Pass rate
90.6%
Above average — 0.1 pts behind the 90.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 159 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £34–£82
2020 Vauxhall Astra Ultimate MOT pass rate
- 2020
- typical 22,155 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
47.3% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 96.0% pass
- Avoid 2020 90.6% pass · this year
Across the 3 years on record, a spread of 5.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 89.4%
- Typical mileage
- 22k mi
The 2020 Vauxhall Astra Ultimate MOT pass rate is 90.6% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 47.3% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Vauxhall Astra Ultimate does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.4× the national share
Tyres make up 47.3% of everything recorded on the 2020 Vauxhall Astra Ultimate, against 19.8% nationally — 27.5 points above. Check all four tyres yourself, including the inner shoulders, and look at the date stamp — a tyre can pass on tread and still be six years old.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 35% 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.
- Based on a small sample. 159 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 Ultimate? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2020 Vauxhall Astra Ultimate compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 90.7%, so this figure is 0.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 89.4%. The median 2020 Vauxhall Astra Ultimate in this dataset had covered 22,155 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 86% of tests, with a 91.2% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 93.9% of the time, April–September 87.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction", noted on 3.77% of tests.
- 159 recorded tests behind this page.
- 90.6% overall pass rate, 89.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Vauxhall Astra Ultimate, the average is 92.3% — best year 2023 (96.0%), worst 2020 (90.6%).
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
- 159
- Typical mileage (median)
- 22,155 mi
- Make and model
- Vauxhall Astra Ultimate
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Indicator Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Astra Ultimate MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 70% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (86% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Astra Ultimate
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 39 | 87.2% |
| East of England | 28 | 89.3% |
| South West | 21 | 100.0% |
| West Midlands | 20 | 90.0% |
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 2020 Astra Ultimate
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 2020 Astra Ultimate
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
“malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction”
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 windscreen 1.3% 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.
-
Check the wipers and washers 0.6% of tests
“wipers blade defective”
Run the wipers with the screen wet: they should clear it in one sweep without smearing or juddering. Top the washer bottle up and check both jets hit the 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 2020 Astra Ultimate through its MOT
Across the 9 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £34–£82 — and 35% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 9 common items
- £34–£82
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: door condition cannot be opened from outside…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 56%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 35%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 159 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 Ultimate, side by side
3 model years on record, from 2020 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 90.6% to 96.0% — a spread of 5.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2020 90.6%malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2022 92.5% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 96.0% has a cut in excess of the…
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 2020 Vauxhall Astra Ultimate 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 2020 cars with a similar record
- Peugeot 3008 90.6%
- Volkswagen Passat 90.6%
- Renault Zoe I 90.6%
- BMW 320I 90.6%
- Ford Focus 90.5%
- Ford Ecosport 90.5%
Closest pass rates among 2020 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 2020 Vauxhall Astra Ultimate 9 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 74 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 35 | 47.30% | 19.76% | +27.54 |
| Brakes | 16 | 21.60% | 20.89% | +0.71 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 6 | 8.10% | 5.52% | +2.58 |
| Road Wheels | 5 | 6.80% | 0.75% | +6.05 |
| Visibility | 4 | 5.40% | 4.97% | +0.43 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 3 | 4.10% | 12.21% | −8.11 |
| Non-component advisories | 3 | 4.10% | 4.18% | −0.08 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1 | 1.40% | 5.57% | −4.17 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1 | 1.40% | 1.76% | −0.36 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.8% | £3–12 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 3.1% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.3% | £30–80 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.3% | £80–200 |
| Door condition cannot be opened from outside the vehicle Body, chassis, structure | Major | 0.63% | £80–250 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.63% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.63% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too far to the right Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.63% | £30–80 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.63% | £8–22 |
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 pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.2% | £18–45 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 6.3% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.0% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 3.8% | £45–95 |
| Badly distorted Road Wheels | Advisory | 3.1% | £20–55 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 1.9% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 113 | 95.6% | 18,133 mi |
| 30-60k | 46 | 78.3% | 37,715 mi |
Source: 159 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.
2020 Astra Ultimate MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2020 Vauxhall Astra Ultimate?
90.6% of the 159 2020 Vauxhall Astra Ultimate tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 90.7% for cars first used in 2020. First-attempt pass rate: 89.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2020 Vauxhall Astra Ultimate?
The three most recorded items are malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (3.77%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (3.14%), headlamp aim too low (1.26%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2020 Vauxhall Astra Ultimate MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 95.6% of the time, falling to 78.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2020 Vauxhall Astra Ultimate in this dataset had covered 22,155 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2020 Vauxhall Astra Ultimate?
Petrol: 91.2% pass rate across 137 tests. Diesel: 86.4% pass rate across 22 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2020 Vauxhall Astra Ultimate MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 93.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 87.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.