Vauxhall Omega MOT reliability

Vauxhall Omegas passed their MOT first time 71% of the time across 871 tests in 2025. 617 are still licensed in Great Britain.

First-time pass rate

71%

MOTs analysed

871

Still licensed (GB)

617

Body type

Hatchback

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

2002 petrol

186 MOTs

Passed first time 73%. Typical mileage 94,187 (most between 71,356 and 127,907).

2005: 84% → 2006: 79% → 2007: 73% → 2008: 67% → 2009: 63% → 2010: 61% → 2011: 59% → 2012: 61% → 2013: 57% → 2014: 58% → 2015: 61% → 2016: 60% → 2017: 59% → 2018: 61% → 2019: 61% → 2020: 62% → 2021: 65% → 2022: 65% → 2023: 71% → 2024: 63% → 2025: 73%

Most common failures

Component mounting prescribed areas: prescribed area excessively corroded significantly reducing structural strength (7.0%)
Coil spring: fractured or broken (3.2%)
Registration plate lamp(s): inoperative in the case of a single lamp or all lamps (3.2%)
Rigid brake pipes: excessively corroded (2.7%)
Catalyst emissions: Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits (2.7%)

2002 diesel

10 MOTs

These figures come from only 10 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 50%. Typical mileage 143,958 (most between 125,580 and 168,829).

2005: 85% → 2006: 76% → 2007: 70% → 2008: 63% → 2009: 57% → 2010: 57% → 2011: 58% → 2012: 57% → 2013: 56% → 2014: 52% → 2015: 55% → 2016: 51% → 2017: 54% → 2018: 57% → 2019: 56% → 2020: 55% → 2021: 59% → 2022: 70% → 2023: 60% → 2024: 50% → 2025: 50%

Most common failures

Malfunction indicator lamp: inoperative or indicates a malfunction (10.0%)
Stop lamp: not working (10.0%)
Position lamp: not working (10.0%)
Service brake performance: excessively binding (10.0%)
Ball joint excessively worn (10.0%)

Where 2002 Omegas fail

Suspension & axles

16.1%

Brakes

10.8%

Lights & electrics

10.2%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

7.5%

Body, structure & corrosion

3.2%

Seat belts & other equipment

3.2%

Visibility & wipers

3.2%

Wheels & tyres

2.2%

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.