Land Rover Range Rover Sport MOT pass rate & common failures

At a glance

Pass rate, adjusted for age and mileage

The Range Rover Sport is 8.8 percentage points above the national pass rate once age and mileage are accounted for, which is well above average. The unadjusted figure is 80.8%; the difference is what the age and mileage of this model’s fleet was hiding.

DVSA recorded wording

Most common failure items

Share of failed Land Rover Range Rover Sport tests in which each item was recorded. One failed test often lists several items, so these do not sum to 100%.

1. 1.A tyre seriously damaged15.3%

   3,075 occurrencesTyre damaged or deteriorated explained

2. 2.A suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn13.8%

   2,777 occurrencesSuspension arm bush worn explained

3. 3.A suspension joint dust cover missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc13.7%

   2,757 occurrencesSuspension joint dust cover missing or split explained

4. 4.A brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm12.3%

   2,479 occurrencesBrake drum or shoe worn or contaminated explained

5. 5.A tyre cords visible or damaged11.5%

   2,311 occurrencesTyre ply or cord exposed, or the casing separating explained

6. 6.Brake pipe damaged or excessively corroded11.4%

   2,286 occurrencesBrake pipe corroded explained

7. 7.Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the windscreen8.9%

   1,797 occurrencesWiper or washer not working properly explained

8. 8.Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements7.9%

   1,584 occurrencesTyre worn close to the legal limit explained

9. 9.An SRS malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) indicates a system malfunction6.9%

   1,396 occurrencesAirbag warning lamp on, or airbag missing explained

10. 10.A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc6.0%

    1,199 occurrencesDriveshaft CV joint gaiter split or missing explained

Warnings without a failure

Most common advisories

Share of all Land Rover Range Rover Sport tests carrying each advisory. The denominator differs from the failure list above because an advisory can be issued on a car that passed.

1. 1.Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements21.1%

   26,393 testsTyre worn close to the legal limit explained

2. 2.A suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn12.1%

   15,132 testsSuspension arm bush worn explained

3. 3.A brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm11.6%

   14,488 testsBrake drum or shoe worn or contaminated explained

4. 4.Brake disc or drum excessively weakened, insecure or fractured10.7%

   13,398 testsBrake disc worn, pitted or scored explained

5. 5.Brake pipe damaged or excessively corroded8.0%

   9,948 testsBrake pipe corroded explained

6. 6.A tyre seriously damaged4.4%

   5,491 testsTyre damaged or deteriorated explained

7. 7.Fluid leaking excessively and likely to harm the environment or to pose a safety risk to other road users3.7%

   4,596 tests

8. 8.A tyre seriously damaged3.6%

   4,464 testsTyre damaged or deteriorated explained

How wear changes the picture

Pass rate by vehicle age

Bands holding too few tests to be meaningful are omitted rather than shown as a rate.

What gets tested

The Range Rover Sport fleet

Average mileage recorded at test

82,055

Across examples of every age, so this is a description of the fleet rather than an annual figure.

Fuel mix of tested cars

Diesel80.3%

Petrol12.3%

Hybrid7.1%

Compare within the range

Other Land Rover models

• Land Rover Range Rover Evoque — 82.3% adjusted
• Land Rover Discovery — 80.1% adjusted
• Land Rover Discovery Sport — 81.9% adjusted
• Land Rover Defender — 74.4% adjusted
• Land Rover Freelander — 72.6% adjusted
• Land Rover Range Rover — 82.4% adjusted
• All Land Rover models →

Similar test volumes

Compare against other makes

• Citroen C4 — 63.8% adjusted, ranked 231
• Peugeot 308 — 67.5% adjusted, ranked 202
• Audi A5 — 79.1% adjusted, ranked 61
• Toyota Corolla — 78.8% adjusted, ranked 64

Common questions

Is the Land Rover Range Rover Sport reliable?

On MOT evidence the Land Rover Range Rover Sport is well above average. It passes 81.1% of tests once age and mileage are accounted for, against a national average of 72.3%, which ranks it 47 of 262 models with enough data for a fair comparison. This measures how often the car meets the MOT standard, not how often it breaks down or what a repair costs.

What is the most common MOT failure on a Land Rover Range Rover Sport?

The item recorded most often is "A tyre seriously damaged", which appears in 15.3% of failed Land Rover Range Rover Sport tests. Because one failed test can list several items, these shares do not add up to 100%.

What do testers most often warn about on a Land Rover Range Rover Sport?

The most common advisory is "Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements", noted on 21.1% of all Land Rover Range Rover Sport tests. An advisory is not a failure: it flags something that will likely need attention before the next test.

What mileage does a Land Rover Range Rover Sport usually have at its MOT?

The average odometer reading recorded at test is 82,055 miles. This is the mileage across all tested examples of every age, not an annual figure, so treat it as a description of the fleet rather than a target for one car.

Does a Land Rover Range Rover Sport get harder to pass as it ages?

Yes. At 3 to 5 years old, 88.7% of Land Rover Range Rover Sport tests pass. By fifteen years or more, that falls to 69.1%. Nearly every model follows this pattern, which is why comparing raw pass rates between models is misleading unless age is accounted for.

Are most Land Rover Range Rover Sport models petrol or diesel?

Of the Land Rover Range Rover Sport cars tested, 80% are diesel, 12% are petrol, 7% are hybrid. Fuel type affects which items tend to fail, particularly emissions and exhaust components.

How this was worked out

Method and limits

Figures come from the DVSA anonymised MOT testing dataset, published under the Open Government Licence. Only class 4 initial tests are counted: retests are excluded so a car appears once, and abandoned tests are excluded entirely. The adjusted rate is directly standardised across twenty-five age and mileage bands and reweighted onto the national distribution, so this model is compared against cars that have lived a similar life rather than against a younger or lighter-used fleet.

An MOT measures whether a car met a legal standard on the day. It is not a breakdown record, a service history or a running-cost estimate, and a pass rate is a property of a fleet rather than a prediction about one car.

Further reading

Make sense of the numbers

• How to judge reliability from evidence rather than reputation
• What counts as high or low mileage for a car’s age
• The most common MOT failures and how to avoid them
• What to check before buying a used Land Rover