Pass rate
Above average — 0.1 pts ahead of the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 241 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £39–£91
Pass rate
Above average — 0.1 pts ahead of the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 241 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £39–£91
Most common fault
Tyres
58.9% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
Across the 1 years on record, a spread of 0 points. See every year →
The 2021 Volvo V90 Inscription B4 MOT pass rate is 91.3% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 58.9% of what testers record.
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Volvo V90 Inscription B4 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres make up 58.9% of everything recorded on the 2021 Volvo V90 Inscription B4, against 19.8% nationally — 39.1 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.
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 V90 Inscription B4? Get an email when these numbers change .
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 0.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 90.5%. The median 2021 Volvo V90 Inscription B4 in this dataset had covered 33,454 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Other — 51% of tests, with a 93.5% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 89.6% of the time, April–September 93.4%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Has ply or cords exposed", noted on 4.15% of tests.
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Tyres
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 75% so small gaps stay visible.
Pass rate by fuel type. Other is the most common here (51% of tests).
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 56 | 91.1% |
| East of England | 31 | 83.9% |
| West Midlands | 31 | 87.1% |
| North West | 25 | 96.0% |
| South West | 24 | 95.8% |
| Yorkshire | 20 | 95.0% |
| East Midlands | 17 | 88.2% |
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.
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
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 windscreen 2.9% 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 lights 1.7% of tests
“front fog lamps insecure”
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 wipers and washers 1.7% 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.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £39–£91 — and 25% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 241 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 →
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
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.
Shares of the 146 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 | 86 | 58.90% | 19.76% | +39.14 |
| Brakes | 22 | 15.10% | 20.89% | −5.79 |
| Visibility | 12 | 8.20% | 4.97% | +3.23 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 8 | 5.50% | 12.21% | −6.71 |
| Non-component advisories | 6 | 4.10% | 4.18% | −0.08 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 4 | 2.70% | 0.82% | +1.88 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 3 | 2.10% | 1.76% | +0.34 |
| Road Wheels | 3 | 2.10% | 0.75% | +1.35 |
| Suspension | 2 | 1.40% | 20.98% | −19.58 |
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 4.2% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 3.3% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.9% | £80–200 |
| Front fog lamps insecure Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.7% | £3–15 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.7% | £8–22 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.83% | £18–45 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 0.83% | £3–12 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.41% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords damaged Tyres | Major | 0.41% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too far to the right Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.41% | £30–80 |
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.
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 | 14.5% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 7.9% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.0% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 4.6% | £45–95 |
| Badly distorted Road Wheels | Advisory | 1.2% | £20–55 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 1.2% | £45–95 |
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 98 | 90.8% | 21,350 mi |
| 30-60k | 117 | 93.2% | 41,853 mi |
| 60-90k | 24 | 83.3% | 68,325 mi |
| 90-120k | 2 | 100.0% | 91,759 mi |
Source: 241 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.
91.3% of the 241 2021 Volvo V90 Inscription B4 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 90.5%.
The three most recorded items are has ply or cords exposed (4.15%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (3.32%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.90%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 90.8% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 Volvo V90 Inscription B4 in this dataset had covered 33,454 mi.
Other: 93.5% pass rate across 123 tests. Hybrid: 89.0% pass rate across 118 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 89.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 93.4%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.