Common problems

Land Rover Discovery body and structure problems

How often MOT testers find body and structure faults on the Land Rover Discovery at each age, against all cars of the same age, and which items come up most. From 591,956 DVSA MOT tests taken 2022 to 2025.

MOT data updated 28 September 2026

At 7 years, the most tested age

Body and structure fails per 100 MOTs (n=38,002)1.8

All cars at 7 years (n=10,537,318)1.3

Body and structure advisories and minor defects per 100 MOTs (n=38,002)2.5

All cars, same age (n=10,537,318)1.6

What stands out

At 7 years, 1.8 of every 100 MOTs of the Land Rover Discovery found a body and structure fail (n=38,002), against 1.3 for all cars of that age (n=10,537,318).
It is above the all-car rate at 19 of the 23 ages with at least 1,000 tests.
The gap is widest at 25 years: 12.7 per 100 MOTs against 9.3 for all cars.
The body and structure fail item recorded most often at 7 years: prop shaft: bearing excessively worn, on 0.8 per 100 MOTs.
The most common body and structure advisory or minor defect: prop shaft: bearing has slight play, on 1.1 per 100 MOTs.

Body and structure fails by age

Solid line: this model. Dashed line: all cars at the same age.

Land Rover Discovery: body and structure fails and advisories per 100 MOTs, by age, against all cars. Ages with fewer than 1,000 tests are not shown.
Age	Tests (n)	Fails	All cars	Advisories	All cars
3 years	21,840	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3
4 years	27,302	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.5
5 years	32,498	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.8
6 years	36,765	1.1	0.8	1.3	1.2
7 years	38,002	1.8	1.3	2.5	1.6
8 years	36,759	2.8	1.8	3.3	2.2
9 years	33,212	3.5	2.3	4.5	2.9
10 years	30,394	3.8	2.9	6.1	3.9
11 years	27,348	4.1	3.5	7.9	5.1
12 years	26,579	5.2	4.3	11.0	6.5
13 years	25,284	6.3	5.0	13.8	8.0
14 years	23,565	7.0	5.9	15.4	9.7
15 years	24,944	8.1	6.7	16.5	11.2
16 years	26,824	8.0	7.6	17.2	12.6
17 years	29,254	8.2	8.3	18.5	13.9
18 years	30,050	9.4	8.7	20.7	14.7
19 years	28,589	10.5	9.0	22.8	15.2
20 years	25,359	10.9	9.2	23.0	15.6
21 years	21,302	12.1	9.3	24.1	16.0
22 years	16,860	12.5	9.4	24.7	16.3
23 years	13,096	12.8	9.5	25.4	16.6
24 years	9,382	12.6	9.4	26.0	16.6
25 years	6,748	12.7	9.3	25.6	16.8

Body and structure fail items at 7 years

Body and structure fail items on the Land Rover Discovery at 7 years (n=38,002), per 100 MOTs, with all cars at the same age (n=10,537,318).
Item	Per 100 MOTs	All cars
Prop shaft: bearing excessively worn	0.8	under 0.1

Body and structure advisories and minor defects at 7 years

Advisories and minor defects are recorded, but the car still passes. Across all cars, a part with an advisory or minor defect failed at the next MOT 5.5 times in 100 (n=88,666,940 pairs of consecutive MOTs), against 0.3 times in 100 when the same part had none (n=12,936,860,350).

Body and structure advisories and minor defects on the Land Rover Discovery at 7 years (n=38,002), per 100 MOTs, with all cars at the same age (n=10,537,318).
Item	Per 100 MOTs	All cars
Prop shaft: bearing has slight play	1.1	under 0.1
Drive shaft joints: constant velocity boot severely deteriorated	0.5	0.5

What to check on a viewing

On the Land Rover Discovery, the body and structure items testers fail most are prop shaft: bearing excessively worn.

Look underneath at the sills, floor, subframes and jacking points for corrosion, or for fresh underseal that may hide it.
Check that doors, bonnet and boot open, close and latch properly.
Look for loose trim, sharp edges or damage around the bumpers and wheel arches.

Ask for the car's MOT history: a body and structure advisory that repeats from year to year has not been fixed. GOV.UK MOT history.

Questions

What are the common body and structure problems on the Land Rover Discovery?

At 7 years (38,002 MOTs), the body and structure fail items testers record most often are prop shaft: bearing excessively worn (0.8 per 100 MOTs). The most common body and structure advisories or minor defects are prop shaft: bearing has slight play (1.1) and drive shaft joints: constant velocity boot severely deteriorated (0.5).

Does the Land Rover Discovery have more body and structure problems than other cars?

At 7 years it has 1.8 body and structure fails per 100 MOTs against 1.3 for all cars of the same age (about the same). It is above the all-car rate at 19 of the 23 ages with enough tests.

More on the Land Rover Discovery

Read this with care. A fail rate is not a measure of build quality. How far cars are driven, how they are used and how well owners maintain them all change it, and wear items such as tyres and brake pads are common fails. Compare a model only with cars of the same age. Methodology and limits.

The all cars figures cover all class 4 vehicles (cars and light vans) tested at the same age.

Looking at a Land Rover Discovery?

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Source

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data, class 4 normal MOT tests, 2022 to 2025. MOT data updated 28 September 2026.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by DVSA. How we calculate these figures · Data sources