Pass rate
95.1%
Above average — 4.4 pts ahead of the 90.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 15,298 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £31–£75
2020 Suzuki Vitara MOT pass rate
- 2020
- 4 trims combined
- typical 26,023 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
40.5% 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 →
2.8 pts down across model years — 6.6% in 2015, 3.8% in 2022.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 96.5% pass
- Avoid 2002 67.9% pass
Across the 22 years on record, a spread of 28.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 94.8%
- Typical mileage
- 26k mi
The 2020 Suzuki Vitara MOT pass rate is 95.1% of its MOT tests — 4.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 40.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Suzuki Vitara does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.0× the national share
Tyres make up 40.5% of everything recorded on the 2020 Suzuki Vitara, against 19.8% nationally — 20.7 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 90.7% and this one manages 95.1% — 4.4 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 Suzuki Vitara? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Suzuki Vitara first registered in 2020 is combined here — 4 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2020 Suzuki Vitara compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 90.7%, so this figure is 4.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 94.8%. The median 2020 Suzuki Vitara in this dataset had covered 26,023 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 52% of tests, with a 94.9% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 95.4% of the time, April–September 94.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Wipers blade defective", noted on 1.58% of tests.
- 15,298 recorded tests behind this page.
- 95.1% overall pass rate, 94.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Suzuki Vitara, the average is 90.9% — best year 2023 (96.5%), worst 2002 (67.9%).
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
- 15,298
- Typical mileage (median)
- 26,023 mi
- Make and model
- Suzuki Vitara
- 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 Vitara MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 81% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (52% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Vitara
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 2,639 | 95.0% |
| Yorkshire | 1,956 | 95.4% |
| South West | 1,701 | 94.0% |
| North West | 1,690 | 95.4% |
| Scotland | 1,636 | 94.8% |
| East of England | 1,512 | 95.0% |
| West Midlands | 1,236 | 94.9% |
| Wales | 937 | 94.8% |
| North East | 831 | 96.1% |
| East Midlands | 789 | 95.3% |
| London | 371 | 96.2% |
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 2020 Vitara
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 2020 Vitara
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 1.6% 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 1.5% 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 0.9% 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 2020 Vitara through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £31–£75 — and 47% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £31–£75
- Cheapest common item: washers provides insufficient washer liquid
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 47%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 15,298 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 Vitara, side by side
22 model years on record, from 2000 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 67.9% to 96.5% — a spread of 28.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 68.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2001 72.7% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2002 67.9% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2003 71.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2004 69.7% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2005 68.6% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2006 75.2% component mounting prescribed…
- 2007 70.4% component mounting prescribed…
- 2008 79.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 78.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 78.9% stop lamp not working
- 2011 74.0% position lamp not working
- 2012 83.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 87.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2016 88.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 89.6% tread depth below requirements of…
- 2018 90.9% tread depth below requirements of…
- 2019 93.2% wipers blade defective
- 2020 95.1%wipers blade defective
- 2021 96.0% wipers blade defective
- 2022 95.6% wipers blade defective
- 2023 96.5% headlamp aim too high
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 2020 Suzuki Vitara 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 2020 cars with a similar record
- Lexus Ct 95.0%
- Toyota RAV4 95.2%
- Porsche Macan 94.9%
- Volvo XC40 Inscription Pro 95.4%
- Volvo XC40 Inscription B4 94.6%
- Lexus Nx 95.7%
Closest pass rates among 2020 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 2020 Suzuki Vitara 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 7,253 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 | 2,953 | 40.50% | 19.76% | +20.74 |
| Brakes | 1,708 | 23.40% | 20.89% | +2.51 |
| Non-component advisories | 952 | 13.10% | 4.18% | +8.92 |
| Visibility | 906 | 12.40% | 4.97% | +7.43 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 397 | 5.40% | 12.21% | −6.81 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 104 | 1.40% | 5.52% | −4.12 |
| Suspension | 97 | 1.30% | 20.98% | −19.68 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 74 | 1.00% | 1.76% | −0.76 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 32 | 0.40% | 0.82% | −0.42 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 30 | 0.40% | 5.57% | −5.17 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.6% | £8–22 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.5% | £80–200 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.1% | £8–22 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 1.0% | £8–22 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.88% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.69% | £30–80 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.63% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.58% | £18–45 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Rectified | 0.22% | £5–15 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.21% | £45–95 |
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 | 12.0% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 4.7% | £18–45 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.5% | £20–80 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 1.9% | £45–110 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.8% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 9,238 | 96.8% | 18,688 mi |
| 30-60k | 5,438 | 92.7% | 40,302 mi |
| 60-90k | 573 | 89.9% | 69,481 mi |
| 90-120k | 42 | 97.6% | 99,469 mi |
| 120k+ | 7 | 100.0% | 130,329 mi |
Source: 15,298 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.
2020 Vitara MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2020 Suzuki Vitara?
95.1% of the 15,298 2020 Suzuki Vitara tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 90.7% for cars first used in 2020. First-attempt pass rate: 94.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2020 Suzuki Vitara?
The three most recorded items are wipers blade defective (1.58%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.47%), wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (1.07%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2020 Suzuki Vitara MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 96.8% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2020 Suzuki Vitara in this dataset had covered 26,023 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2020 Suzuki Vitara?
Petrol: 94.9% pass rate across 7,981 tests. Hybrid: 95.2% pass rate across 7,317 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2020 Suzuki Vitara MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 95.4% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 94.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.