Pass rate
Below average — 0.2 pts behind the 74.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 190,018 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £30–£83
Pass rate
Below average — 0.2 pts behind the 74.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 190,018 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £30–£83
Most common fault
Suspension
22.9% 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
Across the 23 years on record, a spread of 21.4 points. See every year →
The 2010 Vauxhall Astra MOT pass rate is 74.5% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 22.9% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Vauxhall Astra does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Emissions & leaks make up 13.0% of everything recorded on the 2010 Vauxhall Astra, against 5.5% nationally — 7.5 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 22.9%, but at 21.0% nationally that one is ordinary. A smoky diesel or a leaking joint fails on emissions more often than on wear, so ask for a recent emissions printout.
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 .
Every Vauxhall Astra first registered in 2010 is combined here — 4 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
Cars of this age and mileage average 74.7%, so this figure is 0.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 66.9%. The median 2010 Vauxhall Astra in this dataset had covered 97,360 mi.
79% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 74.7% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 74.3% of the time, April–September 74.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 5.25% 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.
Coil Spring
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 63% so small gaps stay visible.
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (79% of tests).
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 35,337 | 77.3% |
| North West | 21,133 | 73.9% |
| East of England | 21,039 | 76.0% |
| Yorkshire | 19,495 | 73.5% |
| South West | 18,737 | 70.7% |
| West Midlands | 18,724 | 76.8% |
| East Midlands | 16,437 | 73.6% |
| Scotland | 13,579 | 67.8% |
| London | 9,252 | 82.6% |
| North East | 8,161 | 72.3% |
| Wales | 8,124 | 70.9% |
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.
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 coil springs 5.3% 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 lights 4.5% of tests
“registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”
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
“exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases”
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.
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 £30–£83 — and 31% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 190,018 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 →
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.
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 2010 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 489,509 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 | 112,996 | 22.90% | 20.98% | +1.92 |
| Brakes | 97,216 | 19.70% | 20.89% | −1.19 |
| Tyres | 79,156 | 16.00% | 19.76% | −3.76 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 64,249 | 13.00% | 5.52% | +7.48 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 49,670 | 10.10% | 12.21% | −2.11 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 35,368 | 7.20% | 5.57% | +1.63 |
| Visibility | 18,723 | 3.80% | 4.97% | −1.17 |
| Non-component advisories | 16,976 | 3.40% | 4.18% | −0.78 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 11,318 | 2.30% | 1.76% | +0.54 |
| Steering | 3,837 | 0.80% | 2.57% | −1.77 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 5.3% | £25–65 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.5% | £5–20 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Major | 2.5% | £45–120 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.5% | £80–200 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 2.5% | £45–110 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.9% | £18–45 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.9% | £3–12 |
| Position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.9% | £5–25 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.9% | £40–150 |
| Parking brake performance inoperative on one side Brakes | Major | 1.7% | £60–150 |
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.
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 | 24.8% | £200–700 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 19.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 13.9% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 13.2% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 11.7% | £25–65 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 8.8% | £45–120 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1,811 | 86.1% | 22,808 mi |
| 30-60k | 17,409 | 81.0% | 48,900 mi |
| 60-90k | 57,166 | 76.0% | 76,821 mi |
| 90-120k | 66,445 | 73.2% | 104,018 mi |
| 120k+ | 46,794 | 71.6% | 145,012 mi |
Source: 190,018 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.
74.5% of the 190,018 2010 Vauxhall Astra tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.7% for cars first used in 2010. First-attempt pass rate: 66.9%.
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (5.25%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (4.49%), exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases (2.51%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 86.1% of the time, falling to 71.6% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2010 Vauxhall Astra in this dataset had covered 97,360 mi.
Petrol: 74.7% pass rate across 150,654 tests. Diesel: 73.4% pass rate across 39,343 tests. LPG: 76.5% pass rate across 17 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 74.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 74.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.