All generations and engines together · 2,817 MOT tests in the 2025 data
Computed from DVSA MOT results, all of Great Britain, 2025. Nothing here is opinion.
Share of tests where each item was recorded. The dark tick is the class average across all tracked models; bars are scaled within each group.
The rows that judge the model rather than its keeper. 2,410 tests in this band.
Tyres, pads and stone chips say more about how the car was driven and maintained than about how it was built.
Owner folklore from forums and the motoring press. Most of it never shows up in an MOT, which is why this section exists at all.
The six-speed Geartronic auto (Aisin Warner TF80/TF81) is marketed as sealed for life, but the fluid does break down with heat and age. Once it does, owners get harsh or delayed shifts, a flare on kickdown, or a thump as the valve body's solenoids stick. Volvo's own fix on affected cars has been a full valve body replacement rather than a simple fluid change, and specialists now recommend a fluid and filter change around 50-60k miles to head it off. Repairs when it does fail run from a few hundred pounds for a fluid service to over £1,500 for a valve body or gearbox rebuild.
A long-standing owner complaint on P2 and P3 S80s: a clonk or knock from the front end over bumps or on lock, usually blamed on worn top strut mounts or the spring seat bushing separating inside its perch. It is common enough that owners' forums treat it as an S80 trait rather than a one-off. This lines up with the measured MOT data, where suspension is the standout fault category for the S80 versus its class, though the specific top-mount cause is folklore rather than something the test data can isolate.
Cars fitted with Nivomat self-pumping rear shocks (mainly V8 and load-carrying variants) sag overnight as the internal seals lose their charge; the car looks fine after a drive but has dropped by the next morning. It is a wear item, not a safety recall, but the shocks are expensive: genuine Nivomat units run to several hundred pounds each, so a pair plus springs can be £1,000 or more at a dealer, less through independent suppliers.
The electronic parking brake can throw intermittent fault codes and refuse to release, sometimes down to a seized motor or moisture getting into a cracked housing, sometimes down to worn rear pads not letting the caliper piston retract. UK DVSA records include a recall covering the parking brake module on manual, start-stop-equipped cars from 2012-2015. Repairs where the motor or module needs replacing land around £750-£1,500.
The five-cylinder D5 is a durable engine but it's an interference design on a timing belt, officially due at 96,000 miles though many independent garages recommend doing it nearer 65-70k to be safe; a snapped belt means serious engine damage. Injectors on higher-mileage cars can also lose their spray pattern from wear or contamination, causing rough running or a smoky exhaust, and once the nozzle is damaged the whole injector usually needs replacing rather than just cleaning.
A recurring theme on owner forums is intermittent electrical faults traced to the Central Electronic Module (CEM) or its connectors: doors that won't lock or unlock together, window switches that lose power, or the remote fob signal (received via the door mirror on pre-facelift cars) dropping out. Fixes are usually cheap once found, a connector clean or fuse check, but diagnosis can take a specialist as the CEM controls a wide spread of functions and any replacement module needs coding to the car.
Built from the two sections above.
Same segment (Saloons & estates), best MOT record first. Compare before you shortlist.