Pass rate
96.0%
Above average — 4.8 pts ahead of the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 899 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £31–£75
2021 Subaru Xv I MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 23,650 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
60.8% 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 2019 96.7% pass
- Avoid 2012 84.1% pass
Across the 5 years on record, a spread of 12.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 95.8%
- Typical mileage
- 24k mi
The 2021 Subaru Xv I MOT pass rate is 96.0% of its MOT tests — 4.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 60.8% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Subaru Xv I does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 3.1× the national share
Tyres make up 60.8% of everything recorded on the 2021 Subaru Xv I, against 19.8% nationally — 41.0 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.
- 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 91.2% and this one manages 96.0% — 4.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
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 Xv I? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 Subaru Xv I compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 4.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 95.8%. The median 2021 Subaru Xv I in this dataset had covered 23,650 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 95.8% of the time, April–September 96.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Wipers blade defective", noted on 1.00% of tests.
- 899 recorded tests behind this page.
- 96.0% overall pass rate, 95.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Subaru Xv I, the average is 95.7% — best year 2019 (96.7%), worst 2012 (84.1%).
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
- 899
- Typical mileage (median)
- 23,650 mi
- Make and model
- Subaru Xv I
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Wiper Blade
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Xv I MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 81% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Xv I
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 245 | 94.7% |
| South West | 102 | 97.1% |
| Yorkshire | 100 | 97.0% |
| South East | 92 | 96.7% |
| Wales | 76 | 92.1% |
| West Midlands | 72 | 95.8% |
| North West | 57 | 98.2% |
| East of England | 56 | 96.4% |
| North East | 49 | 98.0% |
| East Midlands | 46 | 97.8% |
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 Xv I
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 Xv I
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 wipers and washers 1.0% of tests
“wipers blade defective”
Run the wipers with the screen wet: they should clear it in one sweep without smearing or juddering. Top the washer bottle up and check both jets hit the screen.
-
Check the windscreen 0.9% 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 tyre tread 0.6% 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 2021 Xv I through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £31–£75 — and 44% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £31–£75
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 44%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 899 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 Xv I, side by side
5 model years on record, from 2012 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 84.1% to 96.7% — a spread of 12.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2012 84.1% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2019 96.7% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 95.7% wipers blade defective
- 2021 96.0%wipers blade defective
- 2022 96.5% 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 2021 Subaru Xv I 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
- Suzuki Vitara 96.0%
- Honda Jazz 96.1%
- Honda Cr-V 95.9%
- Lexus Nx 96.3%
- Levc Tx 96.3%
- Suzuki Ignis 96.4%
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 Xv I 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 393 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 | 239 | 60.80% | 19.76% | +41.04 |
| Brakes | 66 | 16.80% | 20.89% | −4.09 |
| Visibility | 30 | 7.60% | 4.97% | +2.63 |
| Suspension | 22 | 5.60% | 20.98% | −15.38 |
| Non-component advisories | 18 | 4.60% | 4.18% | +0.42 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 13 | 3.30% | 12.21% | −8.91 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 3 | 0.80% | 5.57% | −4.77 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 1 | 0.30% | 5.52% | −5.22 |
| Road Wheels | 1 | 0.30% | 0.75% | −0.45 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.0% | £8–22 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 0.89% | £80–200 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 0.67% | £8–22 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.56% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.56% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.44% | £18–45 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 0.44% | £8–22 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.33% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.33% | £30–80 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.33% | £5–20 |
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 | 14.0% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 7.3% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 3.6% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 2.6% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.0% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 1.7% | £40–150 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 618 | 97.4% | 19,124 mi |
| 30-60k | 261 | 93.1% | 38,918 mi |
| 60-90k | 19 | 89.5% | 68,140 mi |
| 90-120k | 1 | 100.0% | 107,547 mi |
Source: 899 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 Xv I MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 Subaru Xv I?
96.0% of the 899 2021 Subaru Xv I tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 95.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 Subaru Xv I?
The three most recorded items are wipers blade defective (1.00%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (0.89%), wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (0.67%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 Subaru Xv I MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 97.4% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 Subaru Xv I in this dataset had covered 23,650 mi.
Does the season affect the 2021 Subaru Xv I MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 95.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 96.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.