MOT pass rate · 2025 data
Volvo 900 Series MOT pass rate
The Volvo 900 Series passed 70.22% of its 2,898 initial MOT tests in 2025 — below the 77.3% average across all cars tested that year. That is 7.1 percentage points worse than average.
How the Volvo 900 Series holds up with age
Every car fails the MOT more often as it gets older. What matters when you are buying is how steeply that happens for this particular model. These are the 2025 pass rates for the Volvo 900 Series grouped by the vehicle's age at the time of the test.
| Age at test | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| 11 years and over | 2,898 | 70.22% |
Why the Volvo 900 Series fails its MOT
Across every Volvo 900 Series that failed its 2025 MOT, the most common area of failure was lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment, accounting for 19.27% of all recorded failure items. These are the areas worth having checked before you buy, and worth budgeting for on an older example.
| Failure area | Share of failure items | Recorded items |
|---|---|---|
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 19.27% | 588 |
| Suspension | 17.33% | 529 |
| Brakes | 17.27% | 527 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 12.35% | 377 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 11.89% | 363 |
| Tyres | 6.75% | 206 |
How the Volvo 900 Series compares
Ranked on pass rate, the Volvo 900 Series sits 515th of 651 models in this data , and 12th of the 17 Volvo models covered . Volvo as a whole averaged 78.37%, so this model runs 8.2 points behind its own brand average.
What this means when buying a used Volvo 900 Series
A pass rate is a population average, not a verdict on the specific car in front of you. The average Volvo 900 Series came to its 2025 test at 156,470 miles and 29.9 years old. Most examples tested were petrol.
The useful check is the individual car's own MOT record: how many times it has failed, what for, and whether advisories keep reappearing. A recurring advisory on corrosion, suspension or brakes tells you far more than a model-wide average, and a mileage that does not move consistently between tests is a warning in itself.
Check a specific Volvo 900 Series
Run the registration through a free MOT history check to see that car's test results, advisories and recorded mileages. For the risks an MOT never covers — outstanding finance, insurance write-off records, stolen markers and ownership history — a full car history check brings them together in one £15 report.
Also useful: mileage check · write-off check · free car check
Other Volvo models
- Volvo XC60 82.51% pass rate · 108,847 tests
- Volvo V40 75.14% pass rate · 97,256 tests
- Volvo XC40 91.46% pass rate · 84,677 tests
- Volvo XC90 79.29% pass rate · 70,524 tests
- Volvo V70 70.32% pass rate · 37,976 tests
- Volvo V60 79.65% pass rate · 35,045 tests
Models with a similar pass rate
- Fiat 500 70.89% pass rate
- MINI Mini 70% pass rate
- Citroen Berlingo 69.15% pass rate
- Vauxhall Zafira 69.21% pass rate
- Peugeot 308 69.7% pass rate
- Land Rover Freelander 70.79% pass rate
Figures aggregated from the DVSA MOT Anonymised data set for 2025, class 4 initial tests only, contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Retests are excluded, so these are first-time pass rates.