Pass rate
Above average — 6.3 pts ahead of the 90.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 232 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £53–£132
Pass rate
Above average — 6.3 pts ahead of the 90.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 232 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £53–£132
Most common fault
Tyres
32.6% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
Across the 3 years on record, a spread of 1.7 points. See every year →
The 2020 Volkswagen Grand California MOT pass rate is 97.0% of its MOT tests — 6.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 32.6% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Volkswagen Grand California does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Visibility accounts for 25.6% of everything recorded on the 2020 Volkswagen Grand California, against 5.0% nationally — 20.6 points above. Tyres are still the single largest share at 32.6%, but at 19.8% nationally that one is ordinary. Wipers, washers and a chip in the driver’s eyeline are the three quickest ways to fail a test that the car otherwise deserves to pass.
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 Volkswagen Grand California? Get an email when these numbers change .
Cars of this age and mileage average 90.7%, so this figure is 6.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 96.9%. The median 2020 Volkswagen Grand California in this dataset had covered 12,872 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 98.5% of the time, April–September 94.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 3.02% 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.
Windscreen
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 88% so small gaps stay visible.
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 41 | 97.6% |
| South East | 38 | 94.7% |
| Scotland | 36 | 97.2% |
| North West | 32 | 100.0% |
| Yorkshire | 23 | 95.7% |
| East of England | 18 | 94.4% |
| East Midlands | 16 | 93.8% |
| West Midlands | 15 | 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.
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 windscreen 3.0% 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 0.9% of tests
“wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively”
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.
Check the lights 0.4% of tests
“headlamp aim too high”
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.
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £53–£132 — and 12% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 232 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 →
3 model years on record, from 2020 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 96.5% to 98.2% — a spread of 1.7 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 2020 motorhomes with at least 150 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. Full rankings: best motorhomes and worst motorhomes for MOT pass rates.
Shares of the 43 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 | 14 | 32.60% | 19.76% | +12.84 |
| Brakes | 12 | 27.90% | 20.89% | +7.01 |
| Visibility | 11 | 25.60% | 4.97% | +20.63 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 3 | 7.00% | 1.76% | +5.24 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 2 | 4.70% | 12.21% | −7.51 |
| Non-component advisories | 1 | 2.30% | 4.18% | −1.88 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.0% | £80–200 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 0.86% | £8–22 |
| Hand lever not releasing correctly Brakes | Minor | 0.43% | £45–110 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.43% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.43% | £30–80 |
| Registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements Identification of the vehicle | Major | 0.43% | £20–80 |
| Reservoirs cap missing Brakes | Major | 0.43% | £45–110 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 0.43% | £60–150 |
| Tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative Tyres | Major | 0.43% | £45–95 |
| Tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative Tyres | Rectified | 0.43% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 3.5% | £45–110 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 1.7% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 1.3% | £45–95 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Advisory | 0.86% | £20–80 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 0.86% | £45–95 |
| Valve stem seriously damaged Tyres | Advisory | 0.86% | £45–95 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 213 | 96.7% | 12,961 mi |
| 30-60k | 19 | 100.0% | 38,092 mi |
Source: 232 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.
97.0% of the 232 2020 Volkswagen Grand California tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 90.7% for cars first used in 2020. First-attempt pass rate: 96.9%.
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (3.02%), wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (0.86%), hand lever not releasing correctly (0.43%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 96.7% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2020 Volkswagen Grand California in this dataset had covered 12,872 mi.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 98.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 94.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.