Pass rate
76.5%
Around average — 3.9 pts ahead of the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 639 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £26–£73
2003 Volkswagen Touareg MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 129,932 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
27.6% 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 →
9.8 pts down across model years — 10.8% in 2004, 1.0% in 2020.
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 94.2% pass
- Avoid 2005 75.6% pass
Across the 20 years on record, a spread of 18.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 71.3%
- Typical mileage
- 130k mi
The 2003 Volkswagen Touareg MOT pass rate is 76.5% of its MOT tests — 3.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.6% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Volkswagen Touareg does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.3× the national share
Suspension accounts for 27.6% of everything recorded on the 2003 Volkswagen Touareg, against 21.0% nationally — 6.6 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 72.6% and this one manages 76.5% — 3.9 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 Volkswagen Touareg? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Volkswagen Touareg compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 3.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 71.3%. The median 2003 Volkswagen Touareg in this dataset had covered 129,932 mi.
56% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 75.0% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 78.3% of the time, April–September 74.2%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 5.01% of tests.
- 639 recorded tests behind this page.
- 76.5% overall pass rate, 71.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volkswagen Touareg, the average is 82.3% — best year 2022 (94.2%), worst 2005 (75.6%).
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
- 639
- Typical mileage (median)
- 129,932 mi
- Make and model
- Volkswagen Touareg
- 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 Touareg MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 66% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (56% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Touareg
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 161 | 77.6% |
| South West | 88 | 65.9% |
| London | 64 | 82.8% |
| Yorkshire | 58 | 74.1% |
| North West | 57 | 80.7% |
| West Midlands | 50 | 78.0% |
| East of England | 50 | 76.0% |
| East Midlands | 45 | 77.8% |
| Wales | 32 | 75.0% |
| Scotland | 28 | 78.6% |
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 2003 Touareg
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 2003 Touareg
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 5.0% 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 lights 4.4% of tests
“headlamp lens slightly defective”
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 coil springs 3.3% 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 2003 Touareg through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £26–£73 — and 41% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £26–£73
- Cheapest common item: srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp…
- £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
- 41%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 639 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 Touareg, side by side
20 model years on record, from 2003 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 75.6% to 94.2% — a spread of 18.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2003 76.5%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2004 76.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 75.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 76.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 76.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 76.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 77.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 77.9% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2011 81.1% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2012 83.1% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 83.4% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 84.5% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2015 82.7% rear fog lamp not working
- 2016 83.9% rear fog lamp not working
- 2017 82.8% rear fog lamp not working
- 2018 88.2% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2019 89.0% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2020 92.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2021 92.3% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 94.2% windscreen damaged but not…
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 2003 Volkswagen Touareg 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 2003 cars with a similar record
- MG Tf 76.5%
- Toyota MR2 76.4%
- BMW 3 Series 76.9%
- Land Rover Discovery 76.1%
- Land Rover Range Rover 76.0%
- Toyota RAV4 75.9%
Closest pass rates among 2003 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 2003 Volkswagen Touareg 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 1,659 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 | 469 | 27.60% | 20.98% | +6.62 |
| Brakes | 302 | 17.80% | 20.89% | −3.09 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 257 | 15.10% | 12.21% | +2.89 |
| Tyres | 168 | 9.90% | 19.76% | −9.86 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 109 | 6.40% | 5.52% | +0.88 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 95 | 5.60% | 5.57% | +0.03 |
| Visibility | 93 | 5.50% | 4.97% | +0.53 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 71 | 4.20% | 0.82% | +3.38 |
| Non-component advisories | 54 | 3.20% | 4.18% | −0.98 |
| Steering | 41 | 2.40% | 2.57% | −0.17 |
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 | 5.0% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.4% | £5–25 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 3.3% | £25–65 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.3% | £5–20 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 3.3% | £3–12 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.1% | £40–150 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 2.7% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.7% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.5% | £30–80 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 2.5% | £8–22 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 18.5% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 15.7% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 13.5% | £45–110 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 10.6% | £200–700 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 10.6% | £180–450 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 7.0% | £25–65 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1 | 100.0% | 11,921 mi |
| 30-60k | 15 | 80.0% | 53,279 mi |
| 60-90k | 53 | 77.4% | 80,463 mi |
| 90-120k | 171 | 80.7% | 106,799 mi |
| 120k+ | 388 | 74.7% | 152,854 mi |
Source: 639 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.
2003 Touareg MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Volkswagen Touareg?
76.5% of the 639 2003 Volkswagen Touareg tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 71.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Volkswagen Touareg?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (5.01%), headlamp lens slightly defective (4.38%), coil spring fractured or broken (3.29%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Volkswagen Touareg MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 74.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Volkswagen Touareg in this dataset had covered 129,932 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2003 Volkswagen Touareg?
Petrol: 75.0% pass rate across 360 tests. Diesel: 77.8% pass rate across 270 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2003 Volkswagen Touareg MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 78.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 74.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.