Volvo V90 MOT pass rate & common failures

At a glance

Recorded pass rate

We are not publishing a ranking for the V90. The examples tested do not cover a wide enough spread of ages and mileages to compare it fairly, and an unadjusted pass rate mostly sorts models by how recently they were bought rather than how well they were built. The failure and advisory patterns below come from the same 15,079 tests and are worth reading on their own terms.

DVSA recorded wording

Most common failure items

Share of failed Volvo V90 tests in which each item was recorded. One failed test often lists several items, so these do not sum to 100%.

1. 1.A brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm21.4%

   480 occurrencesBrake drum or shoe worn or contaminated explained

2. 2.A tyre seriously damaged21.0%

   471 occurrencesTyre damaged or deteriorated explained

3. 3.A transmission shaft constant velocity joint boot missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt etc17.2%

   386 occurrencesDriveshaft CV joint gaiter split or missing explained

4. 4.A tyre cords visible or damaged14.2%

   318 occurrencesTyre ply or cord exposed, or the casing separating explained

5. 5.Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements12.6%

   282 occurrencesTyre worn close to the legal limit explained

6. 6.A spring or spring component fractured or seriously weakened9.8%

   219 occurrencesRoad spring broken or fractured explained

7. 7.Wiper blade missing or obviously not clearing the windscreen4.4%

   98 occurrencesWiper or washer not working properly explained

8. 8.A tyre seriously damaged3.7%

   82 occurrencesTyre damaged or deteriorated explained

9. 9.A steering ball joint with excessive wear or free play3.3%

   75 occurrencesBall joint worn explained

10. 10.A suspension pin, bush or joint excessively worn3.3%

    75 occurrencesSuspension arm bush worn explained

Warnings without a failure

Most common advisories

Share of all Volvo V90 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 requirements25.0%

   3,773 testsTyre worn close to the legal limit explained

2. 2.A brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm16.7%

   2,512 testsBrake drum or shoe worn or contaminated explained

3. 3.A tyre seriously damaged7.7%

   1,155 testsTyre damaged or deteriorated explained

4. 4.Brake disc or drum excessively weakened, insecure or fractured5.5%

   828 testsBrake disc worn, pitted or scored explained

5. 5.Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements3.7%

   554 testsTyre worn close to the legal limit explained

6. 6.Brake disc or drum significantly and obviously worn3.6%

   542 testsBrake disc worn, pitted or scored explained

7. 7.A tyre seriously damaged3.1%

   465 testsTyre damaged or deteriorated explained

8. 8.Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt3.1%

   460 tests

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 V90 fleet

Average mileage recorded at test

68,313

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

Fuel mix of tested cars

Diesel63.1%

Petrol21.3%

Hybrid12.6%

Diesel hybrid2.9%

Compare within the range

Other Volvo models

• Volvo XC60 — 79.1% adjusted
• Volvo V40 — 67.4% adjusted
• Volvo XC40 — 90.0% unadjusted
• Volvo XC90 — 77.6% adjusted
• Volvo V60 — 78.3% adjusted
• Volvo V70 — 63.8% unadjusted
• All Volvo models →

Common questions

How reliable is the Volvo V90 compared with other cars?

We do not publish a comparison for the Volvo V90, because the cars of this model that have been tested do not cover a wide enough range of ages and mileages. Its raw pass rate is 83.7% across 15,079 tests, but comparing a raw rate between models mostly ranks them by how new they are rather than how good they are. The failure and advisory patterns further down the page are still drawn from real tests and are worth reading.

What is the most common MOT failure on a Volvo V90?

The item recorded most often is "a brake lining or pad worn below 1.5mm", which appears in 21.4% of failed Volvo V90 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 Volvo V90?

The most common advisory is "Tyre tread depth not in accordance with the requirements", noted on 25.0% of all Volvo V90 tests. An advisory is not a failure: it flags something that will likely need attention before the next test.

What mileage does a Volvo V90 usually have at its MOT?

The average odometer reading recorded at test is 68,313 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 Volvo V90 get harder to pass as it ages?

Yes. At 3 to 5 years old, 87.2% of Volvo V90 tests pass. By fifteen years or more, that falls to 63.8%. Nearly every model follows this pattern, which is why comparing raw pass rates between models is misleading unless age is accounted for.

Are most Volvo V90 models petrol or diesel?

Of the Volvo V90 cars tested, 63% are diesel, 21% are petrol, 13% 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. No adjusted rate is shown because this model's tested examples do not cover enough of the national age and mileage range for standardisation to mean anything.

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 Volvo