Rover 45 MOT reliability

Rover 45s passed their MOT first time 59% of the time across 1,520 tests in 2025. 1,136 are still licensed in Great Britain.

First-time pass rate

59%

MOTs analysed

1,520

Still licensed (GB)

1,136

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

2004 petrol

286 MOTs

Passed first time 56%. Typical mileage 72,787 (most between 53,969 and 90,566).

2006: 82% → 2007: 80% → 2008: 79% → 2009: 76% → 2010: 73% → 2011: 71% → 2012: 67% → 2013: 61% → 2014: 59% → 2015: 58% → 2016: 58% → 2017: 56% → 2018: 53% → 2019: 54% → 2020: 56% → 2021: 58% → 2022: 55% → 2023: 61% → 2024: 58% → 2025: 56%

Most common failures

Joints: constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (9.4%)
Component mounting prescribed areas: prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (8.7%)
Position lamp: not working (5.9%)
Exhaust system: has a major leak of exhaust gases (5.6%)
Stop lamp: not working (5.2%)

2004 diesel

51 MOTs

These figures come from 51 MOT tests. That's a fairly small number of cars, so they may not be typical of these cars as a whole.

Passed first time 49%. Typical mileage 101,932 (most between 73,282 and 121,172).

2005: 100% → 2006: 79% → 2007: 78% → 2008: 75% → 2009: 72% → 2010: 66% → 2011: 60% → 2012: 58% → 2013: 53% → 2014: 50% → 2015: 51% → 2016: 54% → 2017: 46% → 2018: 48% → 2019: 51% → 2020: 51% → 2021: 56% → 2022: 57% → 2023: 52% → 2024: 52% → 2025: 49%

Most common failures

Joints: constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (11.8%)
Component mounting prescribed areas: prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (7.8%)
Rear fog lamp: not working (5.9%)
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (5.9%)
Exhaust system: has a major leak of exhaust gases (5.9%)

Where 2004 45s fail

Body, structure & corrosion

17.8%

Lights & electrics

14.3%

Suspension & axles

14.0%

Brakes

9.1%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

7.3%

Wheels & tyres

7.0%

Visibility & wipers

7.0%

Seat belts & other equipment

4.5%

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.