Pass rate
81.6%
Around average — 7.6 pts ahead of the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 369 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £30–£80
2009 Volkswagen Phaeton MOT pass rate
- 2009
- typical 116,460 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
23.6% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2014 87.1% pass
- Avoid 2004 73.0% pass
Across the 12 years on record, a spread of 14.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 78.1%
- Typical mileage
- 116k mi
The 2009 Volkswagen Phaeton MOT pass rate is 81.6% of its MOT tests — 7.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 23.6% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Volkswagen Phaeton does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Fewer problems with suspension
Suspension is 15.1% of this car’s recorded faults, against 21.0% nationally — the mirror image of the usual story on a car of this age.
- 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 81.6% — 7.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 58% 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 Volkswagen Phaeton? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2009 Volkswagen Phaeton compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 74.0%, so this figure is 7.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 78.1%. The median 2009 Volkswagen Phaeton in this dataset had covered 116,460 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 80.8% of the time, April–September 83.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 5.42% of tests.
- 369 recorded tests behind this page.
- 81.6% overall pass rate, 78.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volkswagen Phaeton, the average is 82.0% — best year 2014 (87.1%), worst 2004 (73.0%).
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
- 369
- Typical mileage (median)
- 116,460 mi
- Make and model
- Volkswagen Phaeton
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Windscreen
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the Phaeton MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 70% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Phaeton
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 73 | 76.7% |
| North West | 64 | 82.8% |
| East of England | 62 | 80.6% |
| West Midlands | 31 | 93.5% |
| Yorkshire | 29 | 89.7% |
| South West | 28 | 82.1% |
| Scotland | 26 | 76.9% |
| East Midlands | 20 | 80.0% |
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 2009 Phaeton
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 Phaeton
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 5.4% 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 lights 4.6% 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 suspension joints 1.6% of tests
“pins and bushes pin or bush 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.
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 Phaeton through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £30–£80 — and 58% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £30–£80
- Cheapest common item: individual direction indicators with a…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 58%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 369 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 Phaeton, side by side
12 model years on record, from 2003 to 2014. Across them the pass rate runs from 73.0% to 87.1% — a spread of 14.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2003 77.4% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2004 73.0% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2005 79.2% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2006 81.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2007 82.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2008 82.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2009 81.6%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2010 81.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 83.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 84.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 82.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2014 87.1% headlamp not working on dipped…
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 Volkswagen Phaeton 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
- BMW X6 81.8%
- Toyota Hi-Ace 81.3%
- Nissan Elgrand 81.3%
- Porsche Cayenne 82.0%
- BMW 525 80.9%
- Mercedes-Benz S-Class 80.9%
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 Volkswagen Phaeton 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 570 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 | 137 | 23.60% | 20.89% | +2.71 |
| Tyres | 117 | 20.10% | 19.76% | +0.34 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 93 | 16.00% | 12.21% | +3.79 |
| Suspension | 88 | 15.10% | 20.98% | −5.88 |
| Visibility | 47 | 8.10% | 4.97% | +3.13 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 33 | 5.70% | 5.52% | +0.18 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 19 | 3.30% | 1.76% | +1.54 |
| Steering | 15 | 2.60% | 2.57% | +0.03 |
| Non-component advisories | 11 | 1.90% | 4.18% | −2.28 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 10 | 1.70% | 5.57% | −3.87 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 5.4% | £80–200 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.6% | £5–20 |
| Mirrors slightly damaged Visibility | Minor | 3.3% | £3–15 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 2.7% | £60–150 |
| Individual direction indicators with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.4% | £3–12 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.6% | £3–12 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.6% | £40–150 |
| Position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.6% | £5–25 |
| Stop lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.6% | £3–12 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.4% | £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.
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 | 16.5% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 14.1% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 9.8% | £45–110 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 5.7% | £200–700 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 5.4% | £18–45 |
| Registration plates inscription illegible Identification of the vehicle | Advisory | 5.2% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1 | 100.0% | 27,013 mi |
| 30-60k | 35 | 85.7% | 51,000 mi |
| 60-90k | 51 | 86.3% | 74,460 mi |
| 90-120k | 119 | 78.2% | 107,614 mi |
| 120k+ | 163 | 81.6% | 156,047 mi |
Source: 369 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 Phaeton MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2009 Volkswagen Phaeton?
81.6% of the 369 2009 Volkswagen Phaeton tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.0% for cars first used in 2009. First-attempt pass rate: 78.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2009 Volkswagen Phaeton?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (5.42%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (4.61%), mirrors slightly damaged (3.25%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2009 Volkswagen Phaeton MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 81.6% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2009 Volkswagen Phaeton in this dataset had covered 116,460 mi.
Does the season affect the 2009 Volkswagen Phaeton MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 80.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 83.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.