Pass rate
Around average — 3.7 pts ahead of the 73.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 172 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £36–£116
Pass rate
Around average — 3.7 pts ahead of the 73.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 172 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £36–£116
Most common fault
Suspension
26.0% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
Across the 9 years on record, a spread of 10.4 points. See every year →
The 2007 Toyota MR2 MOT pass rate is 76.7% of its MOT tests — 3.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.0% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres are 10.2% of this car’s recorded faults, against 19.8% nationally — the mirror image of the usual story on a car of this age.
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 MR2? Get an email when these numbers change .
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.0%, so this figure is 3.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 71.6%. The median 2007 Toyota MR2 in this dataset had covered 98,489 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 66.3% of the time, April–September 86.5%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits", noted on 3.49% 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.
Emissions Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 66% so small gaps stay visible.
Across all MR2 model years on record (2000–2008): 10,391 Toyota MR2 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 24,988 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 297 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham (B) | 297 | 79.4% |
| 2 | Coventry (CV) | 231 | 78.5% |
| 3 | Sheffield (S) | 230 | 78.7% |
| 4 | Ashford (TN) | 204 | 77.2% |
| 5 | Nottingham (NG) | 203 | 71.3% |
| 6 | Norwich (NR) | 198 | 73.3% |
| 7 | Leicester (LE) | 197 | 77.6% |
| 8 | Peterborough (PE) | 196 | 80.1% |
| 9 | Portsmouth (PO) | 194 | 72.8% |
| 10 | Bristol (BS) | 194 | 73.6% |
| 11 | Derby (DE) | 182 | 77.1% |
| 12 | Northampton (NN) | 175 | 78.7% |
| 13 | Doncaster (DN) | 166 | 74.4% |
| 14 | Reading (RG) | 159 | 72.7% |
| 15 | Gloucester (GL) | 158 | 72.4% |
| 16 | Guildford (GU) | 158 | 75.6% |
| 17 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 157 | 79.8% |
| 18 | Southampton (SO) | 156 | 73.8% |
| 19 | Exeter (EX) | 141 | 70.2% |
| 20 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 140 | 74.6% |
The twenty areas with the most Toyota MR2 cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 31 | 80.6% |
| East of England | 22 | 77.3% |
| South West | 21 | 66.7% |
| Wales | 20 | 70.0% |
| Yorkshire | 18 | 88.9% |
| West Midlands | 17 | 76.5% |
| East Midlands | 15 | 86.7% |
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 exhaust and emissions 3.5% of tests
“catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits”
Listen for a blow at idle and have someone rev it gently. Then look at the tailpipe smoke: blue is oil, white when warm is coolant, black is over-fuelling. Any of those and the emissions test is the least of it.
Check the lights 3.5% 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 2.3% of tests
“horn not working”
Press it. That is the whole check, and a surprising number of cars fail on it.
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 £36–£116 — and 40% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 172 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 →
9 model years on record, from 2000 to 2008. Across them the pass rate runs from 73.4% to 83.8% — a spread of 10.4 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 2007 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 387 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 | 102 | 26.00% | 20.98% | +5.02 |
| Brakes | 78 | 19.80% | 20.89% | −1.09 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 63 | 16.00% | 12.21% | +3.79 |
| Tyres | 40 | 10.20% | 19.76% | −9.56 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 38 | 9.70% | 5.52% | +4.18 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 23 | 5.90% | 5.57% | +0.33 |
| Steering | 17 | 4.30% | 2.57% | +1.73 |
| Visibility | 12 | 3.10% | 4.97% | −1.87 |
| Non-component advisories | 8 | 2.00% | 4.18% | −2.18 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 6 | 1.50% | 1.76% | −0.26 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.5% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds default limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.5% | £60–250 |
| Parking brake performance inoperative on one side Brakes | Major | 3.5% | £60–150 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.5% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.5% | £5–20 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 3.5% | £60–150 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.9% | £3–15 |
| Horn not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.3% | £8–25 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 2.3% | £45–110 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency less than 50% of the required value Brakes | Major | 2.3% | £45–110 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 11.6% | £45–95 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 11.1% | £30–75 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 9.9% | £45–110 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 9.3% | £25–65 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 7.6% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 7.0% | £200–700 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 10 | 80.0% | 49,595 mi |
| 60-90k | 50 | 76.0% | 78,356 mi |
| 90-120k | 53 | 79.2% | 99,259 mi |
| 120k+ | 58 | 74.1% | 146,729 mi |
Source: 172 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.
76.7% of the 172 2007 Toyota MR2 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.0% for cars first used in 2007. First-attempt pass rate: 71.6%.
The three most recorded items are catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits (3.49%), catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds default limits (3.49%), parking brake performance inoperative on one side (3.49%). 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 74.1% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2007 Toyota MR2 in this dataset had covered 98,489 mi.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 66.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 86.5%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.