Kawasaki ER500-C1: MOT pass rate by registration year

Which ER500-C1 years pass first time, and which fall short of the model's 81.1% average, from 1,110 DVSA tests.

2005

highest-passing year · 88.5%

2002

lowest-passing year · 77.7%

10.8pp

spread across 5 years

Pass rate by registration year

first-time pass rate · cohorts with 50 or more tests · registration year from first use date

Highest pass rate: 2005 (88.5% of 61 tests). Lowest: 2002 (77.7% of 364). Years more than two points below the model average: 2001, 2002.

Registered	Tests	First-time pass	vs model (81.1%)
2001	304	78.6%	-2.5 pp
2002	364	77.7%	-3.4 pp
2003	158	88.0%	+6.9 pp
2004	223	83.0%	+1.9 pp
2005	61	88.5%	+7.4 pp

Older cohorts are survivors: the worst examples have already left the road, which tends to lift the earliest years. A first-time MOT pass is a roadworthiness check, not a full mechanical inspection.

Pass rate over time

first-time pass rate by test year · 2006–2019

Questions

Which ER500-C1 years have the lowest MOT pass rate?: 2001, 2002 registered examples pass first time less often than the Kawasaki ER500-C1 overall (81.1%); the 2002 cohort is lowest at 77.7% from 364 tests.
Which ER500-C1 year has the highest MOT pass rate?: 2005, at 88.5% of 61 first tests (2005–2025). Years more than two points above the model average: 2003, 2005.
How much does the ER500-C1 pass rate vary by year?: 10.8 percentage points between the highest (2005, 88.5%) and lowest (2002, 77.7%) cohorts with at least 50 tests. Older cohorts are survivors: the worst examples have already left the road, which tends to lift the earliest years.

Full report: Kawasaki ER500-C1 reliability, failures and mileage · ranked #3358 of 5428 models· other Kawasaki models: ZX-6R, ZX-9R, ZZR600, ER5, ZZ-R1100, ZX