Pass rate
90.5%
Above average — 4.3 pts behind the 94.8% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 602 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £20–£52
2023 Vauxhall Vivaro MOT pass rate
- 2023
- Van
- 20 trims combined
- typical 28,420 mi
Most common fault
Lamps & electrics
27.1% of faults · 12.2% nationally
Part only £6–£18 for Registration plate lamp inoperative (multiple lamps). What fitting it takes →
1.8 pts up across model years — 3.8% in 2014, 5.6% in 2022.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 90.5% pass · this year
- Avoid 2003 66.5% pass
Across the 23 years on record, a spread of 24 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 89.6%
- Typical mileage
- 28k mi
The 2023 Vauxhall Vivaro MOT pass rate is 90.5% of its MOT tests — 4.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Lamps & electrics is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.1% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Vauxhall Vivaro does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 2.2× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 27.1% of everything recorded on the 2023 Vauxhall Vivaro, against 12.2% nationally — 14.9 points above. Walk round the car with the lights on before the test: bulbs, indicators and number-plate lamps are the cheapest failures to prevent and among the most common.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, vans this age and mileage expect about 94.8%; this one manages 90.5% — 4.3 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 65% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
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 .
Every Vauxhall Vivaro first registered in 2023 is combined here — 20 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2023 Vauxhall Vivaro compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 94.8%, so this figure is 4.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 89.6%. The median 2023 Vauxhall Vivaro in this dataset had covered 28,420 mi.
67% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 87.3% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 87.8% of the time, April–September 94.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 3.65% of tests.
- 602 recorded tests behind this page.
- 90.5% overall pass rate, 89.6% 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
- 602
- Typical mileage (median)
- 28,420 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
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Vivaro MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 65% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (67% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Vivaro
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 140 | 92.9% |
| West Midlands | 72 | 86.1% |
| Yorkshire | 58 | 91.4% |
| East of England | 54 | 87.0% |
| North West | 53 | 86.8% |
| London | 52 | 100.0% |
| South West | 39 | 87.2% |
| Wales | 37 | 89.2% |
| Scotland | 35 | 88.6% |
| East Midlands | 34 | 85.3% |
| North East | 28 | 100.0% |
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 2023 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.
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 2023 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.
-
Check the lights 3.6% 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 windscreen 1.7% 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 brakes 1.5% of tests
“brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick”
Look through the spokes of each wheel at the pad — less than 3mm of friction material, or a lip on the disc edge, is the usual failure. Check the handbrake holds on a slope with a few clicks, not at the top of its travel.
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 2023 Vivaro through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £20–£52 — and 65% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £20–£52
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 65%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 602 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.
- 2001 70.6% ball joint excessively worn
- 2002 66.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2003 66.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2004 67.4% ball joint excessively worn
- 2005 67.7% ball joint excessively worn
- 2006 66.9% ball joint excessively worn
- 2007 67.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2008 67.7% ball joint excessively worn
- 2009 67.1% ball joint excessively worn
- 2010 66.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2011 67.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2012 68.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2013 69.3% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2014 70.7% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2015 72.8% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2016 74.4% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2017 76.0% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2018 78.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 82.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2020 84.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2021 84.6% wipers does not clear the…
- 2022 84.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 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 2023 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.
Other 2023 vans with a similar record
Closest pass rates among 2023 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 2023 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 367 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 100 | 27.10% | 12.21% | +14.89 |
| Tyres | 93 | 25.20% | 19.76% | +5.44 |
| Brakes | 84 | 22.80% | 20.89% | +1.91 |
| Visibility | 40 | 10.80% | 4.97% | +5.83 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 19 | 5.10% | 5.52% | −0.42 |
| Non-component advisories | 16 | 4.30% | 4.18% | +0.12 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 8 | 2.20% | 5.57% | −3.37 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 3 | 0.80% | 0.82% | −0.02 |
| Suspension | 2 | 0.50% | 20.98% | −20.48 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 2 | 0.50% | 1.76% | −1.26 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.6% | £5–20 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.7% | £5–20 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.7% | £80–200 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.5% | £18–45 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.5% | £5–20 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.5% | £8–22 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 1.2% | £8–22 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.0% | £45–95 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.0% | £3–12 |
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 | 7.8% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 6.3% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 2.7% | £45–110 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 1.8% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 1.5% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 309 | 97.4% | 14,836 mi |
| 30-60k | 199 | 86.9% | 44,586 mi |
| 60-90k | 68 | 73.5% | 75,215 mi |
| 90-120k | 20 | 75.0% | 102,743 mi |
| 120k+ | 1 | 100.0% | 149,674 mi |
Source: 602 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.
2023 Vivaro MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2023 Vauxhall Vivaro?
90.5% of the 602 2023 Vauxhall Vivaro tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 94.8% for cars first used in 2023. First-attempt pass rate: 89.6%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2023 Vauxhall Vivaro?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (3.65%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps (1.66%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.66%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2023 Vauxhall Vivaro MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 97.4% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2023 Vauxhall Vivaro in this dataset had covered 28,420 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2023 Vauxhall Vivaro?
Diesel: 87.3% pass rate across 403 tests. Electric: 97.0% pass rate across 199 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2023 Vauxhall Vivaro MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 87.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 94.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.