2005 Volkswagen Sharan MOT pass rate

Pass rate

68.2%

Below average — 4.2 pts behind the 72.4% that cars this age and mileage manage.

Across 2,579 recorded tests.

Typical repair bill £70–£197

Most common fault

Suspension

28.3% of faults · 21.0% nationally

mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.

Part only £35–£75 for Suspension pin or bush excessively worn. What fitting it takes →

11.1 pts down across model years — 13.9% in 2003, 2.8% in 2021.

Every failure, with what it costs →

Which year to buy

  • Best 2019 91.7% pass
  • Avoid 2006 67.0% pass

Across the 23 years on record, a spread of 24.7 points. See every year →

First-attempt pass
58.2%
Typical mileage
139k mi

The 2005 Volkswagen Sharan MOT pass rate is 68.2% of its MOT tests — 4.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 28.3% of what testers record.

MOT PASS RATES

The 2005 Volkswagen Sharan on the real record

68.2% of 2005 Volkswagen Sharan MOTs passed — 2,579 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 Volkswagen Sharan does in your corner of the country.

How one model's pass rate varies by postcode →

Expert verdict

Body & chassis: 2.4× the national share

Body & chassis accounts for 13.1% of everything recorded on the 2005 Volkswagen Sharan, against 5.6% nationally — 7.5 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 28.3%, but at 21.0% nationally that one is ordinary. Look underneath for corrosion near the jacking points and suspension mounts; surface rust is normal, flaking metal is not.

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 Sharan? Get an email when these numbers change .

How does the 2005 Volkswagen Sharan compare?

Cars of this age and mileage average 72.4%, so this figure is 4.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 58.2%. The median 2005 Volkswagen Sharan in this dataset had covered 139,456 mi.

89% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 68.2% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 68.1% of the time, April–September 68.4%.

The single most recorded failure item is "Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated", noted on 10.24% of tests.

  • 2,579 recorded tests behind this page.
  • 68.2% overall pass rate, 58.2% on a first attempt.
  • Across every year of the Volkswagen Sharan, the average is 83.1% — best year 2019 (91.7%), worst 2006 (67.0%).

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
2,579
Typical mileage (median)
139,456 mi
Make and model
Volkswagen Sharan
Updated
2026-11-05

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

Top part to budget for

Body Panel Repair

Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.

Does mileage affect the Sharan MOT pass rate?

0-30k 81.8%
30-60k 76.7%
60-90k 67.8%
90-120k 67.6%
120k+ 67.9%

Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 59% so small gaps stay visible.

Fuel type and reliability

Diesel 68.2%
Petrol 68.9%

Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (89% of tests).

Regional pass rates for the Sharan

Region Tests Pass rate
South East 552 67.4%
West Midlands 334 71.3%
North West 294 69.7%
South West 262 61.5%
East Midlands 241 70.5%
East of England 216 72.2%
Yorkshire 216 69.4%
London 121 77.7%
Wales 119 61.3%
North East 118 69.5%
Scotland 106 55.7%

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 2005 Sharan

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.

Suspension 28.3%
+7.3 pts vs national national 21.0% Price suspension parts
Brakes 20.4%
in line with the national share national 20.9% Price brakes parts
Body & chassis 13.1%
+7.5 pts vs national national 5.6% Find body panels
Lamps & electrics 10.8%
−1.4 pts vs national national 12.2% Order bulbs & wipers
Show the other 6 fault categories
  • Tyres 8.6%
  • Emissions & leaks 4.3%
  • Steering 3.6%
  • Advisories 3.5%
  • Visibility 2.8%
  • Identification 2.4%

Shares are of every item recorded on 2005 Volkswagen Sharan 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 2005 Sharan

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 corrosion 6.4% of tests

    “component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength”

    Look under the sills, around the jacking points and where the suspension mounts meet the body. Flaking, holed or crumbly metal fails; a brown stain on sound metal does not.

  2. Check the suspension joints 6.2% of tests

    “ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated”

    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.

  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 2005 Sharan through its MOT

Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £70–£197 — and 17% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.

Average repair across the 10 common items
£70–£197
Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
£5–£20
Dearest common item: component mounting prescribed areas…
£180–£450
Common items a careful owner can do at home
40%
Repairs that still cost under £30
17%

Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 2,579 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 Sharan, side by side

23 model years on record, from 2000 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 67.0% to 91.7% — a spread of 24.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.

  1. 2000 68.9% windscreen damaged but not…
  2. 2001 69.8% joints constant velocity boot…
  3. 2002 68.7% headlamp lens slightly defective
  4. 2003 67.4% joints constant velocity boot…
  5. 2004 68.0% joints constant velocity boot…
  6. 2005 68.2%
    joints constant velocity boot…
  7. 2006 67.0% joints constant velocity boot…
  8. 2007 67.6% joints constant velocity boot…
  9. 2008 68.4% ball joint dust cover severely…
  10. 2009 69.0% ball joint dust cover severely…
  11. 2010 73.1% pins and bushes pin or bush…
  12. 2011 78.9% pins and bushes pin or bush…
  13. 2012 79.0% pins and bushes pin or bush…
  14. 2013 79.3% pins and bushes pin or bush…
  15. 2014 81.8% pins and bushes pin or bush…
  16. 2015 83.2% pins and bushes pin or bush…
  17. 2016 85.8% pins and bushes pin or bush…
  18. 2017 87.5% pins and bushes pin or bush…
  19. 2018 89.3% pins and bushes pin or bush…
  20. 2019 91.7% windscreen damaged but not…
  21. 2020 88.8% windscreen damaged but not…
  22. 2021 88.8% has a cut in excess of the…
  23. 2022 85.4% tread depth below requirements of…

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 2005 Volkswagen Sharan 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 2005 with another year →

Compare two different cars instead →

Other 2005 cars with a similar record

Closest pass rates among 2005 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 2005 Volkswagen Sharan 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 10,600 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 3,062 28.30% 20.98% +7.32
Brakes 2,213 20.40% 20.89% −0.49
Body, chassis, structure 1,419 13.10% 5.57% +7.53
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 1,169 10.80% 12.21% −1.41
Tyres 928 8.60% 19.76% −11.16
Noise, emissions and leaks 466 4.30% 5.52% −1.22
Steering 392 3.60% 2.57% +1.03
Non-component advisories 382 3.50% 4.18% −0.68
Visibility 304 2.80% 4.97% −2.17
Identification of the vehicle 265 2.40% 1.76% +0.64

The exact failure items, in the tester's words

Share of the 2,579 tests on this vehicle that recorded each item
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost Part
Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure Minor 10.2% £80–250 Body Panel Repair →
Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure Major 7.1% £80–250 Body Panel Repair →
Component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength Suspension Major 6.4% £180–450 Corrosion Welding Repair →
Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension Minor 6.2% £18–45 Ball Joint →
Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Major 5.3% £5–25 Headlight Bulb →
Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility Minor 4.2% £80–200 Windscreen →
Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering Major 4.1% £120–300 Steering Rack →
Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Minor 3.8% £5–20 Number Plate Lamp →
Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension Major 3.8% £40–150 Suspension Component →
Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes Major 3.5% £45–110 Brake Discs and Pads Set →

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
Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes Advisory 26.4% £80–180
Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension Advisory 23.9% £40–150
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres Advisory 19.8% £45–95
Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes Advisory 16.6% £45–110
Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks Advisory 13.6% £200–700
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 11 81.8% 22,162 mi
30-60k 90 76.7% 50,446 mi
60-90k 239 67.8% 76,792 mi
90-120k 540 67.6% 105,254 mi
120k+ 1,678 67.9% 166,859 mi

Source: 2,579 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.

2005 Sharan MOT questions

What is the MOT pass rate for a 2005 Volkswagen Sharan?

68.2% of the 2,579 2005 Volkswagen Sharan tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.4% for cars first used in 2005. First-attempt pass rate: 58.2%.

What are the most common MOT failures on a 2005 Volkswagen Sharan?

The three most recorded items are joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (10.24%), joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (7.13%), component mounting prescribed areas prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (6.44%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.

Does mileage affect the 2005 Volkswagen Sharan MOT pass rate?

Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 81.8% of the time, falling to 67.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2005 Volkswagen Sharan in this dataset had covered 139,456 mi.

Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2005 Volkswagen Sharan?

Diesel: 68.2% pass rate across 2,306 tests. Petrol: 68.9% pass rate across 273 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.

Does the season affect the 2005 Volkswagen Sharan MOT pass rate?

Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 68.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 68.4%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.