Lotus Esprit MOT reliability

Lotus Esprits passed their MOT first time 87% of the time across 734 tests in 2025. 893 are still licensed in Great Britain.

First-time pass rate

87%

MOTs analysed

734

Still licensed (GB)

893

Body type

Coupe

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

2001 petrol

11 MOTs

These figures come from only 11 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 91%. Typical mileage 41,502 (most between 29,225 and 79,303).

2005: 100% → 2006: 80% → 2007: 79% → 2008: 78% → 2009: 84% → 2010: 80% → 2011: 68% → 2012: 70% → 2013: 78% → 2014: 67% → 2015: 65% → 2016: 74% → 2017: 65% → 2018: 65% → 2019: 82% → 2020: 89% → 2021: 90% → 2022: 73% → 2023: 88% → 2024: 71% → 2025: 91%

Most common failures

Condition: has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure (9.1%)

Where 2001 Esprits fail

Wheels & tyres

9.1%

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.