Pass rate
Around average — 8.0 pts ahead of the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 61 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £25–£89
Only 61 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.
Pass rate
Around average — 8.0 pts ahead of the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 61 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £25–£89
Most common fault
Lamps & electrics
24.3% of faults · 12.2% nationally
Which year to buy
Across the 14 years on record, a spread of 23.5 points. See every year →
The 2009 Suzuki Carry MOT pass rate is 82.0% of its MOT tests — 8.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Lamps & electrics is the biggest single reason it fails, at 24.3% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Suzuki Carry does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics make up 24.3% of everything recorded on the 2009 Suzuki Carry, against 12.2% nationally — 12.1 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.
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 Suzuki Carry? Get an email when these numbers change .
Cars of this age and mileage average 74.0%, so this figure is 8.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 78.8%. The median 2009 Suzuki Carry in this dataset had covered 35,984 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 83.3% of the time, April–September 80.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Position lamp not working", noted on 4.92% of tests.
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Headlight Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 72% so small gaps stay visible.
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 15 | 80.0% |
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.
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
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 4.9% of tests
“position lamp not working”
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 horn 3.3% of tests
“horn not working”
Press it. That is the whole check, and a surprising number of cars fail on it.
Check the steering 1.6% of tests
“attachment bracket and mounting attachment bracket/mounting insecure and impairing directional stability”
With the wheels straight, rock the steering wheel gently with the engine off — more than about an inch of free play before the wheels move is worth investigating. Split rack gaiters are cheap to replace and commonly recorded.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £25–£89 — and 56% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 61 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 →
14 model years on record, from 2000 to 2013. Across them the pass rate runs from 69.2% to 92.7% — a spread of 23.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
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.
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Closest pass rates among 2009 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.
Shares of the 74 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 | 18 | 24.30% | 12.21% | +12.09 |
| Suspension | 16 | 21.60% | 20.98% | +0.62 |
| Brakes | 10 | 13.50% | 20.89% | −7.39 |
| Tyres | 8 | 10.80% | 19.76% | −8.96 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 6 | 8.10% | 5.57% | +2.53 |
| Visibility | 6 | 8.10% | 4.97% | +3.13 |
| Non-component advisories | 5 | 6.80% | 4.18% | +2.62 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2 | 2.70% | 5.52% | −2.82 |
| Steering | 2 | 2.70% | 2.57% | +0.13 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1 | 1.40% | 1.76% | −0.36 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.9% | £5–25 |
| Horn not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.3% | £8–25 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.3% | £80–250 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.3% | £3–15 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.3% | £3–12 |
| Attachment bracket and mounting attachment bracket/mounting insecure and impairing directional stability Suspension | Major | 1.6% | £40–150 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.6% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.6% | £18–45 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.6% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.6% | £60–250 |
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shackle pins and bushes shackle pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 9.8% | £40–150 |
| Flexible brake hoses ferrule excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 6.6% | £25–70 |
| Non-component advisories Fuel Pipe/s corroded Non-component advisories | Advisory | 6.6% | £180–450 |
| Shock absorbers has negligible damping effect Suspension | Advisory | 6.6% | £30–75 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 6.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 4.9% | £45–110 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 25 | 80.0% | 16,764 mi |
| 30-60k | 16 | 81.3% | 40,862 mi |
| 60-90k | 15 | 80.0% | 67,253 mi |
| 90-120k | 4 | 100.0% | 107,495 mi |
| 120k+ | 1 | 100.0% | 122,861 mi |
Source: 61 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.
82.0% of the 61 2009 Suzuki Carry tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.0% for cars first used in 2009. First-attempt pass rate: 78.8%.
The three most recorded items are position lamp not working (4.92%), horn not working (3.28%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (3.28%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 80.0% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2009 Suzuki Carry in this dataset had covered 35,984 mi.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 83.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 80.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.