Pass rate
75.4%
Around average — 2.3 pts ahead of the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 57 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £13–£38
2008 Subaru Tribeca B9 MOT pass rate
- 2008
- 2 trims combined
- typical 97,072 mi
Only 57 tests of this exact model and year are in the DVSA data, below the 100 we ask for before a page goes in the index. The figures are still shown, because they are the only ones there are.
Most common fault
Suspension
27.7% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2008 75.4% pass · this year
- Avoid 2008 75.4% pass · this year
Across the 1 years on record, a spread of 0 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 70.2%
- Typical mileage
- 97k mi
The 2008 Subaru Tribeca B9 MOT pass rate is 75.4% of its MOT tests — 2.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.7% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Subaru Tribeca B9 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.3× the national share
Suspension accounts for 27.7% of everything recorded on the 2008 Subaru Tribeca B9, against 21.0% nationally — 6.7 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.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 61% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
- Based on a small sample. 57 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 Tribeca B9? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Subaru Tribeca B9 first registered in 2008 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2008 Subaru Tribeca B9 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, so this figure is 2.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 70.2%. The median 2008 Subaru Tribeca B9 in this dataset had covered 97,072 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 17.54% of tests.
- 57 recorded tests behind this page.
- 75.4% overall pass rate, 70.2% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Subaru Tribeca B9, the average is 75.4% — best year 2008 (75.4%), worst 2008 (75.4%).
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
- 57
- Typical mileage (median)
- 97,072 mi
- Make and model
- Subaru Tribeca B9
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Tribeca B9 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 58% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Tribeca B9
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 17 | 70.6% |
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 2008 Tribeca B9
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 2008 Tribeca B9
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 17.5% 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 suspension joints 8.8% 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 coil springs 5.3% 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.
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 2008 Tribeca B9 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £13–£38 — and 61% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £13–£38
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust…
- £45–£120
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 61%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 57 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 →
Compare the 2008 Subaru Tribeca B9 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 2008 cars with a similar record
- Ford Kuga 75.4%
- Daihatsu Terios 75.4%
- Toyota YARIS 75.3%
- Saab 9-3 75.3%
- Volkswagen Tiguan 75.2%
- Volkswagen Eos 75.2%
Closest pass rates among 2008 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 2008 Subaru Tribeca B9 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 129 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 | 36 | 27.70% | 20.98% | +6.72 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 24 | 18.50% | 12.21% | +6.29 |
| Brakes | 22 | 16.90% | 20.89% | −3.99 |
| Tyres | 20 | 15.40% | 19.76% | −4.36 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 8 | 6.20% | 5.57% | +0.63 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 8 | 6.20% | 5.52% | +0.68 |
| Non-component advisories | 4 | 3.10% | 4.18% | −1.08 |
| Visibility | 3 | 2.30% | 4.97% | −2.67 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 3 | 2.30% | 1.76% | +0.54 |
| Steering | 1 | 0.80% | 2.57% | −1.77 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 17.5% | £5–20 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 8.8% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 7.0% | £5–25 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 5.3% | £25–65 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 5.3% | £5–25 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 5.3% | £8–22 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 3.5% | £18–45 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.5% | £45–120 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.5% | £30–80 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.5% | £3–12 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 21.1% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 12.3% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 10.5% | £40–150 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 10.5% | £80–180 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 8.8% | £200–700 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 7.0% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 3 | 66.7% | 55,651 mi |
| 60-90k | 17 | 82.4% | 80,249 mi |
| 90-120k | 30 | 73.3% | 103,329 mi |
| 120k+ | 7 | 71.4% | 135,383 mi |
Source: 57 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.
2008 Tribeca B9 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2008 Subaru Tribeca B9?
75.4% of the 57 2008 Subaru Tribeca B9 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 70.2%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2008 Subaru Tribeca B9?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (17.54%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (8.77%), headlamp lens slightly defective (7.02%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2008 Subaru Tribeca B9 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 66.7% of the time, falling to 71.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2008 Subaru Tribeca B9 in this dataset had covered 97,072 mi.