Pass rate
69.5%
Below average — 3.1 pts behind the 72.6% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 2,623 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £36–£101
2003 Volvo S40 MOT pass rate
- 2003
- typical 99,460 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
23.5% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2012 74.4% pass
- Avoid 2003 69.5% pass · this year
Across the 14 years on record, a spread of 4.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 58.9%
- Typical mileage
- 99k mi
The 2003 Volvo S40 MOT pass rate is 69.5% of its MOT tests — 3.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 23.5% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Fewer problems with tyres
Tyres are 10.9% of this car’s recorded faults, against 19.8% nationally — the mirror image of the usual story on a car of this age.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 72.6%; this one manages 69.5% — 3.1 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- 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.
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 S40? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2003 Volvo S40 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.6%, so this figure is 3.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 58.9%. The median 2003 Volvo S40 in this dataset had covered 99,460 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 80% of tests, with a 69.2% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 68.8% of the time, April–September 70.2%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated", noted on 10.33% of tests.
- 2,623 recorded tests behind this page.
- 69.5% overall pass rate, 58.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volvo S40, the average is 72.5% — best year 2012 (74.4%), worst 2003 (69.5%).
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
- 2,623
- Typical mileage (median)
- 99,460 mi
- Make and model
- Volvo S40
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the S40 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 57% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (80% of tests).
Where the Volvo S40 is most common
Across all S40 model years on record (2000–2013): 26,717 Volvo S40 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 69,728 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 907 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) | 907 | 79.9% |
| 2 | Sheffield (S) | 705 | 73.8% |
| 3 | Peterborough (PE) | 599 | 73.6% |
| 4 | Nottingham (NG) | 598 | 71.9% |
| 5 | Leicester (LE) | 524 | 76.5% |
| 6 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 512 | 72.2% |
| 7 | Manchester (M) | 477 | 75.4% |
| 8 | Doncaster (DN) | 473 | 72.5% |
| 9 | Ipswich (IP) | 464 | 69.8% |
| 10 | Liverpool (L) | 456 | 74.4% |
| 11 | Coventry (CV) | 455 | 75.6% |
| 12 | Glasgow (G) | 454 | 70.7% |
| 13 | Northampton (NN) | 390 | 71.3% |
| 14 | Norwich (NR) | 379 | 72.9% |
| 15 | Edinburgh (EH) | 372 | 70.2% |
| 16 | Derby (DE) | 368 | 73.0% |
| 17 | Reading (RG) | 352 | 72.8% |
| 18 | Wrexham (LL) | 341 | 71.7% |
| 19 | Cardiff (CF) | 339 | 68.8% |
| 20 | Swansea (SA) | 330 | 69.8% |
The twenty areas with the most Volvo S40 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 S40
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 455 | 71.2% |
| East of England | 324 | 68.5% |
| North West | 307 | 72.3% |
| Yorkshire | 275 | 68.7% |
| South West | 274 | 63.1% |
| West Midlands | 241 | 70.1% |
| East Midlands | 182 | 70.3% |
| Wales | 174 | 63.2% |
| Scotland | 169 | 64.5% |
| London | 142 | 78.9% |
| North East | 80 | 80.0% |
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 S40
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 S40
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 suspension joints 10.3% 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.
-
Check the lights 9.4% 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 4.3% 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 2003 S40 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £36–£101 — and 33% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £36–£101
- 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
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 33%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 2,623 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 S40, side by side
14 model years on record, from 2000 to 2013. Across them the pass rate runs from 69.5% to 74.4% — a spread of 4.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 72.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2001 71.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2002 70.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2003 69.5%ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2004 70.5% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2005 71.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 73.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 73.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 72.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 72.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 73.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 72.3% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2012 74.4% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 72.8% coil spring fractured or broken
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 Volvo S40 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
- Honda Cr-V 69.5%
- Hyundai Getz 69.5%
- Peugeot 206 69.9%
- Land Rover Freelander 70.0%
- Ford Mondeo 70.0%
- SEAT Ibiza 70.0%
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 Volvo S40 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 8,277 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | 2,005 | 23.50% | 20.89% | +2.61 |
| Suspension | 1,756 | 20.60% | 20.98% | −0.38 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,401 | 16.40% | 12.21% | +4.19 |
| Tyres | 926 | 10.90% | 19.76% | −8.86 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 665 | 7.80% | 5.57% | +2.23 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 404 | 4.70% | 5.52% | −0.82 |
| Steering | 334 | 3.90% | 2.57% | +1.33 |
| Visibility | 311 | 3.70% | 4.97% | −1.27 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 254 | 3.00% | 0.82% | +2.18 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 221 | 2.60% | 1.76% | +0.84 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 10.3% | £18–45 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 9.4% | £5–20 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 8.2% | £80–250 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.6% | £5–25 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.3% | £80–200 |
| Position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.1% | £5–25 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 3.7% | £25–65 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 3.5% | £18–45 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 3.4% | £45–110 |
| Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 3.2% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 20.6% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 13.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 13.8% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 13.2% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 8.7% | £200–700 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 8.1% | £40–150 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 36 | 83.3% | 26,026 mi |
| 30-60k | 325 | 77.2% | 49,019 mi |
| 60-90k | 686 | 72.2% | 76,190 mi |
| 90-120k | 715 | 65.6% | 103,431 mi |
| 120k+ | 857 | 67.0% | 156,089 mi |
Source: 2,623 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 S40 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2003 Volvo S40?
69.5% of the 2,623 2003 Volvo S40 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.6% for cars first used in 2003. First-attempt pass rate: 58.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2003 Volvo S40?
The three most recorded items are ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (10.33%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (9.38%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (8.23%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2003 Volvo S40 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 83.3% of the time, falling to 67.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2003 Volvo S40 in this dataset had covered 99,460 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2003 Volvo S40?
Petrol: 69.2% pass rate across 2,093 tests. Diesel: 70.5% pass rate across 529 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2003 Volvo S40 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 68.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 70.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.