Kawasaki Z: MOT pass rate by registration year

Which Z years pass first time, and which fall short of the model's 83.8% average, from 754 DVSA tests.

1980

highest-passing year · 89.5%

1977

lowest-passing year · 74.5%

15.0pp

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: 1980 (89.5% of 124 tests). Lowest: 1977 (74.5% of 51). Years more than two points below the model average: 1977, 1978, 1979.

Registered	Tests	First-time pass	vs model (83.8%)
1976	81	88.9%	+5.1 pp
1977	51	74.5%	-9.3 pp
1978	64	79.7%	-4.1 pp
1979	50	76.0%	-7.8 pp
1980	124	89.5%	+5.7 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 · 2006–2018

Questions

Which Z years have the lowest MOT pass rate?: 1977, 1978, 1979 registered examples pass first time less often than the Kawasaki Z overall (83.8%); the 1977 cohort is lowest at 74.5% from 51 tests.
Which Z year has the highest MOT pass rate?: 1980, at 89.5% of 124 first tests (2005–2025). Years more than two points above the model average: 1976, 1980.
How much does the Z pass rate vary by year?: 15.0 percentage points between the highest (1980, 89.5%) and lowest (1977, 74.5%) 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 Z reliability, failures and mileage · ranked #2791 of 5428 models· other Kawasaki models: ZX-6R, ZX-9R, ZZR600, ER5, ZZ-R1100, ZX