Pass rate
93.4%
Above average — 2.2 pts ahead of the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 438 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £39–£94
2021 Volvo S60 R-Design B5 MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 28,957 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
57.9% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 97.0% pass
- Avoid 2021 93.4% pass · this year
Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 3.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 92.9%
- Typical mileage
- 29k mi
The 2021 Volvo S60 R-Design B5 MOT pass rate is 93.4% of its MOT tests — 2.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 57.9% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Volvo S60 R-Design B5 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.9× the national share
Tyres make up 57.9% of everything recorded on the 2021 Volvo S60 R-Design B5, against 19.8% nationally — 38.1 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 32% 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 S60 R-Design B5? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 Volvo S60 R-Design B5 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 2.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 92.9%. The median 2021 Volvo S60 R-Design B5 in this dataset had covered 28,957 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 95.8% of the time, April–September 91.5%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords", noted on 2.74% of tests.
- 438 recorded tests behind this page.
- 93.4% overall pass rate, 92.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volvo S60 R-Design B5, the average is 94.4% — best year 2022 (97.0%), worst 2021 (93.4%).
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
- 438
- Typical mileage (median)
- 28,957 mi
- Make and model
- Volvo S60 R-Design B5
- 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 S60 R-Design B5 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 75% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the S60 R-Design B5
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 72 | 94.4% |
| South East | 70 | 95.7% |
| West Midlands | 61 | 91.8% |
| North West | 50 | 94.0% |
| Yorkshire | 46 | 91.3% |
| East of England | 35 | 94.3% |
| South West | 35 | 85.7% |
| East Midlands | 25 | 100.0% |
| London | 19 | 89.5% |
| North East | 16 | 93.8% |
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 2021 S60 R-Design B5
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 2021 S60 R-Design B5
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 wipers and washers 2.0% of tests
“wipers blade defective”
Run the wipers with the screen wet: they should clear it in one sweep without smearing or juddering. Top the washer bottle up and check both jets hit the screen.
-
Check the windscreen 1.8% 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 shock absorbers 0.9% of tests
“shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak”
Press down hard on each corner of the car and let go. It should settle in one bounce; if it keeps rocking, or you can see oil weeping down a shock absorber, that is the fault a tester will find.
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 2021 S60 R-Design B5 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £39–£94 — and 32% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £39–£94
- Cheapest common item: anti-lock braking system warning lamp…
- £3–£15
- 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
- 32%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 438 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 S60 R-Design B5, side by side
2 model years on record, from 2021 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 93.4% to 97.0% — a spread of 3.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2021 93.4%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 97.0% 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 2021 Volvo S60 R-Design B5 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 2021 cars with a similar record
- Ford Fiesta 93.4%
- Mercedes-Benz Gla 93.4%
- Nissan Micra 93.4%
- SEAT Ateca Xperience 93.4%
- Audi S3 93.4%
- Renault Captur 93.5%
Closest pass rates among 2021 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 2021 Volvo S60 R-Design B5 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 220 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 | 128 | 57.90% | 19.76% | +38.14 |
| Brakes | 25 | 11.30% | 20.89% | −9.59 |
| Visibility | 24 | 10.90% | 4.97% | +5.93 |
| Suspension | 12 | 5.40% | 20.98% | −15.58 |
| Non-component advisories | 12 | 5.40% | 4.18% | +1.22 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 7 | 3.20% | 12.21% | −9.01 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 7 | 3.20% | 1.76% | +1.44 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 2 | 0.90% | 5.57% | −4.67 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 2 | 0.90% | 0.82% | +0.08 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 1 | 0.50% | 5.52% | −5.02 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 2.7% | £45–95 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 2.0% | £8–22 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.8% | £80–200 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.91% | £45–95 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 0.91% | £30–75 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 0.68% | £8–22 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.46% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp cleaning device for LED or HID headlamp inoperative Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.46% | £5–25 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 0.46% | £80–250 |
| Anti-lock braking system warning lamp indicates an ABS fault Brakes | Major | 0.23% | £3–15 |
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 | 9.8% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 5.3% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 4.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 4.3% | £18–45 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 3.6% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 1.8% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 229 | 93.9% | 20,231 mi |
| 30-60k | 183 | 93.4% | 40,649 mi |
| 60-90k | 18 | 83.3% | 72,669 mi |
| 90-120k | 7 | 100.0% | 103,218 mi |
| 120k+ | 1 | 100.0% | 122,070 mi |
Source: 438 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.
2021 S60 R-Design B5 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 Volvo S60 R-Design B5?
93.4% of the 438 2021 Volvo S60 R-Design B5 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 92.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 Volvo S60 R-Design B5?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (2.74%), wipers blade defective (2.05%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.83%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 Volvo S60 R-Design B5 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.9% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 Volvo S60 R-Design B5 in this dataset had covered 28,957 mi.
Does the season affect the 2021 Volvo S60 R-Design B5 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 95.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 91.5%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.