Pass rate
79.0%
Around average — 6.5 pts ahead of the 72.5% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 1,389 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £26–£77
2006 Volvo S80 MOT pass rate
- 2006
- typical 135,326 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
26.4% 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 →
6.5 pts down across model years — 8.7% in 2002, 2.2% in 2015.
Which year to buy
- Best 2016 90.1% pass
- Avoid 2003 74.6% pass
Across the 17 years on record, a spread of 15.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 74.3%
- Typical mileage
- 135k mi
The 2006 Volvo S80 MOT pass rate is 79.0% of its MOT tests — 6.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.4% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Volvo S80 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.3× the national share
Suspension accounts for 26.4% of everything recorded on the 2006 Volvo S80, against 21.0% nationally — 5.4 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.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 72.5% and this one manages 79.0% — 6.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 57% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
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 S80? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2006 Volvo S80 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.5%, so this figure is 6.5 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 74.3%. The median 2006 Volvo S80 in this dataset had covered 135,326 mi.
77% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 77.3% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 76.9% of the time, April–September 81.5%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 6.98% of tests.
- 1,389 recorded tests behind this page.
- 79.0% overall pass rate, 74.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volvo S80, the average is 80.0% — best year 2016 (90.1%), worst 2003 (74.6%).
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
- 1,389
- Typical mileage (median)
- 135,326 mi
- Make and model
- Volvo S80
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
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 S80 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 69% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (77% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the S80
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 243 | 81.1% |
| North West | 198 | 78.3% |
| East of England | 183 | 80.9% |
| Scotland | 135 | 66.7% |
| East Midlands | 127 | 78.7% |
| Yorkshire | 122 | 82.0% |
| West Midlands | 109 | 81.7% |
| South West | 97 | 79.4% |
| North East | 66 | 84.8% |
| Wales | 63 | 74.6% |
| London | 46 | 82.6% |
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 2006 S80
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 2006 S80
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 7.0% 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 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.
-
Check the suspension joints 2.5% of tests
“track rod end ball joint has excessive play”
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 2006 S80 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £26–£77 — and 57% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £26–£77
- Cheapest common item: washers provides insufficient washer liquid
- £5–£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
- 57%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 1,389 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 S80, side by side
17 model years on record, from 2000 to 2016. Across them the pass rate runs from 74.6% to 90.1% — a spread of 15.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 76.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2001 74.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2002 76.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2003 74.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2004 74.9% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2005 75.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 79.0%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 78.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 80.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 80.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 83.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 83.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2012 81.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2013 82.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2014 85.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2015 85.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2016 90.1% 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 2006 Volvo S80 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 2006 cars with a similar record
Closest pass rates among 2006 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 2006 Volvo S80 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 3,149 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 | 846 | 26.40% | 20.98% | +5.42 |
| Brakes | 495 | 15.40% | 20.89% | −5.49 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 488 | 15.20% | 12.21% | +2.99 |
| Tyres | 460 | 14.30% | 19.76% | −5.46 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 260 | 8.10% | 5.57% | +2.53 |
| Steering | 162 | 5.00% | 2.57% | +2.43 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 127 | 4.00% | 5.52% | −1.52 |
| Visibility | 127 | 4.00% | 4.97% | −0.97 |
| Non-component advisories | 116 | 3.60% | 4.18% | −0.58 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 68 | 2.10% | 1.76% | +0.34 |
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 | 7.0% | £5–20 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.5% | £80–200 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 2.9% | £80–250 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.7% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.5% | £5–25 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 2.5% | £18–45 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 2.2% | £5–25 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 2.2% | £5–15 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.0% | £40–150 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.9% | £18–45 |
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 | 17.4% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 16.0% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 9.2% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.2% | £18–45 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 6.9% | £25–65 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 6.9% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 6 | 100.0% | 26,942 mi |
| 30-60k | 53 | 88.7% | 49,175 mi |
| 60-90k | 146 | 87.7% | 76,726 mi |
| 90-120k | 290 | 79.0% | 106,101 mi |
| 120k+ | 885 | 77.1% | 163,417 mi |
Source: 1,389 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.
2006 S80 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2006 Volvo S80?
79.0% of the 1,389 2006 Volvo S80 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.5% for cars first used in 2006. First-attempt pass rate: 74.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2006 Volvo S80?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (6.98%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (3.46%), joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (2.88%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2006 Volvo S80 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 77.1% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2006 Volvo S80 in this dataset had covered 135,326 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2006 Volvo S80?
Diesel: 77.3% pass rate across 1,068 tests. Petrol: 84.4% pass rate across 321 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2006 Volvo S80 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 76.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 81.5%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.