Pass rate
76.4%
Around average — 4.2 pts ahead of the 72.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 2,288 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £23–£67
2004 Volkswagen Touareg MOT pass rate
- 2004
- typical 135,628 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
25.7% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
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
- 71.4%
- Typical mileage
- 136k mi
The 2004 Volkswagen Touareg MOT pass rate is 76.4% of its MOT tests — 4.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 25.7% 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
Fewer problems with tyres
Tyres are 11.2% of this car’s recorded faults, against 19.8% 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 72.2% and this one manages 76.4% — 4.2 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 2004 Volkswagen Touareg compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.2%, so this figure is 4.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 71.4%. The median 2004 Volkswagen Touareg in this dataset had covered 135,628 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 77% of tests, with a 76.7% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 77.5% of the time, April–September 75.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 6.34% of tests.
- 2,288 recorded tests behind this page.
- 76.4% overall pass rate, 71.4% 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
- 2,288
- Typical mileage (median)
- 135,628 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
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Touareg MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 0% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (77% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Touareg
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 477 | 78.0% |
| South West | 315 | 68.3% |
| East of England | 312 | 78.5% |
| West Midlands | 246 | 74.4% |
| North West | 198 | 81.8% |
| Scotland | 172 | 66.9% |
| Yorkshire | 150 | 82.7% |
| East Midlands | 136 | 80.1% |
| Wales | 121 | 74.4% |
| London | 107 | 85.0% |
| North East | 54 | 79.6% |
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 2004 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 2004 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 lights 6.3% 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 coil springs 4.9% 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.
-
Check the suspension joints 4.1% 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.
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 2004 Touareg through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £23–£67 — and 52% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £23–£67
- Cheapest common item: srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 52%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 2,288 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 2004 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 2004 cars with a similar record
- Toyota MR2 76.4%
- BMW 3 Series 76.5%
- Toyota RAV4 76.5%
- Chrysler Crossfire 76.5%
- Toyota Avensis 76.3%
- BMW X3 76.6%
Closest pass rates among 2004 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 2004 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 6,422 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 | 1,679 | 25.70% | 20.98% | +4.72 |
| Brakes | 1,107 | 17.00% | 20.89% | −3.89 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,078 | 16.50% | 12.21% | +4.29 |
| Tyres | 733 | 11.20% | 19.76% | −8.56 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 650 | 10.00% | 5.52% | +4.48 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 277 | 4.20% | 5.57% | −1.37 |
| Visibility | 276 | 4.20% | 4.97% | −0.77 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 227 | 3.50% | 0.82% | +2.68 |
| Non-component advisories | 206 | 3.20% | 4.18% | −0.98 |
| Steering | 189 | 2.90% | 2.57% | +0.33 |
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 | 6.3% | £5–20 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 4.9% | £25–65 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.2% | £5–25 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 4.1% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.7% | £80–200 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 3.3% | £3–12 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.1% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.8% | £30–80 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 2.6% | £80–250 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.4% | £3–12 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 22.4% | £200–700 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 19.3% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 18.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 13.6% | £45–110 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 13.2% | £180–450 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 6.2% | £25–65 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1 | 0.0% | 18,567 mi |
| 30-60k | 40 | 77.5% | 45,522 mi |
| 60-90k | 178 | 80.9% | 78,605 mi |
| 90-120k | 544 | 75.6% | 106,690 mi |
| 120k+ | 1,508 | 76.4% | 157,221 mi |
Source: 2,288 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.
2004 Touareg MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2004 Volkswagen Touareg?
76.4% of the 2,288 2004 Volkswagen Touareg tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.2% for cars first used in 2004. First-attempt pass rate: 71.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2004 Volkswagen Touareg?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (6.34%), coil spring fractured or broken (4.94%), headlamp lens slightly defective (4.15%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2004 Volkswagen Touareg MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 0.0% of the time, falling to 76.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2004 Volkswagen Touareg in this dataset had covered 135,628 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2004 Volkswagen Touareg?
Diesel: 76.7% pass rate across 1,767 tests. Petrol: 75.5% pass rate across 511 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2004 Volkswagen Touareg MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 77.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 75.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.