diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_coding_standards.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_coding_standards.py
index 0b0fb976f623..9d8883ef3d10 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_coding_standards.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_coding_standards.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 except ImportError:
     HAS_PEP8 = False
 else:
-    HAS_PEP8 = True
+    HAS_PEP8 = pep8.__version__ > '1.4.5'
 
 import matplotlib
 
@@ -142,17 +142,21 @@ class StandardReportWithExclusions(pep8.StandardReport):
             '*/matplotlib/projections/geo.py',
             '*/matplotlib/projections/polar.py']
 
+        #: A class attribute to store the lines of failing tests.
+        _global_deferred_print = []
+
         #: A class attribute to store patterns which have seen exceptions.
         matched_exclusions = set()
 
         def get_file_results(self):
-            # If the file had no errors, return self.file_errors (which will be 0)
+            # If the file had no errors, return self.file_errors
+            # (which will be 0).
             if not self._deferred_print:
                 return self.file_errors
 
-            # Iterate over all of the patterns, to find a possible exclusion. If we
-            # the filename is to be excluded, go ahead and remove the counts that
-            # self.error added.
+            # Iterate over all of the patterns, to find a possible exclusion.
+            # If the filename is to be excluded, go ahead and remove the
+            # counts that self.error added.
             for pattern in self.expected_bad_files:
                 if fnmatch(self.filename, pattern):
                     self.matched_exclusions.add(pattern)
@@ -166,12 +170,20 @@ def get_file_results(self):
                         self.total_errors -= 1
                     return self.file_errors
 
-            # Otherwise call the superclass' method to print the bad results.
-            return super(StandardReportWithExclusions,
-                         self).get_file_results()
+            # mirror the content of StandardReport, only storing the output to
+            # file rather than printing. This could be a feature request for
+            # the PEP8 tool.
+            self._deferred_print.sort()
+            for line_number, offset, code, text, _ in self._deferred_print:
+                self._global_deferred_print.append(
+                    self._fmt % {'path': self.filename,
+                                 'row': self.line_offset + line_number,
+                                 'col': offset + 1, 'code': code,
+                                 'text': text})
+            return self.file_errors
 
 
-def _test_pep8_conformance():
+def test_pep8_conformance():
 #    Tests the matplotlib codebase against the "pep8" tool.
 #
 #    Users can add their own excluded files (should files exist in the
@@ -192,11 +204,12 @@ def _test_pep8_conformance():
     # "reporter=pep8.FileReport" to the StyleGuide constructor.
     pep8style = pep8.StyleGuide(quiet=False,
                                 reporter=StandardReportWithExclusions)
+    reporter = pep8style.options.reporter
 
     # Extend the number of PEP8 guidelines which are not checked.
-    pep8style.options.ignore = pep8style.options.ignore + ('E121', 'E122',
-                                    'E123', 'E124', 'E125', 'E126', 'E127',
-                                    'E128')
+    pep8style.options.ignore = (pep8style.options.ignore +
+                                ('E121', 'E122', 'E123', 'E124', 'E125',
+                                 'E126', 'E127', 'E128'))
 
     # Support for egg shared object wrappers, which are not PEP8 compliant,
     # nor part of the matplotlib repository.
@@ -225,10 +238,15 @@ def _test_pep8_conformance():
         pep8style.options.exclude.extend(extra_exclude)
 
     result = pep8style.check_files([os.path.dirname(matplotlib.__file__)])
-    assert_equal(result.total_errors, 0, "Found code syntax "
+    if reporter is StandardReportWithExclusions:
+        assert_equal(result.total_errors, 0,
+                     ("Found code syntax errors (and warnings):\n"
+                      "{0}".format(
+                              '\n'.join(reporter._global_deferred_print))))
+    else:
+        assert_equal(result.total_errors, 0, "Found code syntax "
                                          "errors (and warnings).")
 
-    reporter = pep8style.options.reporter
     # If we've been using the exclusions reporter, check that we didn't
     # exclude files unnecessarily.
     if reporter is StandardReportWithExclusions:
diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_table.py b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_table.py
index 6c173e8087ef..18add08fb183 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_table.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/tests/test_table.py
@@ -7,13 +7,12 @@
                   extensions=['png'],
                   remove_text=True)
 def test_zorder():
-    data = [[  66386,  174296,],
-            [  58230,  381139,]]
+    data = [[66386, 174296],
+            [58230, 381139]]
 
     colLabels = ('Freeze', 'Wind')
     rowLabels = ['%d year' % x for x in (100, 50)]
 
-
     cellText = []
     yoff = np.array([0.0] * len(colLabels))
     for row in reversed(data):