Pass rate
70.2%
Below average — 2.2 pts behind the 72.4% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 60,624 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £26–£72
2005 Vauxhall Astra MOT pass rate
- 2005
- typical 105,142 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
21.4% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £35–£75 for Suspension pin or bush excessively worn. What fitting it takes →
3.3 pts down across model years — 4.3% in 2000, 1.0% in 2015.
Which year to buy
- Best 2021 91.2% pass
- Avoid 2006 69.8% pass
Across the 23 years on record, a spread of 21.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 60.2%
- Typical mileage
- 105k mi
The 2005 Vauxhall Astra MOT pass rate is 70.2% of its MOT tests — 2.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 21.4% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Vauxhall Astra does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Fewer problems with tyres
Tyres are 11.5% 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 Vauxhall Astra? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2005 Vauxhall Astra compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.4%, so this figure is 2.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 60.2%. The median 2005 Vauxhall Astra in this dataset had covered 105,142 mi.
84% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 70.2% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 70.2% of the time, April–September 70.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp lens slightly defective", noted on 7.77% of tests.
- 60,624 recorded tests behind this page.
- 70.2% overall pass rate, 60.2% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Vauxhall Astra, the average is 77.8% — best year 2021 (91.2%), worst 2006 (69.8%).
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
- 60,624
- Typical mileage (median)
- 105,142 mi
- Make and model
- Vauxhall Astra
- 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 Astra MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 59% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (84% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Astra
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 13,227 | 73.0% |
| East of England | 7,767 | 71.9% |
| South West | 7,541 | 64.7% |
| North West | 6,329 | 69.7% |
| West Midlands | 5,769 | 72.1% |
| Yorkshire | 5,003 | 68.1% |
| East Midlands | 4,735 | 69.9% |
| London | 3,032 | 78.9% |
| Scotland | 2,805 | 64.2% |
| Wales | 2,656 | 65.7% |
| North East | 1,753 | 67.9% |
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 Astra
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 Astra
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 7.8% 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 coil springs 5.7% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
-
Check the windscreen 3.4% 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 2005 Astra through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £26–£72 — and 38% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £26–£72
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 38%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 60,624 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 Astra, side by side
23 model years on record, from 2000 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 69.8% to 91.2% — a spread of 21.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 71.7% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2001 72.3% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2002 71.5% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2003 72.5% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2004 71.6% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2005 70.2%headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2006 69.8% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2007 70.8% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2008 71.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2009 72.2% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2010 74.5% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2011 76.3% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2012 77.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 78.4% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 78.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2015 80.0% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2016 84.3% tyre pressure monitoring system…
- 2017 86.4% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2018 87.5% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2019 89.2% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2020 90.2% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2021 91.2% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2022 90.5% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
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 Vauxhall Astra 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
- Mercedes-Benz Vito 70.2%
- Peugeot 107 70.3%
- Nissan Navara 70.3%
- Volkswagen Touran 70.4%
- Citroen C1 70.4%
- Peugeot 407 69.9%
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 Vauxhall Astra 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 217,065 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 | 46,791 | 21.40% | 20.98% | +0.42 |
| Brakes | 46,577 | 21.30% | 20.89% | +0.41 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 30,960 | 14.20% | 12.21% | +1.99 |
| Tyres | 25,092 | 11.50% | 19.76% | −8.26 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 19,665 | 9.00% | 5.52% | +3.48 |
| Non-component advisories | 13,376 | 6.10% | 4.18% | +1.92 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 13,157 | 6.00% | 5.57% | +0.43 |
| Visibility | 8,345 | 3.80% | 4.97% | −1.17 |
| Steering | 7,087 | 3.20% | 2.57% | +0.63 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 6,015 | 2.80% | 1.76% | +1.04 |
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 | 7.8% | £5–25 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 5.7% | £25–65 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.7% | £30–80 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.9% | £5–20 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.9% | £3–12 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 3.6% | £45–110 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.4% | £80–200 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 2.6% | £45–120 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.5% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.3% | £40–150 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 18.6% | £45–95 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 18.5% | £80–180 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 18.0% | £200–700 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 17.3% | £45–110 |
| Non-component advisories Play in steering rack inner joint(s) Non-component advisories | Advisory | 15.8% | £120–300 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 14.2% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 463 | 83.2% | 23,438 mi |
| 30-60k | 4,956 | 77.2% | 49,360 mi |
| 60-90k | 14,552 | 72.9% | 76,646 mi |
| 90-120k | 19,744 | 68.9% | 104,779 mi |
| 120k+ | 20,683 | 67.6% | 147,861 mi |
Source: 60,624 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 Astra MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2005 Vauxhall Astra?
70.2% of the 60,624 2005 Vauxhall Astra tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.4% for cars first used in 2005. First-attempt pass rate: 60.2%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2005 Vauxhall Astra?
The three most recorded items are headlamp lens slightly defective (7.77%), coil spring fractured or broken (5.73%), headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (4.69%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2005 Vauxhall Astra MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 83.2% of the time, falling to 67.6% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2005 Vauxhall Astra in this dataset had covered 105,142 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2005 Vauxhall Astra?
Petrol: 70.2% pass rate across 50,836 tests. Diesel: 69.9% pass rate across 9,769 tests. LPG: 66.7% pass rate across 15 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2005 Vauxhall Astra MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 70.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 70.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.