Pass rate
93.0%
Above average — 2.3 pts ahead of the 90.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 1,362 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £50–£121
2020 Volvo XC40 Inscription T5 MOT pass rate
- 2020
- 2 trims combined
- typical 34,415 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
56.6% 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 →
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 95.3% pass
- Avoid 2020 93.0% pass · this year
Across the 3 years on record, a spread of 2.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 92.5%
- Typical mileage
- 34k mi
The 2020 Volvo XC40 Inscription T5 MOT pass rate is 93.0% of its MOT tests — 2.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 56.6% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how Volvo XC40 Inscription T5 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.9× the national share
Tyres make up 56.6% of everything recorded on the 2020 Volvo Xc40 Inscription T5, against 19.8% nationally — 36.8 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.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 13% 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 XC40 Inscription T5? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every Volvo XC40 Inscription T5 first registered in 2020 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2020 Volvo XC40 Inscription T5 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 90.7%, so this figure is 2.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 92.5%. The median 2020 Volvo XC40 Inscription T5 in this dataset had covered 34,415 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 94.2% of the time, April–September 92.1%.
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 1.98% of tests.
- 1,362 recorded tests behind this page.
- 93.0% overall pass rate, 92.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volvo XC40 Inscription T5, the average is 93.7% — best year 2022 (95.3%), worst 2020 (93.0%).
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
- 1,362
- Typical mileage (median)
- 34,415 mi
- Make and model
- Volvo XC40 Inscription T5
- 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 XC40 Inscription T5 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 75% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the XC40 Inscription T5
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 334 | 92.5% |
| London | 146 | 91.1% |
| East of England | 145 | 91.7% |
| South West | 138 | 94.2% |
| East Midlands | 126 | 95.2% |
| Yorkshire | 115 | 94.8% |
| North West | 109 | 97.2% |
| West Midlands | 97 | 91.8% |
| Scotland | 84 | 88.1% |
| Wales | 35 | 97.1% |
| North East | 33 | 90.9% |
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 2020 XC40 Inscription T5
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 2020 XC40 Inscription T5
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 1.9% 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 tyre tread 1.0% of tests
“tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm”
Check all four tyres cold, including the inner shoulder where wear hides — 1.6mm across the central three-quarters is the legal limit, and most testers fail at 1.6mm without argument.
-
Check the wipers and washers 0.7% 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.
What it costs to get a 2020 XC40 Inscription T5 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £50–£121 — and 13% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £50–£121
- Cheapest common item: wipers blade defective
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot split or…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 13%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 1,362 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 XC40 Inscription T5, side by side
3 model years on record, from 2020 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 93.0% to 95.3% — a spread of 2.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2020 93.0%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 94.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2022 95.3% windscreen damaged but not…
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 2020 Volvo XC40 Inscription T5 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 2020 cars with a similar record
- Volkswagen Golf 93.0%
- Honda Civic 93.0%
- Audi Tt 93.0%
- Mercedes-Benz Gla 93.1%
- BMW 2 Series 92.9%
- Toyota C-Hr Orange 92.9%
Closest pass rates among 2020 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 2020 Volvo XC40 Inscription T5 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 676 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 | 384 | 56.60% | 19.76% | +36.84 |
| Brakes | 102 | 15.00% | 20.89% | −5.89 |
| Non-component advisories | 87 | 12.80% | 4.18% | +8.62 |
| Visibility | 50 | 7.40% | 4.97% | +2.43 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 13 | 1.90% | 5.57% | −3.67 |
| Suspension | 11 | 1.60% | 20.98% | −19.38 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 11 | 1.60% | 12.21% | −10.61 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 10 | 1.50% | 1.76% | −0.26 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 5 | 0.70% | 0.82% | −0.12 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 3 | 0.40% | 5.52% | −5.12 |
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 | 2.0% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.9% | £80–200 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.0% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.81% | £45–95 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 0.66% | £80–250 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.66% | £8–22 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 0.44% | £8–22 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.22% | £18–45 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.22% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.22% | £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.
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 | 15.6% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 3.7% | £20–80 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 3.3% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.9% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 2.5% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.2% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 560 | 92.5% | 20,573 mi |
| 30-60k | 607 | 93.6% | 42,540 mi |
| 60-90k | 157 | 94.3% | 71,024 mi |
| 90-120k | 30 | 83.3% | 99,796 mi |
| 120k+ | 8 | 100.0% | 140,443 mi |
Source: 1,362 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.
2020 XC40 Inscription T5 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2020 Volvo XC40 Inscription T5?
93.0% of the 1,362 2020 Volvo XC40 Inscription T5 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 90.7% for cars first used in 2020. First-attempt pass rate: 92.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2020 Volvo XC40 Inscription T5?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.98%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.91%), tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (1.03%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2020 Volvo XC40 Inscription T5 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 92.5% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2020 Volvo XC40 Inscription T5 in this dataset had covered 34,415 mi.
Does the season affect the 2020 Volvo XC40 Inscription T5 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 94.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 92.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.