Rover 35 MOT reliability

Rover 35s passed their MOT first time 87% of the time across 71 tests in 2025. 631 are still licensed in Great Britain.

These figures come from 71 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

87%

MOTs analysed

71

Still licensed (GB)

631

Body type

Sedan

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

1972 petrol

20 MOTs

Passed first time 90%. Typical mileage 53,853 (most between 44,230 and 73,965).

2005: 92% → 2006: 67% → 2007: 68% → 2008: 73% → 2009: 65% → 2010: 87% → 2011: 81% → 2012: 57% → 2013: 67% → 2014: 69% → 2015: 85% → 2016: 72% → 2017: 64% → 2018: 92% → 2019: 86% → 2020: 100% → 2021: 93% → 2022: 71% → 2023: 87% → 2024: 95% → 2025: 90%

Most common failures

Brake pads: incorrectly mounted (5.0%)
Track rod end: ball joint dust cover excessively damaged or deteriorated so that it no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (5.0%)
Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (5.0%)

Where 1972 35s fail

Brakes

5.0%

Steering

5.0%

Suspension & axles

5.0%

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.