Pass rate
71.9%
Below average — 0.7 pts behind the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 1,045 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £39–£116
2003 Volkswagen Touran MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 154,218 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
31.3% 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 →
13.3 pts down across model years — 15.5% in 2003, 2.2% in 2021.
Which year to buy
- Best 2021 91.4% pass
- Avoid 2006 70.4% pass
Across the 20 years on record, a spread of 21 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 63.0%
- Typical mileage
- 154k mi
The 2003 Volkswagen Touran MOT pass rate is 71.9% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 31.3% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Volkswagen Touran does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.5× the national share
Suspension accounts for 31.3% of everything recorded on the 2003 Volkswagen Touran, against 21.0% nationally — 10.3 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.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 28% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
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 Touran? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Volkswagen Touran compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 0.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 63.0%. The median 2003 Volkswagen Touran in this dataset had covered 154,218 mi.
85% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 72.5% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 72.3% of the time, April–September 71.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated", noted on 9.57% of tests.
- 1,045 recorded tests behind this page.
- 71.9% overall pass rate, 63.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volkswagen Touran, the average is 78.2% — best year 2021 (91.4%), worst 2006 (70.4%).
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
- 1,045
- Typical mileage (median)
- 154,218 mi
- Make and model
- Volkswagen Touran
- 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 Touran MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 58% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (85% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Touran
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 235 | 73.2% |
| South West | 227 | 64.3% |
| West Midlands | 107 | 79.4% |
| North West | 99 | 72.7% |
| Yorkshire | 90 | 81.1% |
| East of England | 76 | 69.7% |
| East Midlands | 65 | 78.5% |
| Wales | 59 | 59.3% |
| Scotland | 34 | 64.7% |
| London | 32 | 78.1% |
| North East | 21 | 81.0% |
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 2003 Touran
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 Touran
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 6.6% 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 windscreen 5.9% 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 suspension joints 5.7% 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 2003 Touran through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £39–£116 — and 28% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £39–£116
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 28%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 1,045 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 Touran, side by side
20 model years on record, from 2003 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 70.4% to 91.4% — a spread of 21 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2003 71.9%joints constant velocity boot…
- 2004 70.6% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2005 70.4% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2006 70.4% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2007 72.7% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2008 72.5% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2009 72.9% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2010 73.3% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2011 77.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 78.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 79.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 81.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 82.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 87.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 87.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 87.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 90.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 91.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 91.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2022 90.2% has a cut in excess of the…
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 Touran 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
- Ford Fusion 71.9%
- Ford Ranger 71.9%
- Honda Accord 72.1%
- Honda Civic 71.7%
- Mitsubishi L200 71.7%
- Toyota Celica 71.7%
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 Touran 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 3,959 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 | 1,274 | 31.30% | 20.98% | +10.32 |
| Brakes | 603 | 14.80% | 20.89% | −6.09 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 526 | 12.90% | 12.21% | +0.69 |
| Tyres | 465 | 11.40% | 19.76% | −8.36 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 308 | 7.60% | 5.52% | +2.08 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 259 | 6.40% | 5.57% | +0.83 |
| Visibility | 164 | 4.00% | 4.97% | −0.97 |
| Steering | 134 | 3.30% | 2.57% | +0.73 |
| Non-component advisories | 133 | 3.30% | 4.18% | −0.88 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 93 | 2.30% | 0.82% | +1.48 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 9.6% | £80–250 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 6.6% | £5–20 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 5.9% | £80–200 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 5.7% | £18–45 |
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 5.0% | £18–45 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 4.5% | £3–12 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 4.4% | £40–150 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 3.7% | £25–65 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.5% | £5–25 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 3.4% | £80–250 |
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 | 26.6% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 24.3% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 17.5% | £200–700 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 16.1% | £180–450 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 12.9% | £45–110 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 12.1% | £30–75 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2 | 100.0% | 13,709 mi |
| 30-60k | 15 | 66.7% | 51,125 mi |
| 60-90k | 80 | 71.3% | 77,302 mi |
| 90-120k | 135 | 71.9% | 106,757 mi |
| 120k+ | 811 | 72.0% | 166,903 mi |
Source: 1,045 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 Touran MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Volkswagen Touran?
71.9% of the 1,045 2003 Volkswagen Touran tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 63.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Volkswagen Touran?
The three most recorded items are joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (9.57%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (6.60%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (5.93%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Volkswagen Touran MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 72.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Volkswagen Touran in this dataset had covered 154,218 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2003 Volkswagen Touran?
Diesel: 72.5% pass rate across 888 tests. Petrol: 68.2% pass rate across 157 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2003 Volkswagen Touran MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 72.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 71.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.