Pass rate
Around average — 2.2 pts behind the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 15,593 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £25–£63
Pass rate
Around average — 2.2 pts behind the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 15,593 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £25–£63
Most common fault
Tyres
34.1% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
5.6 pts down across model years — 9.4% in 2003, 3.8% in 2017.
Which year to buy
Across the 16 years on record, a spread of 20.1 points. See every year →
The 2017 Vauxhall Meriva MOT pass rate is 83.8% of its MOT tests — 2.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 34.1% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Vauxhall Meriva does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres make up 34.1% of everything recorded on the 2017 Vauxhall Meriva, against 19.8% nationally — 14.3 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.
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 Meriva? Get an email when these numbers change .
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, 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 80.9%. The median 2017 Vauxhall Meriva in this dataset had covered 39,043 mi.
98% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 83.9% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 84.2% of the time, April–September 83.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 7.51% 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 65% so small gaps stay visible.
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (98% of tests).
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 2,452 | 88.7% |
| North West | 2,071 | 84.1% |
| East of England | 1,895 | 86.9% |
| South West | 1,811 | 84.7% |
| Scotland | 1,771 | 73.1% |
| West Midlands | 1,412 | 87.6% |
| North East | 1,157 | 76.8% |
| Yorkshire | 1,065 | 82.0% |
| East Midlands | 909 | 85.0% |
| Wales | 723 | 83.3% |
| London | 327 | 92.0% |
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.
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 7.5% 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 1.9% 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 1.2% 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.
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £25–£63 — and 29% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 15,593 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 →
16 model years on record, from 2003 to 2018. Across them the pass rate runs from 67.4% to 87.5% — a spread of 20.1 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 2017 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 15,805 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 | 5,453 | 34.10% | 19.76% | +14.34 |
| Brakes | 3,393 | 21.20% | 20.89% | +0.31 |
| Suspension | 2,188 | 13.70% | 20.98% | −7.28 |
| Non-component advisories | 1,158 | 7.20% | 4.18% | +3.02 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 914 | 5.70% | 12.21% | −6.51 |
| Visibility | 789 | 4.90% | 4.97% | −0.07 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 718 | 4.50% | 5.52% | −1.02 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 700 | 4.40% | 5.57% | −1.17 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 288 | 1.80% | 1.76% | +0.04 |
| Steering | 204 | 1.30% | 2.57% | −1.27 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 7.5% | £25–65 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.9% | £3–12 |
| Electronic stability control warning lamp indicates a fault Brakes | Major | 1.5% | £3–15 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.2% | £80–200 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.1% | £18–45 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.94% | £5–20 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.86% | £45–95 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.74% | £8–22 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.70% | £45–95 |
| Tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative Tyres | Major | 0.70% | £45–95 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 17.1% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 10.5% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 6.8% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 6.2% | £45–110 |
| Exhaust system has a major leak of exhaust gases Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 3.6% | £45–120 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.5% | £20–80 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 4,774 | 89.5% | 20,704 mi |
| 30-60k | 8,093 | 82.5% | 43,165 mi |
| 60-90k | 2,255 | 78.0% | 71,130 mi |
| 90-120k | 384 | 78.1% | 100,295 mi |
| 120k+ | 82 | 73.2% | 140,232 mi |
Source: 15,593 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.
83.8% of the 15,593 2017 Vauxhall Meriva tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 80.9%.
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (7.51%), malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (1.87%), electronic stability control warning lamp indicates a fault (1.49%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 89.5% of the time, falling to 73.2% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 Vauxhall Meriva in this dataset had covered 39,043 mi.
Petrol: 83.9% pass rate across 15,293 tests. Diesel: 80.7% pass rate across 300 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 84.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 83.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.