2003 Vauxhall Meriva: MOT pass rate and reliability

56.5% of 2003 Vauxhall Merivas pass the MOT first time, measured across 356 DVSA tests on that model year alone. The average one had covered 90,297 miles.

How the 2003 compares

  • Against all Vauxhall Merivas (69.4%, 91,386 tests): -12.9 points
  • Against all 2003 cars (64.7%): -8.2 points
  • National first-time pass rate, all cars and years: 77%

Every Vauxhall Meriva model year

Pass rates fall as cars age, so the only fair comparison for a 2003 car is other cars of the same age. The full run for the Vauxhall Meriva:

Year Pass rate Tests Avg mileage
2003 56.5% 356 90,297
2004 56.8% 1,709 91,089
2005 55.9% 2,360 91,169
2006 55% 3,863 89,898
2007 57.9% 4,640 88,498
2008 57.4% 5,197 87,559
2009 59.4% 5,287 82,424
2010 65% 9,792 85,048
2011 70.5% 14,621 87,036
2012 73.2% 8,902 77,376
2013 72.4% 7,800 68,886
2014 76.8% 7,597 61,229
2015 78% 8,280 56,060
2016 80.1% 6,486 49,315
2017 81.1% 4,469 42,194

What this means if you are buying a 2003 Meriva

The 2003 is a weaker year for this model, passing 12.9 points less often than the Vauxhall Meriva average. Some of that is simply age, so compare it against the 2003 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 23-year-old car fails on

A 2003 car is 23 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 2003 Vauxhall Meriva the average at test was 90,297 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 2017 at 81.1%, and the weakest in our data is 2006 at 55%. That 26.1 point spread across the model's life is why comparing a 2003 car against a newer one tells you very little.

Nearby model years

All Vauxhall Meriva MOT data · Every model