Pass rate
86.0%
Above average — 12.9 pts ahead of the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 121 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £48–£148
2008 Toyota Starlet MOT pass rate
- 2008
- typical 126,688 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
18.7% 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
- 84.4%
- Typical mileage
- 127k mi
The 2008 Toyota Starlet MOT pass rate is 86.0% of its MOT tests — 12.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 18.7% 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
Body & chassis: 2.9× the national share
Body & chassis accounts for 16.1% of everything recorded on the 2008 Toyota Starlet, against 5.6% nationally — 10.5 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 18.7%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. Look underneath for corrosion near the jacking points and suspension mounts; surface rust is normal, flaking metal is not.
- 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 73.1% and this one manages 86.0% — 12.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 19% 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 2008 Toyota Starlet compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, so this figure is 12.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 84.4%. The median 2008 Toyota Starlet in this dataset had covered 126,688 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 78.8% of the time, April–September 91.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated", noted on 11.57% of tests.
- 121 recorded tests behind this page.
- 86.0% overall pass rate, 84.4% 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
- 121
- Typical mileage (median)
- 126,688 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 70% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Starlet
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 22 | 68.2% |
| South East | 20 | 95.0% |
| Yorkshire | 19 | 94.7% |
| West 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.
What fails a 2008 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 2008 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 horn 4.1% of tests
“horn not working”
Press it. That is the whole check, and a surprising number of cars fail on it.
-
Check the wheel bearings 3.3% of tests
“wheel bearings has excessive play”
Listen for a hum that rises and falls with speed and changes when you load one side in a bend. A noisy bearing is an easy pre-test diagnosis and an awkward surprise at the test station.
-
Check the windscreen 3.3% 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.
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 2008 Starlet through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £48–£148 — and 19% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £48–£148
- Cheapest common item: rear fog lamp not working
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 40%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 19%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 121 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 2008 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 2008 cars with a similar record
- Mercedes-Benz Sl 86.7%
- Audi A8 87.0%
- Porsche Cayman 84.8%
- Porsche Cayenne 83.4%
- Lexus IS250 83.3%
- Porsche Boxster 89.4%
Closest pass rates among 2008 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 2008 Toyota Starlet 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 272 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 | 51 | 18.70% | 20.89% | −2.19 |
| Suspension | 49 | 17.90% | 20.98% | −3.08 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 45 | 16.50% | 12.21% | +4.29 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 44 | 16.10% | 5.57% | +10.53 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 28 | 10.30% | 5.52% | +4.78 |
| Tyres | 21 | 7.70% | 19.76% | −12.06 |
| Visibility | 13 | 4.80% | 4.97% | −0.17 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 9 | 3.30% | 0.82% | +2.48 |
| Non-component advisories | 8 | 2.90% | 4.18% | −1.28 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 4 | 1.50% | 1.76% | −0.26 |
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 | 11.6% | £80–250 |
| Horn not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.1% | £8–25 |
| Wheel bearings has excessive play Suspension | Major | 3.3% | £20–55 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.3% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.5% | £30–80 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 2.5% | £18–45 |
| Rear fog lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.5% | £3–15 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.6% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content at idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.6% | £60–250 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.6% | £30–80 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 14.9% | £200–700 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 11.6% | £45–95 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 10.7% | £45–120 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 8.3% | £25–65 |
| Wheel bearings has excessive play Suspension | Advisory | 8.3% | £20–55 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 7.4% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 1 | 100.0% | 57,637 mi |
| 60-90k | 24 | 95.8% | 83,237 mi |
| 90-120k | 32 | 93.8% | 104,795 mi |
| 120k+ | 64 | 78.1% | 150,974 mi |
Source: 121 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.
2008 Starlet MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2008 Toyota Starlet?
86.0% of the 121 2008 Toyota Starlet tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 84.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2008 Toyota Starlet?
The three most recorded items are joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (11.57%), horn not working (4.13%), wheel bearings has excessive play (3.31%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2008 Toyota Starlet MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 78.1% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2008 Toyota Starlet in this dataset had covered 126,688 mi.
Does the season affect the 2008 Toyota Starlet MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 78.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 91.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.