Pass rate
73.0%
Below average — 0.4 pts ahead of the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 44,437 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £36–£103
2003 Toyota YARIS MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 92,852 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
29.5% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 96.3% pass
- Avoid 2000 71.7% pass
Across the 24 years on record, a spread of 24.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 65.1%
- Typical mileage
- 93k mi
The 2003 Toyota YARIS MOT pass rate is 73.0% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 29.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Toyota YARIS does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.4× the national share
Suspension accounts for 29.5% of everything recorded on the 2003 Toyota Yaris, against 21.0% nationally — 8.5 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 57% 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 YARIS? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Toyota YARIS compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 0.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 65.1%. The median 2003 Toyota YARIS in this dataset had covered 92,852 mi.
95% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 73.0% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 73.2% of the time, April–September 72.7%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp lens slightly defective", noted on 8.30% of tests.
- 44,437 recorded tests behind this page.
- 73.0% overall pass rate, 65.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Toyota YARIS, the average is 82.8% — best year 2023 (96.3%), worst 2000 (71.7%).
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
- 44,437
- Typical mileage (median)
- 92,852 mi
- Make and model
- Toyota YARIS
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Headlight Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the YARIS MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 61% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (95% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the YARIS
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 11,706 | 74.2% |
| South West | 5,720 | 68.6% |
| North West | 5,113 | 72.1% |
| East of England | 4,508 | 74.6% |
| West Midlands | 4,077 | 76.3% |
| Yorkshire | 3,847 | 72.2% |
| East Midlands | 3,119 | 71.6% |
| London | 3,010 | 79.4% |
| Wales | 1,503 | 68.9% |
| North East | 997 | 67.4% |
| Scotland | 830 | 66.5% |
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 2003 YARIS
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 2003 YARIS
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 8.3% of tests
“headlamp lens slightly defective”
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 3.4% of tests
“linkage pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn”
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.
-
Check corrosion 3.2% of tests
“component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength”
Look under the sills, around the jacking points and where the suspension mounts meet the body. Flaking, holed or crumbly metal fails; a brown stain on sound metal does not.
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 2003 YARIS through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £36–£103 — and 57% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £36–£103
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: component mounting prescribed areas…
- £180–£450
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 57%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 44,437 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 YARIS, side by side
24 model years on record, from 2000 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 71.7% to 96.3% — a spread of 24.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 71.7% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2001 72.9% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2002 74.0% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2003 73.0%headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2004 72.7% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2005 73.8% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2006 74.4% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2007 75.1% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2008 75.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2009 78.9% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2010 78.5% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2011 81.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2012 82.0% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 82.4% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 84.0% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2015 88.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2016 89.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2017 88.8% wheel bearings rough when rotated
- 2018 90.6% wheel bearings rough when rotated
- 2019 92.7% wipers does not clear the…
- 2020 94.1% wipers does not clear the…
- 2021 95.3% wipers blade defective
- 2022 95.2% wipers blade defective
- 2023 96.3% shock absorbers has a serious…
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 2003 Toyota YARIS 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 2003 cars with a similar record
- Volkswagen Passat 73.1%
- Suzuki Jimny 73.1%
- Volkswagen Golf 72.8%
- Honda Jazz 72.6%
- Mitsubishi Shogun 72.6%
- Skoda Octavia 72.6%
Closest pass rates among 2003 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 2003 Toyota YARIS 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 143,857 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 | 42,899 | 29.50% | 20.98% | +8.52 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 27,566 | 18.90% | 12.21% | +6.69 |
| Brakes | 23,751 | 16.30% | 20.89% | −4.59 |
| Tyres | 15,556 | 10.70% | 19.76% | −9.06 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 11,570 | 7.90% | 5.57% | +2.33 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 6,528 | 4.50% | 5.52% | −1.02 |
| Visibility | 6,122 | 4.20% | 4.97% | −0.77 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 4,851 | 3.30% | 1.76% | +1.54 |
| Non-component advisories | 3,033 | 2.10% | 4.18% | −2.08 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 1,981 | 1.40% | 0.82% | +0.58 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 8.3% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.5% | £30–80 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.0% | £5–25 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.9% | £3–12 |
| Linkage pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.4% | £40–150 |
| Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension | Major | 3.2% | £180–450 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 2.9% | £8–22 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.9% | £5–20 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.7% | £80–200 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 2.6% | £80–250 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linkage pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 17.8% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 14.6% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 14.0% | £25–65 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 13.6% | £45–95 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 11.5% | £80–180 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Advisory | 10.0% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 948 | 84.5% | 22,911 mi |
| 30-60k | 6,793 | 79.1% | 47,958 mi |
| 60-90k | 13,171 | 73.7% | 75,558 mi |
| 90-120k | 12,395 | 71.6% | 104,208 mi |
| 120k+ | 11,039 | 69.0% | 147,263 mi |
Source: 44,437 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.
2003 YARIS MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Toyota YARIS?
73.0% of the 44,437 2003 Toyota YARIS tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 65.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Toyota YARIS?
The three most recorded items are headlamp lens slightly defective (8.30%), headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (4.48%), position lamp not working (4.02%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Toyota YARIS MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 84.5% of the time, falling to 69.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Toyota YARIS in this dataset had covered 92,852 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2003 Toyota YARIS?
Petrol: 73.0% pass rate across 42,117 tests. Diesel: 73.2% pass rate across 2,320 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2003 Toyota YARIS MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 73.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 72.7%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.