2006 Vauxhall Vivaro MOT pass rate

Pass rate

66.9%

Below average — 5.6 pts behind the 72.5% that cars this age and mileage manage.

Across 29,900 recorded tests.

Typical repair bill £34–£91

Most common fault

Brakes

22.0% of faults · 20.9% nationally

mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.

Part only £25–£55 for Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded. What fitting it takes →

9.5 pts down across model years — 13.5% in 2002, 4.0% in 2014.

Every failure, with what it costs →

Which year to buy

  • Best 2023 90.5% pass
  • Avoid 2003 66.5% pass

Across the 23 years on record, a spread of 24 points. See every year →

First-attempt pass
53.7%
Typical mileage
149k mi

The 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro MOT pass rate is 66.9% of its MOT tests — 5.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 22.0% of what testers record.

MOT PASS RATES

The 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro on the real record

66.9% of 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro MOTs passed — 29,900 tests, 2023–2025

Pass rate

The answer from the DVSA's class-4 MOT records.

Check your postcode

MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Vauxhall Vivaro does in your corner of the country.

How one model's pass rate varies by postcode →

Expert verdict

Fewer problems with tyres

Tyres are 8.2% of this car’s recorded faults, against 19.8% nationally — the mirror image of the usual story on a van 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 Vivaro? Get an email when these numbers change .

How does the 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro compare?

Cars of this age and mileage average 72.5%, so this figure is 5.6 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 53.7%. The median 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro in this dataset had covered 149,186 mi.

The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 100% of tests, with a 66.9% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 66.8% of the time, April–September 66.9%.

The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint excessively worn", noted on 9.79% of tests.

  • 29,900 recorded tests behind this page.
  • 66.9% overall pass rate, 53.7% on a first attempt.
  • Across every year of the Vauxhall Vivaro, the average is 72.8% — best year 2023 (90.5%), worst 2003 (66.5%).

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
29,900
Typical mileage (median)
149,186 mi
Make and model
Vauxhall Vivaro
Updated
2026-11-05

Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.

Top part to budget for

Ball Joint

Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.

Does mileage affect the Vivaro MOT pass rate?

0-30k 92.0%
30-60k 73.0%
60-90k 70.2%
90-120k 67.7%
120k+ 66.4%

Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 58% so small gaps stay visible.

Fuel type and reliability

Diesel 66.9%
Petrol 83.9%

Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (100% of tests).

Regional pass rates for the Vivaro

Region Tests Pass rate
South West 5,522 62.8%
South East 4,569 68.2%
East of England 3,555 68.9%
West Midlands 3,105 70.1%
Yorkshire 2,936 67.4%
North West 2,823 67.0%
East Midlands 2,631 66.7%
Wales 2,352 65.3%
Scotland 1,316 63.6%
North East 810 68.5%
London 281 81.9%

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 2006 Vivaro

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.

Brakes 22.0%
+1.1 pts vs national national 20.9% Price brakes parts
Suspension 21.5%
+0.5 pts vs national national 21.0% Price suspension parts
Lamps & electrics 14.2%
+2.0 pts vs national national 12.2% Order bulbs & wipers
Emissions & leaks 8.8%
+3.3 pts vs national national 5.5% Price emissions & leaks parts
Show the other 6 fault categories
  • Tyres 8.2%
  • Steering 5.6%
  • Visibility 5.5%
  • Body & chassis 5.2%
  • Advisories 4.6%
  • Identification 2.7%

Shares are of every item recorded on 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro tests — a composition, so they add to 100% across all sections, not per test.

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 2006 Vivaro

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.

  1. Check the suspension joints 9.8% of tests

    “ball joint 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.

  2. Check the windscreen 8.2% 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.

  3. Check the lights 5.3% of tests

    “position lamp not working”

    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.

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 2006 Vivaro through its MOT

Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £34–£91 — and 30% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.

Average repair across the 10 common items
£34–£91
Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
£3–£12
Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
£80–£250
Common items a careful owner can do at home
70%
Repairs that still cost under £30
30%

Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 29,900 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 Vivaro, side by side

23 model years on record, from 2001 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 66.5% to 90.5% — a spread of 24 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.

  1. 2001 70.6% ball joint excessively worn
  2. 2002 66.5% windscreen damaged but not…
  3. 2003 66.5% windscreen damaged but not…
  4. 2004 67.4% ball joint excessively worn
  5. 2005 67.7% ball joint excessively worn
  6. 2006 66.9%
    ball joint excessively worn
  7. 2007 67.2% windscreen damaged but not…
  8. 2008 67.7% ball joint excessively worn
  9. 2009 67.1% ball joint excessively worn
  10. 2010 66.7% windscreen damaged but not…
  11. 2011 67.4% windscreen damaged but not…
  12. 2012 68.1% windscreen damaged but not…
  13. 2013 69.3% track rod end ball joint has…
  14. 2014 70.7% track rod end ball joint has…
  15. 2015 72.8% track rod end ball joint has…
  16. 2016 74.4% track rod end ball joint has…
  17. 2017 76.0% track rod end ball joint has…
  18. 2018 78.7% windscreen damaged but not…
  19. 2019 82.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
  20. 2020 84.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
  21. 2021 84.6% wipers does not clear the…
  22. 2022 84.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
  23. 2023 90.5% registration plate lamp(s)…

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 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro 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.

Compare 2006 with another year →

Compare two different cars instead →

Other 2006 vans with a similar record

Closest pass rates among 2006 vans with at least 1,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. Full rankings: best vans and worst vans for MOT pass rates.

The full DVSA record for the 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro 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 118,449 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
Brakes 26,553 22.00% 20.89% +1.11
Suspension 25,926 21.50% 20.98% +0.52
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 17,074 14.20% 12.21% +1.99
Noise, emissions and leaks 10,599 8.80% 5.52% +3.28
Tyres 9,884 8.20% 19.76% −11.56
Steering 6,805 5.60% 2.57% +3.03
Visibility 6,634 5.50% 4.97% +0.53
Body, chassis, structure 6,231 5.20% 5.57% −0.37
Non-component advisories 5,532 4.60% 4.18% +0.42
Identification of the vehicle 3,211 2.70% 1.76% +0.94

The exact failure items, in the tester's words

Share of the 29,900 tests on this vehicle that recorded each item
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost Part
Ball joint excessively worn Suspension Major 9.8% £18–45 Ball Joint →
Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility Minor 8.2% £80–200 Windscreen →
Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering Major 7.0% £18–45 Ball Joint →
Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes Major 6.0% £45–110 Brake Discs and Pads Set →
Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Major 5.3% £5–25 Headlight Bulb →
Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Minor 4.3% £5–25 Headlight Bulb →
Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes Major 3.6% £80–180 Brake Pipe →
Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure Minor 3.5% £80–250 Body Panel Repair →
Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Major 3.4% £3–12 Stop Light Bulb →
Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Major 3.3% £5–20 Number Plate Lamp →

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.

Items recorded as advisory on this vehicle
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost
Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks Advisory 29.2% £200–700
Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes Advisory 19.5% £80–180
Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes Advisory 18.0% £45–110
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres Advisory 16.7% £45–95
Non-component advisories Play in steering rack inner joint(s) Non-component advisories Advisory 13.3% £120–300
Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle Advisory 9.6% £20–80

Pass rate by mileage

Mileage Tests Pass rate Median odometer
0-30k 25 92.0% 21,018 mi
30-60k 267 73.0% 49,891 mi
60-90k 1,508 70.2% 78,922 mi
90-120k 5,206 67.7% 106,931 mi
120k+ 22,836 66.4% 168,293 mi

Source: 29,900 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.

2006 Vivaro MOT questions

What is the MOT pass rate for a 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro?

66.9% of the 29,900 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.5% for cars first used in 2006. First-attempt pass rate: 53.7%.

What are the most common MOT failures on a 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro?

The three most recorded items are ball joint excessively worn (9.79%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (8.24%), track rod end ball joint has excessive play (7.00%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.

Does mileage affect the 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro MOT pass rate?

Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 92.0% of the time, falling to 66.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro in this dataset had covered 149,186 mi.

Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro?

Diesel: 66.9% pass rate across 29,869 tests. Petrol: 83.9% pass rate across 31 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.

Does the season affect the 2006 Vauxhall Vivaro MOT pass rate?

Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 66.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 66.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.