Pass rate
84.8%
Around average — 12.4 pts ahead of the 72.4% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 79 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £43–£125
2005 Toyota Starlet MOT pass rate
- 2005
- typical 99,511 mi
Only 79 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
Brakes
26.5% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2017 88.9% pass
- Avoid 2010 79.2% pass
Across the 7 years on record, a spread of 9.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 83.1%
- Typical mileage
- 100k mi
The 2005 Toyota Starlet MOT pass rate is 84.8% of its MOT tests — 12.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Toyota Starlet does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.5× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 18.1% of everything recorded on the 2005 Toyota Starlet, against 12.2% nationally — 5.9 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 26.5%, but at 20.9% 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 72.4% and this one manages 84.8% — 12.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 32% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
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 Starlet? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2005 Toyota Starlet compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.4%, so this figure is 12.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 83.1%. The median 2005 Toyota Starlet in this dataset had covered 99,511 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated", noted on 3.80% of tests.
- 79 recorded tests behind this page.
- 84.8% overall pass rate, 83.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Toyota Starlet, the average is 84.2% — best year 2017 (88.9%), worst 2010 (79.2%).
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
- 79
- Typical mileage (median)
- 99,511 mi
- Make and model
- Toyota Starlet
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Body Panel Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Starlet MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 42% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Starlet
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 24 | 91.7% |
| Yorkshire | 21 | 81.0% |
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 2005 Starlet
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 2005 Starlet
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 3.8% 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 exhaust and emissions 2.5% of tests
“emissions not tested unable to be completed”
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 steering 2.5% of tests
“steering rack gaiter damaged or deteriorated,”
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.
What it costs to get a 2005 Starlet through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £43–£125 — and 32% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £43–£125
- Cheapest common item: rear fog lamp not working
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: steering rack gaiter damaged or deteriorated,
- £120–£300
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 32%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 79 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 Starlet, side by side
7 model years on record, from 2005 to 2017. Across them the pass rate runs from 79.2% to 88.9% — a spread of 9.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2005 84.8%joints constant velocity boot…
- 2006 82.5% service brake imbalance across an…
- 2007 81.8% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2008 86.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2009 88.9% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2010 79.2% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2017 88.9% service brake imbalance across an…
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 2005 Toyota Starlet 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 2005 cars with a similar record
- Porsche Boxster 84.6%
- Mercedes-Benz Sl 86.1%
- Honda S2000 87.1%
- Jaguar XK8 82.0%
- Porsche Cayenne 81.9%
- BMW 535 81.8%
Closest pass rates among 2005 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 2005 Toyota Starlet 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 83 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | 22 | 26.50% | 20.89% | +5.61 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 15 | 18.10% | 12.21% | +5.89 |
| Tyres | 12 | 14.50% | 19.76% | −5.26 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 9 | 10.80% | 5.57% | +5.23 |
| Suspension | 8 | 9.60% | 20.98% | −11.38 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 8 | 9.60% | 5.52% | +4.08 |
| Steering | 6 | 7.20% | 2.57% | +4.63 |
| Visibility | 2 | 2.40% | 4.97% | −2.57 |
| Non-component advisories | 1 | 1.20% | 4.18% | −2.98 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 3.8% | £80–250 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.8% | £5–25 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 3.8% | £45–110 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.8% | £3–15 |
| Emissions not tested unable to be completed Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.5% | £60–250 |
| Parking brake performance inoperative on one side Brakes | Major | 2.5% | £60–150 |
| Steering rack gaiter damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 2.5% | £120–300 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 2.5% | £18–45 |
| Anti-lock braking system warning lamp indicates an ABS fault Brakes | Major | 1.3% | £3–15 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 8.9% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 6.3% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 3.8% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 3.8% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 2.5% | £200–700 |
| Exhaust system noise is clearly in excess of that emitted by a similar vehicle fitted with a standard silencer in… Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 2.5% | £45–120 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2 | 50.0% | 9,110 mi |
| 30-60k | 11 | 100.0% | 51,299 mi |
| 60-90k | 9 | 77.8% | 69,796 mi |
| 90-120k | 33 | 78.8% | 102,320 mi |
| 120k+ | 21 | 90.5% | 175,034 mi |
Source: 79 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.
2005 Starlet MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2005 Toyota Starlet?
84.8% of the 79 2005 Toyota Starlet tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.4% for cars first used in 2005. First-attempt pass rate: 83.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2005 Toyota Starlet?
The three most recorded items are joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (3.80%), position lamp not working (3.80%), rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements (3.80%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2005 Toyota Starlet MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 50.0% of the time, falling to 90.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2005 Toyota Starlet in this dataset had covered 99,511 mi.