Pass rate
71.3%
Below average — 1.8 pts behind the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 12,164 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £33–£99
2008 Volvo C30 MOT pass rate
- 2008
- typical 112,124 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
22.6% 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 →
0.9 pts up across model years — 4.8% in 2007, 5.7% in 2013.
Which year to buy
- Best 2013 77.8% pass
- Avoid 2006 70.9% pass
Across the 8 years on record, a spread of 6.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 61.5%
- Typical mileage
- 112k mi
The 2008 Volvo C30 MOT pass rate is 71.3% of its MOT tests — 1.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 22.6% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Lamps & electrics: 1.5× the national share
Lamps & electrics make up 17.9% of everything recorded on the 2008 Volvo C30, against 12.2% nationally — 5.7 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 22.6%, but at 21.0% nationally that one is ordinary. Walk round the car with the lights on before the test: bulbs, indicators and number-plate lamps are the cheapest failures to prevent and among the most common.
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 Volvo C30? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2008 Volvo C30 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, so this figure is 1.8 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 61.5%. The median 2008 Volvo C30 in this dataset had covered 112,124 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 59% of tests, with a 71.6% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 71.3% of the time, April–September 71.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 15.04% of tests.
- 12,164 recorded tests behind this page.
- 71.3% overall pass rate, 61.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volvo C30, the average is 73.7% — best year 2013 (77.8%), worst 2006 (70.9%).
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
- 12,164
- Typical mileage (median)
- 112,124 mi
- Make and model
- Volvo C30
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
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 C30 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 60% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (59% of tests).
Where the Volvo C30 is most common
Across all C30 model years on record (2006–2013): 34,435 Volvo C30 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 88,272 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 970 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham (B) | 970 | 79.9% |
| 2 | Sheffield (S) | 882 | 77.0% |
| 3 | Nottingham (NG) | 842 | 71.6% |
| 4 | Peterborough (PE) | 727 | 73.6% |
| 5 | Leicester (LE) | 685 | 75.6% |
| 6 | Doncaster (DN) | 584 | 74.7% |
| 7 | Coventry (CV) | 570 | 76.1% |
| 8 | York (YO) | 562 | 71.8% |
| 9 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 562 | 72.4% |
| 10 | Derby (DE) | 550 | 75.3% |
| 11 | Cardiff (CF) | 537 | 71.0% |
| 12 | Norwich (NR) | 525 | 72.3% |
| 13 | Ipswich (IP) | 514 | 75.2% |
| 14 | Manchester (M) | 501 | 76.5% |
| 15 | Swansea (SA) | 500 | 71.9% |
| 16 | Bristol (BS) | 497 | 67.5% |
| 17 | Wrexham (LL) | 490 | 72.4% |
| 18 | Glasgow (G) | 487 | 73.0% |
| 19 | Portsmouth (PO) | 473 | 73.5% |
| 20 | Northampton (NN) | 470 | 74.0% |
The twenty areas with the most Volvo C30 cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
Regional pass rates for the C30
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 1,867 | 73.6% |
| Yorkshire | 1,420 | 69.7% |
| North West | 1,383 | 72.4% |
| East of England | 1,377 | 73.6% |
| South West | 1,369 | 67.9% |
| West Midlands | 1,198 | 73.1% |
| East Midlands | 1,090 | 71.8% |
| Scotland | 1,023 | 67.0% |
| Wales | 731 | 68.3% |
| North East | 452 | 71.7% |
| London | 254 | 77.2% |
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 2008 C30
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 2008 C30
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 15.0% 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 4.7% 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 windscreen 3.5% 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.
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 2008 C30 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £33–£99 — and 49% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £33–£99
- Cheapest common item: registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the…
- £5–£20
- Dearest common item: steering rack gaiter missing or no longer…
- £120–£300
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 49%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 12,164 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 C30, side by side
8 model years on record, from 2006 to 2013. Across them the pass rate runs from 70.9% to 77.8% — a spread of 6.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2006 70.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 71.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 71.3%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 72.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 73.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 74.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 76.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 77.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
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 2008 Volvo C30 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 2008 cars with a similar record
- Ford C-Max 71.3%
- Toyota Aygo 71.4%
- SEAT Altea 71.4%
- Peugeot 107 71.5%
- Skoda Fabia 71.5%
- Suzuki SX4 71.5%
Closest pass rates among 2008 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 2008 Volvo C30 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 31,820 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 | 7,307 | 22.60% | 20.98% | +1.62 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 5,787 | 17.90% | 12.21% | +5.69 |
| Brakes | 5,341 | 16.50% | 20.89% | −4.39 |
| Tyres | 5,075 | 15.70% | 19.76% | −4.06 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 2,730 | 8.40% | 5.57% | +2.83 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2,057 | 6.40% | 5.52% | +0.88 |
| Visibility | 1,268 | 3.90% | 4.97% | −1.07 |
| Steering | 1,025 | 3.20% | 2.57% | +0.63 |
| Non-component advisories | 776 | 2.40% | 4.18% | −1.78 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 454 | 1.40% | 1.76% | −0.36 |
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 | 15.0% | £5–20 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 4.7% | £25–65 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 4.4% | £80–250 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 3.6% | £5–25 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.5% | £80–200 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.9% | £5–20 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.9% | £40–150 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 2.7% | £80–250 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.4% | £18–45 |
| Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 1.9% | £120–300 |
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 | 21.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 11.9% | £45–110 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 11.4% | £40–150 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 8.5% | £25–65 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.5% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 8.4% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 94 | 90.4% | 24,459 mi |
| 30-60k | 803 | 81.6% | 48,738 mi |
| 60-90k | 2,284 | 74.4% | 77,039 mi |
| 90-120k | 4,039 | 70.9% | 105,498 mi |
| 120k+ | 4,940 | 68.2% | 146,380 mi |
Source: 12,164 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.
2008 C30 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2008 Volvo C30?
71.3% of the 12,164 2008 Volvo C30 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 61.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2008 Volvo C30?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (15.04%), coil spring fractured or broken (4.71%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (4.41%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2008 Volvo C30 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 90.4% of the time, falling to 68.2% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2008 Volvo C30 in this dataset had covered 112,124 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2008 Volvo C30?
Petrol: 71.6% pass rate across 7,123 tests. Diesel: 70.9% pass rate across 5,041 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2008 Volvo C30 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 71.3% 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.