1997 Porsche Boxster: MOT pass rate and reliability

79.2% of 1997 Porsche Boxsters pass the MOT first time, measured across 385 DVSA tests on that model year alone. The average one had covered 94,221 miles.

How the 1997 compares

  • Against all Porsche Boxsters (84.7%, 32,153 tests): -5.5 points
  • Against all 1997 cars (70.4%): +8.8 points
  • National first-time pass rate, all cars and years: 77%

Every Porsche Boxster model year

Pass rates fall as cars age, so the only fair comparison for a 1997 car is other cars of the same age. The full run for the Porsche Boxster:

Year Pass rate Tests Avg mileage
1997 79.2% 385 94,221
1998 73.2% 739 92,316
1999 76.1% 1,037 93,826
2000 77.8% 1,846 88,101
2001 76.8% 2,060 86,795
2002 77.4% 2,071 84,963
2003 76.8% 2,378 82,142
2004 78.3% 2,041 79,329
2005 82.1% 3,226 77,028
2006 83.5% 1,841 75,633
2007 85.7% 1,589 69,908
2008 87.4% 1,072 64,758
2009 92.1% 826 61,882
2010 90.6% 797 57,113
2011 91.3% 755 51,301
2012 91.5% 1,072 48,618
2013 92.1% 1,279 45,147
2014 93% 1,192 41,916
2015 94.7% 1,073 35,625
2016 93.8% 1,229 32,029
2017 94.3% 991 30,594
2018 94.6% 1,027 25,734
2019 96.1% 889 21,093
2020 96.1% 435 18,173
2021 97.1% 274 12,662

What this means if you are buying a 1997 Boxster

The 1997 is a weaker year for this model, passing 5.5 points less often than the Porsche Boxster average. Some of that is simply age, so compare it against the 1997 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 29-year-old car fails on

A 1997 car is 29 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 above average, the point where suspension bushes, drop links and exhaust corrosion start showing up as advisories before they become failures. On a 1997 Porsche Boxster the average at test was 94,221 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 2021 at 97.1%, and the weakest in our data is 1998 at 73.2%. That 23.9 point spread across the model's life is why comparing a 1997 car against a newer one tells you very little.

Nearby model years

All Porsche Boxster MOT data · Every model