2009 Honda Insight: MOT pass rate and reliability

75.4% of 2009 Honda Insights pass the MOT first time, measured across 2,088 DVSA tests on that model year alone. The average one had covered 114,534 miles.

How the 2009 compares

  • Against all Honda Insights (78.8%, 8,781 tests): -3.4 points
  • Against all 2009 cars (66.1%): +9.3 points
  • National first-time pass rate, all cars and years: 77%

Every Honda Insight model year

Pass rates fall as cars age, so the only fair comparison for a 2009 car is other cars of the same age. The full run for the Honda Insight:

Year Pass rate Tests Avg mileage
2009 75.4% 2,088 114,534
2010 77% 2,790 117,746
2011 82.1% 1,703 128,718
2012 80.3% 1,248 127,208
2013 84% 444 116,000
2014 85.5% 276 107,940

What this means if you are buying a 2009 Insight

The 2009 is a weaker year for this model, passing 3.4 points less often than the Honda Insight average. Some of that is simply age, so compare it against the 2009 figure for all cars above rather than against newer examples. Check the exact car with the free MOT history checker before you buy, and run its VIN and mileage through our free VIN decoder and clocking check.

What a 17-year-old car fails on

A 2009 car is 17 years old now, and age drives the failure mix more than the badge does. Across all cars tested, these are the categories that actually cause failures:

  • Lights and electrical: 10.36% of all cars tested
  • Suspension: 8.65% of all cars tested
  • Tyres: 6.23% of all cars tested
  • Brakes: 6.1% of all cars tested
  • Visibility: wipers, washers, glass: 4.65% of all cars tested
  • Body, chassis and structure: 3.18% of all cars tested

That is high mileage, so timing belts, clutches, suspension bushes and corrosion are the items worth budgeting for rather than the MOT itself. On a 2009 Honda Insight the average at test was 114,534 miles, so treat anything far above that as a car that has worked harder than its peers, and anything far below as one worth checking for the faults that come from standing still.

The strongest year for this model is 2014 at 85.5%, and the weakest in our data is 2009 at 75.4%. That 10.1 point spread across the model's life is why comparing a 2009 car against a newer one tells you very little.

Nearby model years

All Honda Insight MOT data · Every model