Citroen Xsara MOT reliability

Citroen Xsaras passed their MOT first time 51% of the time across 19,659 tests in 2025. 14,275 are still licensed in Great Britain.

First-time pass rate

51%

MOTs analysed

19,659

Still licensed (GB)

14,275

Body type

–

Pass rate by year of first registration

Older cars fail more often, so compare a car with others of the same age. Years with very few MOTs can show extreme pass rates, even 0% or 100%, so give more weight to years with more tests.

In detail:

First registered

2009 petrol

1,329 MOTs

Passed first time 56%. Typical mileage 87,357 (most between 65,137 and 108,003).

2009: 0% → 2010: 60% → 2011: 82% → 2012: 87% → 2013: 79% → 2014: 73% → 2015: 72% → 2016: 67% → 2017: 65% → 2018: 62% → 2019: 59% → 2020: 59% → 2021: 57% → 2022: 55% → 2023: 56% → 2024: 54% → 2025: 56%

Most common failures

Stop lamp: not working (7.9%)
Position lamp: not working (7.7%)
Joints: constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (6.3%)
Prescribed areas: prescribed area strength or continuity significantly reduced (5.3%)
Headlamp: not working on dipped beam (4.1%)

2009 diesel

588 MOTs

Passed first time 50%. Typical mileage 102,359 (most between 79,703 and 129,768).

2009: 100% → 2010: 100% → 2011: 88% → 2012: 80% → 2013: 72% → 2014: 66% → 2015: 66% → 2016: 65% → 2017: 63% → 2018: 57% → 2019: 53% → 2020: 54% → 2021: 55% → 2022: 55% → 2023: 52% → 2024: 53% → 2025: 50%

Most common failures

Stop lamp: not working (8.2%)
Prescribed areas: prescribed area strength or continuity significantly reduced (7.5%)
Position lamp: not working (6.8%)
Joints: constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (6.5%)
Linkage ball joint dust cover: ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (4.3%)

Where 2009 Xsaras fail

Lights & electrics

26.0%

Suspension & axles

16.8%

Body, structure & corrosion

12.5%

Brakes

6.8%

Seat belts & other equipment

6.5%

Wheels & tyres

6.1%

Steering

5.5%

Visibility & wipers

4.2%

Looking at a particular car?

See its own MOT history, mileage and red flags, compared with these figures. Free.

Based on 2025 initial MOT tests in DVSA's anonymised MOT dataset (cars and light vans). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Model details: Vehicle data by VehiclesDB.