Volvo C70 MOT pass rates & common failures

Every completed first-attempt MOT on a Volvo C70 in Great Britain in 2025 — 6,849 tests. Figures cover every C70 first-tested in 2025, all trims grouped. How the C70 ages, what it fails on, and what mileage is normal, computed directly from the official DVSA record of every test.

Pass rate 2025
60.0%
12.3 points below the class-4 average (72.3%); unadjusted for age — the age-matched comparison is below
Tests analysed
6,849
first tests, 2025
Arrived with a dangerous fault
10.7%
of C70 first tests; national 7.3%

How many Volvo C70 cars are still on the road?

At the end of 2025, DVLA's register held 8,828 Volvo C70 cars that were taxed or on SORN: 5,737 taxed and 3,091 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. Volvo C70 vans, where they exist, are counted by DVLA as goods vehicles and are not in these figures.

Still taxed, end of 2025
5,737
65.0% of the 8,828 C70 cars taxed or on SORN; 112 model variants grouped
On SORN, end of 2025
3,091
declared off the road by their keepers — 35.0% of that total

How the numbers are moving

The number of taxed C70 cars peaked at 15,689 at the end of 2014 and has since fallen by 9,952 (63.4%) to 5,737 at the end of 2025. Cars on SORN went from 1,298 at the end of 2014 to 3,091 at the end of 2025, up 138.1%. 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 C70 cars, year by year

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

05k10k15k20k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Taxed C70 cars, year 2014: 16kTaxed C70 cars, year 2015: 15kTaxed C70 cars, year 2016: 14kTaxed C70 cars, year 2017: 13kTaxed C70 cars, year 2018: 12kTaxed C70 cars, year 2019: 11kTaxed C70 cars, year 2020: 10kTaxed C70 cars, year 2021: 9kTaxed C70 cars, year 2022: 8kTaxed C70 cars, year 2023: 8kTaxed C70 cars, year 2024: 6kTaxed C70 cars, year 2025: 6k6k
View this chart as a table
YearTaxed C70 cars
201415,689
201514,828
201613,851
201712,742
201811,677
201910,679
20209,800
20219,108
20228,376
20237,530
20246,485
20255,737

C70 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.

01k2k3k4k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)C70 cars on SORN, year 2014: 1kC70 cars on SORN, year 2015: 2kC70 cars on SORN, year 2016: 2kC70 cars on SORN, year 2017: 2kC70 cars on SORN, year 2018: 2kC70 cars on SORN, year 2019: 3kC70 cars on SORN, year 2020: 3kC70 cars on SORN, year 2021: 3kC70 cars on SORN, year 2022: 3kC70 cars on SORN, year 2023: 3kC70 cars on SORN, year 2024: 3kC70 cars on SORN, year 2025: 3k3k
View this chart as a table
YearC70 cars on SORN
20141,298
20151,572
20161,843
20172,117
20182,377
20192,580
20202,871
20212,801
20222,859
20232,933
20243,037
20253,091

Which model years survive

Taxed C70 cars at the end of 2025 by year of manufacture, and each year's share of the 5,737 taxed in all. Every build year holding at least 1% has its own row; the rest share one. 2 taxed C70 cars have no recorded year of manufacture and are not in the table, so the rows add up to 5,735. 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 C70 cars
20132163.8%
20122604.5%
20114257.4%
201060310.5%
200963711.1%
200876513.3%
200782514.4%
200668311.9%
20052694.7%
20043245.6%
20032494.3%
20021552.7%
20011262.2%
2000911.6%
1999661.2%
All other build years (three years, each under 1%)410.7%

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 C70 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 C70 ages

First-time pass rate by vehicle age, C70 vs all cars, 2025.

Volvo C70All cars
50%60%70%80%90%100%3579111315171920Vehicle age (years)Volvo C70, vehicle age 15: 58.7%Volvo C70, vehicle age 16: 55.9%Volvo C70, vehicle age 17: 57%Volvo C70, vehicle age 18: 56.3%Volvo C70, vehicle age 19: 57.2%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%All cars 57.6%Volvo C70 57.2%
View this chart as a table
Age (years)C70 testsC70 pass rateAll cars
1566358.7%59.3%
1673355.9%58.3%
1788657.0%57.2%
181,01756.3%57.4%
1986357.2%57.0%

Better or worse than the average car?

The C70's pass rate minus the all-cars pass rate at each age, in percentage points. Bars above zero: the C70 beats the average car of that age. Below zero: it trails.

C70 aheadC70 behind
-4-2+0+2+4Age 15: -0.6 points vs the average car15Age 16: -2.4 points vs the average carAge 17: -0.2 points vs the average car17Age 18: -1.1 points vs the average carAge 19: +0.2 points vs the average car19Vehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)Gap (points)
15-0.6
16-2.4
17-0.2
18-1.1
19+0.2

The C70 fleet on the road, by age

How many took a first MOT in 2025 at each age — the shape of the C70 fleet still in use.

05001k1k2kAge 15: 66315Age 16: 733Age 17: 88617Age 18: 1kAge 19: 86319Vehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)First tests
15663
16733
17886
181,017
19863

What a C70 fails on

Where the failure items land when a C70 fails or needs a fix at test, 2025. Use it as a pre-purchase checklist: these are the areas to look at first.

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment22.2%
Suspension21.1%
Brakes16.7%
Tyres13.0%
Body, chassis, structure9.9%
Visibility5.3%
Noise, emissions and leaks4.5%
Steering4.1%

Share of all failure items, 2025 — the 8 biggest categories shown (96.9% of the items); smaller categories are not listed.

The advisories to watch

Where testers most often write "keep an eye on this" for a C70, 2025 — the faults in the post.

Suspension: 30.2% of advisories30.2%Tyres: 26.7% of advisories26.7%Brakes: 22.1% of advisories22.1%Non-component advisories: 5.1% of advisoriesNoise, emissions and leaks: 3.2% of advisoriesBody, chassis, structure: 3.2% of advisories
SuspensionTyresBrakesNon-component advisoriesNoise, emissions and leaksBody, chassis, structure
View this chart as a table
CategoryShare of advisories
Suspension30.2%
Tyres26.7%
Brakes22.1%
Non-component advisories5.1%
Noise, emissions and leaks3.2%
Body, chassis, structure3.2%

Petrol, diesel or hybrid C70?

First-time pass rate for the two most-tested C70 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: 60.9% of 3,512 tests60.9%Petrol3,512 testsDiesel: 58.9% of 3,330 tests58.9%Diesel3,330 tests
View this chart as a table
FuelTestsPass rate
Petrol3,51260.9%
Diesel3,33058.9%

What mileage is normal for a C70?

Mileage recorded at test by vehicle age, 2025. The line is the typical (median) C70; 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 C70 (median)
0k25k50k75k100k125k150k151719Vehicle age (years)Age 15: typical 91,250 miles (middle half 68,750–116,250)Age 16: typical 91,250 miles (middle half 68,750–121,250)Age 17: typical 106,250 miles (middle half 81,250–133,750)Age 18: typical 101,250 miles (middle half 78,750–126,250)Age 19: typical 96,250 miles (middle half 73,750–121,250)96k mi

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

View this chart as a table
Age (years)Lower quarterTypical (median)Upper quarter
1568,75091,250116,250
1668,75091,250121,250
1781,250106,250133,750
1878,750101,250126,250
1973,75096,250121,250

What fails at each age

The C70'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.

SuspensionTyresBrakesLamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentBody, chassis, structureEverything else
View this chart as a table
Age bandCategoryShare of the band's failure items
10-13 yrsSuspension30.4%
10-13 yrsTyres22.4%
10-13 yrsBrakes15.5%
10-13 yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment15.5%
10-13 yrsBody, chassis, structure9.3%
10-13 yrsEverything else6.9%
14+ yrsSuspension22.7%
14+ yrsBrakes18.2%
14+ yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment18.1%
14+ yrsTyres13.3%
14+ yrsBody, chassis, structure10.7%
14+ yrsEverything else17.0%

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.