Ford Thunderbird MOT reliability

Ford Thunderbirds passed their MOT first time 85% of the time across 52 tests in 2025. 253 are still licensed in Great Britain.

These figures come from 52 MOT tests. That's a fairly small number of cars, so they may not be typical of these cars as a whole.

First-time pass rate

85%

MOTs analysed

52

Still licensed (GB)

253

Body type

Convertible

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

2005 petrol

8 MOTs

These figures come from only 8 MOT tests. With so few cars, a single pass or fail changes the percentages a lot, so treat them as a rough guide rather than a true average.

Passed first time 88%. Typical mileage 45,571 (most between 26,192 and 91,813).

2008: 100% → 2009: 89% → 2010: 88% → 2011: 100% → 2012: 83% → 2013: 80% → 2014: 100% → 2015: 56% → 2016: 80% → 2017: 75% → 2018: 50% → 2019: 88% → 2020: 50% → 2021: 85% → 2022: 86% → 2023: 88% → 2024: 82% → 2025: 88%

Most common failures

Rear fog lamp: not working (12.5%)
Anti-lock braking system: warning lamp indicates an ABS fault (12.5%)

Where 2005 Thunderbirds fail

Brakes

12.5%

Lights & electrics

12.5%

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.