Nissan Pulsar MOT pass rates & common failures

Every completed first-attempt MOT on a Nissan Pulsar in Great Britain in 2025 — 20,884 tests. Figures cover every Pulsar first-tested in 2025, all trims grouped. How the Pulsar ages, what it fails on, and what mileage is normal, computed directly from the official DVSA record of every test.

Pass rate 2025
70.7%
1.6 points below the class-4 average (72.3%); unadjusted for age — the age-matched comparison is below
Tests analysed
20,884
first tests, 2025
Arrived with a dangerous fault
8.8%
of Pulsar first tests; national 7.3%
Typical mileage at 10 years
68,750
middle half: 51,250–88,750 miles (2,500-mile-band midpoints)

How many Nissan Pulsar cars are still on the road?

At the end of 2025, DVLA's register held 20,934 Nissan Pulsar cars that were taxed or on SORN: 20,534 taxed and 400 on SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification — kept, but declared off the road by the keeper). The MOT figures above count tests; these count cars, across the whole United Kingdom, cars only. Nissan Pulsar vans, where they exist, are counted by DVLA as goods vehicles and are not in these figures.

Still taxed, end of 2025
20,534
98.1% of the 20,934 Pulsar cars taxed or on SORN; 19 model variants grouped
On SORN, end of 2025
400
declared off the road by their keepers — 1.9% of that total

How the numbers are moving

The number of taxed Pulsar cars peaked at 21,655 at the end of 2019 and has since fallen by 1,121 (5.2%) to 20,534 at the end of 2025. Cars on SORN went from 40 at the end of 2014 to 400 at the end of 2025, up 900.0%. A car leaves the taxed count when it is scrapped, exported or declared off the road; the year-end counts do not say which.

Taxed Pulsar cars, year by year

Cars of this model taxed and on the road at the end of each year, 2014–2025.

05k10k15k20k25k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Taxed Pulsar cars, year 2014: 1kTaxed Pulsar cars, year 2015: 9kTaxed Pulsar cars, year 2016: 16kTaxed Pulsar cars, year 2017: 20kTaxed Pulsar cars, year 2018: 21kTaxed Pulsar cars, year 2019: 22kTaxed Pulsar cars, year 2020: 22kTaxed Pulsar cars, year 2021: 22kTaxed Pulsar cars, year 2022: 21kTaxed Pulsar cars, year 2023: 21kTaxed Pulsar cars, year 2024: 21kTaxed Pulsar cars, year 2025: 21k21k
View this chart as a table
YearTaxed Pulsar cars
20141,449
20159,147
201616,001
201719,978
201821,443
201921,655
202021,536
202121,610
202221,438
202321,170
202420,829
202520,534

Pulsar cars on SORN, year by year

Cars of this model declared off the road at the end of each year, 2014–2025. Its own scale — SORN counts are a fraction of the taxed count.

01002003004002014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Pulsar cars on SORN, year 2014: 40Pulsar cars on SORN, year 2015: 368Pulsar cars on SORN, year 2016: 161Pulsar cars on SORN, year 2017: 151Pulsar cars on SORN, year 2018: 302Pulsar cars on SORN, year 2019: 124Pulsar cars on SORN, year 2020: 149Pulsar cars on SORN, year 2021: 149Pulsar cars on SORN, year 2022: 166Pulsar cars on SORN, year 2023: 222Pulsar cars on SORN, year 2024: 317Pulsar cars on SORN, year 2025: 400400
View this chart as a table
YearPulsar cars on SORN
201440
2015368
2016161
2017151
2018302
2019124
2020149
2021149
2022166
2023222
2024317
2025400

Which model years survive

Taxed Pulsar cars at the end of 2025 by year of manufacture, and each year's share of the 20,534 taxed in all. Every build year holding at least 1% has its own row; the rest share one. A build year's count depends on how many were sold that year as well as how many have lasted.

Year of manufacture Taxed, end of 2025Share of taxed Pulsar cars
20181,9529.5%
20174,03719.7%
20166,03229.4%
20157,23335.2%
20141,2736.2%
All other build years (seven years, each under 1%)70.0%

Population source: Department for Transport / DVLA vehicle licensing statistics, table VEH0124, updated 15 July 2026; counts of the cars on DVLA's register that were taxed or on SORN at the end of each year shown, United Kingdom, cars only, excluding cars recorded with no model name. SortedCars groups DVLA's model name PULSAR under this model. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. SortedCars is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, DVLA or the Department for Transport.

How the Pulsar ages

First-time pass rate by vehicle age, Pulsar vs all cars, 2025.

Nissan PulsarAll cars
50%60%70%80%90%100%3579111315171920Vehicle age (years)Nissan Pulsar, vehicle age 7: 78.9%Nissan Pulsar, vehicle age 8: 76.4%Nissan Pulsar, vehicle age 9: 71.1%Nissan Pulsar, vehicle age 10: 66.3%Nissan Pulsar, vehicle age 11: 62.3%All cars, vehicle age 3: 88.5%All cars, vehicle age 4: 87.2%All cars, vehicle age 5: 86%All cars, vehicle age 6: 83.5%All cars, vehicle age 7: 80.9%All cars, vehicle age 8: 78.2%All cars, vehicle age 9: 74.9%All cars, vehicle age 10: 71.9%All cars, vehicle age 11: 68.6%All cars, vehicle age 12: 65.8%All cars, vehicle age 13: 63.5%All cars, vehicle age 14: 61.2%All cars, vehicle age 15: 59.3%All cars, vehicle age 16: 58.3%All cars, vehicle age 17: 57.2%All cars, vehicle age 18: 57.4%All cars, vehicle age 19: 57%All cars, vehicle age 20: 57.6%Nissan Pulsar 62.3%All cars 57.6%
View this chart as a table
Age (years)Pulsar testsPulsar pass rateAll cars
72,00178.9%80.9%
84,08976.4%78.2%
96,10571.1%74.9%
107,30066.3%71.9%
111,29662.3%68.6%

Better or worse than the average car?

The Pulsar's pass rate minus the all-cars pass rate at each age, in percentage points. Bars above zero: the Pulsar beats the average car of that age. Below zero: it trails.

Pulsar behind
-8-4+0+4+8Age 7: -2.0 points vs the average car7Age 8: -1.8 points vs the average carAge 9: -3.8 points vs the average car9Age 10: -5.6 points vs the average carAge 11: -6.3 points vs the average car11Vehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)Gap (points)
7-2.0
8-1.8
9-3.8
10-5.6
11-6.3

The Pulsar fleet on the road, by age

How many took a first MOT in 2025 at each age — the shape of the Pulsar fleet still in use.

02k4k6k8kAge 7: 2k7Age 8: 4kAge 9: 6k9Age 10: 7kAge 11: 1k11Vehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)First tests
72,001
84,089
96,105
107,300
111,296

What a Pulsar fails on

Where the failure items land when a Pulsar fails or needs a fix at test, 2025. Use it as a pre-purchase checklist: these are the areas to look at first.

Suspension30.8%
Brakes19.9%
Tyres14.0%
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment13.5%
Steering8.8%
Noise, emissions and leaks4.9%
Visibility3.9%
Body, chassis, structure2.1%

Share of all failure items, 2025 — the 8 biggest categories shown (97.9% of the items); smaller categories are not listed.

The advisories to watch

Where testers most often write "keep an eye on this" for a Pulsar, 2025 — the faults in the post.

Brakes: 34.8% of advisories34.8%Tyres: 32.6% of advisories32.6%Suspension: 18.1% of advisories18.1%Non-component advisories: 5.5% of advisoriesNoise, emissions and leaks: 3.4% of advisoriesSteering: 2.2% of advisories
BrakesTyresSuspensionNon-component advisoriesNoise, emissions and leaksSteering
View this chart as a table
CategoryShare of advisories
Brakes34.8%
Tyres32.6%
Suspension18.1%
Non-component advisories5.5%
Noise, emissions and leaks3.4%
Steering2.2%

Petrol, diesel or hybrid Pulsar?

First-time pass rate for the two most-tested Pulsar fuel types, 2025, against the all-cars average. Fleet ages differ by fuel — newer fleets help the electrified bars.

50%60%70%80%90%100%all cars 72.3%Petrol: 74.5% of 14,503 tests74.5%Petrol14,503 testsDiesel: 62.0% of 6,379 tests62.0%Diesel6,379 tests
View this chart as a table
FuelTestsPass rate
Petrol14,50374.5%
Diesel6,37962.0%

What mileage is normal for a Pulsar?

Mileage recorded at test by vehicle age, 2025. The line is the typical (median) Pulsar; the shaded band holds the middle half. A car far outside the band, in either direction, is worth questions the recorded history can answer.

Typical Pulsar (median)
0k25k50k75k100k7911Vehicle age (years)Age 7: typical 43,750 miles (middle half 31,250–58,750)Age 8: typical 51,250 miles (middle half 38,750–68,750)Age 9: typical 61,250 miles (middle half 43,750–81,250)Age 10: typical 68,750 miles (middle half 51,250–88,750)Age 11: typical 76,250 miles (middle half 56,250–96,250)76k mi

Mileage values are midpoints of 2,500-mile bands.

View this chart as a table
Age (years)Lower quarterTypical (median)Upper quarter
731,25043,75058,750
838,75051,25068,750
943,75061,25081,250
1051,25068,75088,750
1156,25076,25096,250

What fails at each age

The Pulsar's failure mix by age band, 2025 — each band's top categories at their true share of that band's failure items; the pale remainder is everything else. How the mix shifts with age is the point of the chart.

SuspensionBrakesTyresLamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentSteeringEverything else
View this chart as a table
Age bandCategoryShare of the band's failure items
6-9 yrsSuspension29.1%
6-9 yrsBrakes23.0%
6-9 yrsTyres17.0%
6-9 yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment9.8%
6-9 yrsSteering8.4%
6-9 yrsEverything else12.7%
10-13 yrsSuspension37.3%
10-13 yrsBrakes20.0%
10-13 yrsTyres12.5%
10-13 yrsSteering10.7%
10-13 yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment9.1%
10-13 yrsEverything else10.4%

More vehicles we've checked

How these figures are computed. Every number on this page is calculated by SortedCars from the DVSA anonymised MOT results dataset (every MOT test in Great Britain — 2025 for single-year figures; trend figures state their span, currently 2023–2025). Where a figure comes from a sample or uses banded values (mileage is banded to 2,500 miles), the page says so beside the figure. Test class 4 only, first tests only — retests are excluded. Class 4 is the car MOT class and also covers car-derived vans, pickups and motorhomes tested to the same standard; where this page says "cars" it means class 4. Pass rate = passes ÷ (passes + failures + pass-after-rectification): a vehicle that failed and was fixed during the visit counts as a fail. Pass rates describe fleets, not individual machines: they reflect how cars were driven, maintained and used as well as how they were built, and beyond recorded mileage none of that is in the data. A well-kept example of a model with a weak average can still pass; a neglected example of a strong one can still fail. No figure is shown for any group with fewer than 500 tests. Alias spellings of a make in the DVSA file are counted under one make name, and all trims and variants of a model are grouped under one model name, using SortedCars' grouping tables. The taxed and SORN counts on this page are the one exception: they are not computed from MOT records but taken from the Department for Transport's vehicle licensing statistics (DfT/DVLA table VEH0124, updated 15 July 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0), which count the cars on DVLA's register that were taxed or on SORN at the end of each year shown, UK-wide, cars only. They describe a model as a whole, grouped under SortedCars' model names, and say nothing about any one car. “Dangerous” is DVSA's statutory defect category (in force since May 2018): a defect posing an immediate risk to road safety — driving the vehicle before repair is an offence. What these figures are for. These statistics are general information about groups of vehicles. They are not advice, a valuation or a recommendation to buy, avoid or price any particular vehicle, and no decision about one car should rest on them alone — check the car itself and its own records. We take care over the calculations, but we cannot guarantee they are complete, current or free of error, and we accept no liability for loss arising from reliance on them. This does not limit any liability that cannot lawfully be limited — see our Terms & Conditions. If you believe any figure on this page is inaccurate, contact us. SortedCars is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the DVSA or DVLA. DVSA publishes the raw test records; the statistics on this page are SortedCars' own calculations from them. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.