner shoulders, and look at the date stamp — a tyre can pass on tread and still be six years old.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 13% 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.
- Based on a small sample. 118 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 Outback Touring Sym? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 Subaru Outback Touring Sym compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 1.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 91.7%. The median 2021 Subaru Outback Touring Sym in this dataset had covered 27,230 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 88.7% of the time, April–September 95.4%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick", noted on 5.08% of tests.
- 118 recorded tests behind this page.
- 92.4% overall pass rate, 91.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Subaru Outback Touring Sym, the average is 93.2% — best year 2022 (93.4%), worst 2021 (92.4%).
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
- 118
- Typical mileage (median)
- 27,230 mi
- Make and model
- Subaru Outback Touring Sym
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Brake Pads Set
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Outback Touring Sym MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 80% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Outback Touring Sym
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 27 | 92.6% |
| East Midlands | 17 | 100.0% |
| Scotland | 16 | 87.5% |
| South East | 15 | 93.3% |
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 2021 Outback Touring Sym
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 2021 Outback Touring Sym
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 brakes 5.1% of tests
“brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick”
Look through the spokes of each wheel at the pad — less than 3mm of friction material, or a lip on the disc edge, is the usual failure. Check the handbrake holds on a slope with a few clicks, not at the top of its travel.
-
Check the windscreen 1.7% 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.
-
Check the lights 0.8% 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.
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 2021 Outback Touring Sym through its MOT
Across the 9 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £30–£78 — and 13% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 9 common items
- £30–£78
- Cheapest common item: wipers does not clear the windscreen…
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 67%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 13%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 118 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 Outback Touring Sym, side by side
2 model years on record, from 2021 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 92.4% to 93.4% — a spread of 1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2021 92.4%brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2022 93.4% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
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 2021 Subaru Outback Touring Sym 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 2021 cars with a similar record
- Ford Kuga 92.4%
- SEAT Ateca Fr 92.4%
- Volkswagen Touareg V6 92.4%
- Renault Arkana 92.4%
- Volkswagen Polo 92.5%
- Audi A6 92.5%
Closest pass rates among 2021 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 2021 Subaru Outback Touring Sym 9 failure items · 6 advisories · 7 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 68 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 29 | 42.60% | 19.76% | +22.84 |
| Brakes | 28 | 41.20% | 20.89% | +20.31 |
| Suspension | 4 | 5.90% | 20.98% | −15.08 |
| Visibility | 4 | 5.90% | 4.97% | +0.93 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1 | 1.50% | 12.21% | −10.71 |
| Steering | 1 | 1.50% | 2.57% | −1.07 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1 | 1.50% | 1.76% | −0.26 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 5.1% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.7% | £80–200 |
| Brake performance not tested unable to be tested Brakes | Major | 0.85% | £60–150 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.85% | £30–80 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Major | 0.85% | £20–80 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 0.85% | £18–45 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.85% | £45–95 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 0.85% | £8–22 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 0.85% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 16.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 15.3% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 3.4% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 3.4% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 2.5% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.5% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 68 | 95.6% | 19,501 mi |
| 30-60k | 50 | 88.0% | 39,301 mi |
Source: 118 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.
2021 Outback Touring Sym MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 Subaru Outback Touring Sym?
92.4% of the 118 2021 Subaru Outback Touring Sym tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 91.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 Subaru Outback Touring Sym?
The three most recorded items are brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick (5.08%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.69%), brake performance not tested unable to be tested (0.85%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 Subaru Outback Touring Sym MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 95.6% of the time, falling to 88.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 Subaru Outback Touring Sym in this dataset had covered 27,230 mi.
Does the season affect the 2021 Subaru Outback Touring Sym MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 88.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 95.4%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.