Pass rate
88.5%
Above average — 14.5 pts ahead of the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 611 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £23–£68
2009 Vauxhall VXR8 MOT pass rate
- 2009
- typical 63,971 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
27.4% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2008 88.6% pass
- Avoid 2007 87.8% pass
Across the 3 years on record, a spread of 0.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 87.8%
- Typical mileage
- 64k mi
The 2009 Vauxhall VXR8 MOT pass rate is 88.5% of its MOT tests — 14.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.4% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Vauxhall VXR8 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.3× the national share
Suspension accounts for 27.4% of everything recorded on the 2009 Vauxhall Vxr8, against 21.0% nationally — 6.4 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 74.0% and this one manages 88.5% — 14.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
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 VXR8? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2009 Vauxhall VXR8 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 74.0%, so this figure is 14.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 87.8%. The median 2009 Vauxhall VXR8 in this dataset had covered 63,971 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 88.9% of the time, April–September 88.2%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 2.13% of tests.
- 611 recorded tests behind this page.
- 88.5% overall pass rate, 87.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Vauxhall VXR8, the average is 88.3% — best year 2008 (88.6%), worst 2007 (87.8%).
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
- 611
- Typical mileage (median)
- 63,971 mi
- Make and model
- Vauxhall VXR8
- 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 VXR8 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 77% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the VXR8
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 188 | 91.0% |
| North West | 78 | 94.9% |
| South West | 73 | 80.8% |
| West Midlands | 64 | 89.1% |
| East of England | 58 | 91.4% |
| Scotland | 44 | 86.4% |
| Wales | 28 | 82.1% |
| Yorkshire | 25 | 96.0% |
| East Midlands | 24 | 83.3% |
| North East | 19 | 73.7% |
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 2009 VXR8
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 2009 VXR8
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 2.1% 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 1.8% 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 coil springs 1.6% 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.
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 2009 VXR8 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £23–£68 — and 43% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £23–£68
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 43%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 611 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 VXR8, side by side
3 model years on record, from 2007 to 2009. Across them the pass rate runs from 87.8% to 88.6% — a spread of 0.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2007 87.8% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2008 88.6% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2009 88.5%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 2009 Vauxhall VXR8 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 2009 cars with a similar record
- Toyota Estima 86.7%
- BMW M3 90.3%
- Porsche Cayman 90.3%
- Porsche 911 91.3%
- Porsche Boxster 91.4%
- BMW Z4 85.3%
Closest pass rates among 2009 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 2009 Vauxhall VXR8 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 554 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 | 153 | 27.40% | 20.98% | +6.42 |
| Brakes | 112 | 20.10% | 20.89% | −0.79 |
| Tyres | 100 | 17.90% | 19.76% | −1.86 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 66 | 11.80% | 12.21% | −0.41 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 40 | 7.20% | 5.52% | +1.68 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 23 | 4.10% | 5.57% | −1.47 |
| Visibility | 21 | 3.80% | 4.97% | −1.17 |
| Steering | 19 | 3.40% | 2.57% | +0.83 |
| Non-component advisories | 16 | 2.90% | 4.18% | −1.28 |
| Road Wheels | 4 | 0.70% | 0.75% | −0.05 |
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 | 2.1% | £5–20 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.8% | £80–200 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 1.6% | £25–65 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.6% | £18–45 |
| Anti-lock braking system warning lamp indicates an ABS fault Brakes | Major | 1.5% | £3–15 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £18–45 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.3% | £5–25 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.1% | £3–12 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 0.82% | £18–45 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.82% | £60–250 |
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 | 7.7% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 6.2% | £45–110 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 5.1% | £180–450 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 4.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 2.8% | £18–45 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 2.8% | £200–700 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 47 | 89.4% | 21,196 mi |
| 30-60k | 209 | 88.5% | 48,021 mi |
| 60-90k | 224 | 89.3% | 72,680 mi |
| 90-120k | 81 | 85.2% | 103,203 mi |
| 120k+ | 49 | 91.8% | 137,822 mi |
Source: 611 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.
2009 VXR8 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2009 Vauxhall VXR8?
88.5% of the 611 2009 Vauxhall VXR8 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.0% for cars first used in 2009. First-attempt pass rate: 87.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2009 Vauxhall VXR8?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (2.13%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.80%), coil spring fractured or broken (1.64%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2009 Vauxhall VXR8 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 89.4% of the time, falling to 91.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2009 Vauxhall VXR8 in this dataset had covered 63,971 mi.
Does the season affect the 2009 Vauxhall VXR8 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 88.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 88.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.