Pass rate
84.8%
Around average — 3.1 pts behind the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 44,209 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £32–£76
2018 Volvo V40 MOT pass rate
- 2018
- typical 43,255 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
43.6% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
3.4 pts down across model years — 8.0% in 2000, 4.6% in 2019.
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 87.0% pass
- Avoid 2004 67.0% pass
Across the 13 years on record, a spread of 20 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 82.2%
- Typical mileage
- 43k mi
The 2018 Volvo V40 MOT pass rate is 84.8% of its MOT tests — 3.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 43.6% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.2× the national share
Tyres make up 43.6% of everything recorded on the 2018 Volvo V40, against 19.8% nationally — 23.8 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.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 87.9%; this one manages 84.8% — 3.1 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 15% 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 V40? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2018 Volvo V40 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, 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 82.2%. The median 2018 Volvo V40 in this dataset had covered 43,255 mi.
73% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 85.2% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 85.3% of the time, April–September 84.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 5.51% of tests.
- 44,209 recorded tests behind this page.
- 84.8% overall pass rate, 82.2% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volvo V40, the average is 80.5% — best year 2019 (87.0%), worst 2004 (67.0%).
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
- 44,209
- Typical mileage (median)
- 43,255 mi
- Make and model
- Volvo V40
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Coil Spring
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the V40 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 74% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (73% of tests).
Where the Volvo V40 is most common
Across all V40 model years on record (2000–2019): 142,582 Volvo V40 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 352,235 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 3,844 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) | 3,844 | 83.0% |
| 2 | Sheffield (S) | 3,532 | 81.7% |
| 3 | Nottingham (NG) | 3,098 | 79.6% |
| 4 | Peterborough (PE) | 3,096 | 81.2% |
| 5 | Leicester (LE) | 2,709 | 83.3% |
| 6 | Glasgow (G) | 2,653 | 81.8% |
| 7 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 2,576 | 81.8% |
| 8 | Doncaster (DN) | 2,506 | 81.1% |
| 9 | Coventry (CV) | 2,415 | 83.2% |
| 10 | York (YO) | 2,389 | 78.4% |
| 11 | Edinburgh (EH) | 2,179 | 76.9% |
| 12 | Cardiff (CF) | 2,107 | 79.1% |
| 13 | Derby (DE) | 2,106 | 82.3% |
| 14 | Northampton (NN) | 1,999 | 78.7% |
| 15 | Ipswich (IP) | 1,977 | 79.5% |
| 16 | Leeds (LS) | 1,972 | 79.7% |
| 17 | Manchester (M) | 1,948 | 80.8% |
| 18 | Reading (RG) | 1,947 | 81.6% |
| 19 | Norwich (NR) | 1,946 | 78.1% |
| 20 | Chester (CH) | 1,932 | 78.9% |
The twenty areas with the most Volvo V40 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 V40
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 7,654 | 85.9% |
| Scotland | 6,001 | 81.6% |
| Yorkshire | 4,918 | 83.9% |
| North West | 4,515 | 85.3% |
| South West | 4,217 | 84.4% |
| West Midlands | 4,139 | 86.0% |
| East of England | 4,126 | 84.2% |
| East Midlands | 3,111 | 85.9% |
| Wales | 2,187 | 86.9% |
| North East | 1,795 | 84.0% |
| London | 1,542 | 88.8% |
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 2018 V40
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 V40
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 coil springs 5.5% 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 brakes 1.2% of tests
“brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick”
Look through the spokes of each wheel at the pad — less than 3mm of friction material, or a lip on the disc edge, is the usual failure. Check the handbrake holds on a slope with a few clicks, not at the top of its travel.
-
Check the windscreen 1.1% 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 2018 V40 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £32–£76 — and 15% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £32–£76
- Cheapest common item: mirrors slightly damaged
- £3–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 15%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 44,209 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 V40, side by side
13 model years on record, from 2000 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 67.0% to 87.0% — a spread of 20 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 68.3% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2001 70.0% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2002 69.4% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2003 67.3% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2004 67.0% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2012 75.8% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 77.8% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 77.9% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2015 78.8% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2016 81.2% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2017 83.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2018 84.8%coil spring fractured or broken
- 2019 87.0% 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 2018 Volvo V40 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 cars with a similar record
- Renault Kadjar 84.8%
- MG Gs 84.8%
- Vauxhall Crossland 84.7%
- Peugeot 308 84.9%
- Citroen C4 84.6%
- BMW 640 85.0%
Closest pass rates among 2018 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 2018 Volvo V40 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 38,375 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 | 16,830 | 43.60% | 19.76% | +23.84 |
| Brakes | 9,285 | 24.00% | 20.89% | +3.11 |
| Suspension | 4,565 | 11.80% | 20.98% | −9.18 |
| Non-component advisories | 2,207 | 5.70% | 4.18% | +1.52 |
| Visibility | 2,108 | 5.50% | 4.97% | +0.53 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1,124 | 2.90% | 12.21% | −9.31 |
| Road Wheels | 952 | 2.50% | 0.75% | +1.75 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 451 | 1.20% | 5.57% | −4.37 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 427 | 1.10% | 1.76% | −0.66 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 426 | 1.10% | 5.52% | −4.42 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 5.5% | £25–65 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.9% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.2% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.1% | £80–200 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.0% | £8–22 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.90% | £45–95 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 0.75% | £8–22 |
| Mirrors slightly damaged Visibility | Minor | 0.46% | £3–15 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.44% | £45–95 |
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 | 15.0% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 11.1% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 11.0% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 4.1% | £45–110 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 2.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 2.1% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 10,358 | 88.2% | 21,870 mi |
| 30-60k | 23,539 | 84.5% | 43,763 mi |
| 60-90k | 8,389 | 82.0% | 71,321 mi |
| 90-120k | 1,552 | 82.6% | 101,444 mi |
| 120k+ | 348 | 84.5% | 141,606 mi |
Source: 44,209 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 V40 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 Volvo V40?
84.8% of the 44,209 2018 Volvo V40 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 82.2%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 Volvo V40?
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (5.51%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.88%), has ply or cords exposed (1.51%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 Volvo V40 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.2% of the time, falling to 84.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 Volvo V40 in this dataset had covered 43,255 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2018 Volvo V40?
Petrol: 85.2% pass rate across 32,389 tests. Diesel: 83.8% pass rate across 11,820 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2018 Volvo V40 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 85.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 84.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.