Pass rate
97.0%
Above average — 11.0 pts ahead of the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 99 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £10–£30
2017 Toyota Esquire MOT pass rate
- 2017
- typical 49,254 mi
Only 99 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
26.3% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 98.1% pass
- Avoid 2015 91.8% pass
Across the 5 years on record, a spread of 6.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 96.9%
- Typical mileage
- 49k mi
The 2017 Toyota Esquire MOT pass rate is 97.0% of its MOT tests — 11.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.3% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Toyota Esquire does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 2.2× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 26.3% of everything recorded on the 2017 Toyota Esquire, against 12.2% nationally — 14.1 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 26.3%, but at 21.0% nationally that one is ordinary. 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.
- 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 86.0% and this one manages 97.0% — 11.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 56% 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.
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 Toyota Esquire? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2017 Toyota Esquire compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 11.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 96.9%. The median 2017 Toyota Esquire in this dataset had covered 49,254 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 100.0% of the time, April–September 95.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 2.02% of tests.
- 99 recorded tests behind this page.
- 97.0% overall pass rate, 96.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Toyota Esquire, the average is 95.2% — best year 2019 (98.1%), worst 2015 (91.8%).
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
- 99
- Typical mileage (median)
- 49,254 mi
- Make and model
- Toyota Esquire
- 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 Esquire MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 87% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Esquire
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| North West | 38 | 92.1% |
| West Midlands | 26 | 100.0% |
| East Midlands | 15 | 100.0% |
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.
What fails a 2017 Esquire
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 2017 Esquire
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 2.0% 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 1.0% of tests
“ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt”
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.
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 2017 Esquire through its MOT
Across the 8 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £10–£30 — and 56% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 8 common items
- £10–£30
- Cheapest common item: all direction indicators not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the…
- £18–£45
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 100%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 56%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 99 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 Esquire, side by side
5 model years on record, from 2015 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 91.8% to 98.1% — a spread of 6.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2015 91.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 94.1% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2017 97.0%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2018 95.7% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2019 98.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
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 2017 Toyota Esquire 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 2017 cars with a similar record
- Aston Martin DB11 95.5%
- Porsche 911 95.2%
- Lexus Rx 94.9%
- Porsche Cayman 94.6%
- Porsche Boxster 94.3%
- Audi A8 93.8%
Closest pass rates among 2017 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 2017 Toyota Esquire 8 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 19 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 | 5 | 26.30% | 20.98% | +5.32 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 5 | 26.30% | 12.21% | +14.09 |
| Tyres | 3 | 15.80% | 19.76% | −3.96 |
| Non-component advisories | 2 | 10.50% | 4.18% | +6.32 |
| Road Wheels | 2 | 10.50% | 0.75% | +9.75 |
| Brakes | 1 | 5.30% | 20.89% | −15.59 |
| Steering | 1 | 5.30% | 2.57% | +2.73 |
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 | 2.0% | £5–20 |
| All direction indicators not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.0% | £3–12 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.0% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.0% | £18–45 |
| Lamp inoperative Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.0% | £3–15 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.0% | £18–45 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.0% | £5–20 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover insecure so that it no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 1.0% | £18–45 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Badly distorted Road Wheels | Advisory | 2.0% | £20–55 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.0% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 1.0% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 1.0% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.0% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Wheel/tyre protruding beyond wheel arch Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.0% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 8 | 100.0% | 22,955 mi |
| 30-60k | 67 | 95.5% | 45,566 mi |
| 60-90k | 21 | 100.0% | 71,401 mi |
| 90-120k | 3 | 100.0% | 93,416 mi |
Source: 99 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.
2017 Esquire MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2017 Toyota Esquire?
97.0% of the 99 2017 Toyota Esquire tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 96.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2017 Toyota Esquire?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (2.02%), all direction indicators not working (1.01%), ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (1.01%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2017 Toyota Esquire MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 Toyota Esquire in this dataset had covered 49,254 mi.
Does the season affect the 2017 Toyota Esquire MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 100.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 95.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.