Pass rate
85.0%
Above average — 2.9 pts behind the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 127 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £31–£86
2018 Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle MOT pass rate
- 2018
- People carrier
- typical 58,026 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
27.3% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 85.1% pass
- Avoid 2018 85.0% pass · this year
Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 0.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 82.4%
- Typical mileage
- 58k mi
The 2018 Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle MOT pass rate is 85.0% of its MOT tests — 2.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.3% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.4× the national share
Tyres make up 27.3% of everything recorded on the 2018 Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle, against 19.8% nationally — 7.5 points above. Check all four tyres yourself, including the inner shoulders, and look at the date stamp — a tyre can pass on tread and still be six years old.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 33% 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.
- Based on a small sample. 127 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 Transporter Shuttle? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2018 Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, so this figure is 2.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 82.4%. The median 2018 Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle in this dataset had covered 58,026 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 84.1% of the time, April–September 85.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative", noted on 2.36% of tests.
- 127 recorded tests behind this page.
- 85.0% overall pass rate, 82.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle, the average is 85.1% — best year 2019 (85.1%), worst 2018 (85.0%).
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
- 127
- Typical mileage (median)
- 58,026 mi
- Make and model
- Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Tyres
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Transporter Shuttle MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 63% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Transporter Shuttle
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| East of England | 24 | 87.5% |
| South East | 21 | 71.4% |
| London | 15 | 93.3% |
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 2018 Transporter Shuttle
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 2018 Transporter Shuttle
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 tyre pressures and valves 2.4% of tests
“tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative”
Set the pressures to the figures on the door pillar, not the tyre wall, and check the valves do not hiss. A leaking valve is a two-minute fix that fails a test.
-
Check the coil springs 1.6% 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 lights 1.6% of tests
“malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction”
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 2018 Transporter Shuttle through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £31–£86 — and 33% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £31–£86
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: door condition cannot be opened from inside…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 33%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 127 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 Transporter Shuttle, side by side
2 model years on record, from 2018 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 85.0% to 85.1% — a spread of 0.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2018 85.0%tyre pressure monitoring system…
- 2019 85.1% 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 2018 Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle 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 2018 people carriers with a similar record
- Citroen Spacetourer 85.0%
- Ford Tourneo Custom 85.3%
- Ford Tourneo 84.6%
- Citroen Berlingo Multispace 84.3%
- Peugeot Traveller 84.3%
- Ford Tourneo Connect 86.2%
Closest pass rates among 2018 people carriers with at least 200 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. Full rankings: best people carriers and worst people carriers.
The full DVSA record for the 2018 Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle 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 88 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 24 | 27.30% | 19.76% | +7.54 |
| Brakes | 13 | 14.80% | 20.89% | −6.09 |
| Suspension | 11 | 12.50% | 20.98% | −8.48 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 11 | 12.50% | 12.21% | +0.29 |
| Non-component advisories | 8 | 9.10% | 4.18% | +4.92 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 6 | 6.80% | 5.52% | +1.28 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 6 | 6.80% | 0.82% | +5.98 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 3 | 3.40% | 5.57% | −2.17 |
| Visibility | 3 | 3.40% | 4.97% | −1.57 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 3 | 3.40% | 1.76% | +1.64 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative Tyres | Major | 2.4% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 1.6% | £25–65 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.6% | £3–12 |
| Rear reflectors defective or damaged by up to 50% of the reflecting surface Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.6% | £5–25 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.79% | £18–45 |
| Buckle damaged Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 0.79% | £40–120 |
| Buckle not functioning as intended Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 0.79% | £40–120 |
| Daytime running lamps not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.79% | £3–15 |
| Door condition cannot be opened from inside the vehicle Body, chassis, structure | Major | 0.79% | £80–250 |
| Door condition cannot be opened from outside the vehicle Body, chassis, structure | Major | 0.79% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 7.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 6.3% | £18–45 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 3.9% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 3.1% | £200–700 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 3.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 2.4% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 16 | 81.3% | 22,592 mi |
| 30-60k | 51 | 94.1% | 45,203 mi |
| 60-90k | 26 | 84.6% | 75,761 mi |
| 90-120k | 28 | 71.4% | 104,318 mi |
| 120k+ | 6 | 83.3% | 160,190 mi |
Source: 127 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.
2018 Transporter Shuttle MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle?
85.0% of the 127 2018 Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 82.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle?
The three most recorded items are tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative (2.36%), coil spring fractured or broken (1.57%), malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (1.57%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 81.3% of the time, falling to 83.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle in this dataset had covered 58,026 mi.
Does the season affect the 2018 Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 84.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 85.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.