Pass rate
75.3%
Around average — 3.1 pts ahead of the 72.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 1,522 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £26–£71
2004 BMW 116 MOT pass rate
- 2004
- typical 108,799 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
26.6% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2021 90.3% pass
- Avoid 2004 75.3% pass · this year
Across the 19 years on record, a spread of 15 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 70.1%
- Typical mileage
- 109k mi
The 2004 BMW 116 MOT pass rate is 75.3% of its MOT tests — 3.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.6% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Brakes: 1.3× the national share
Brakes make up 26.6% of everything recorded on the 2004 BMW 116, against 20.9% nationally — 5.7 points above. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 72.2% and this one manages 75.3% — 3.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 60% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
Written from this page's own figures: fault shares against the national composition, the like-for-like pass rate, and the priced repair list. How these are worked out
Watching a BMW 116? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2004 BMW 116 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.2%, so this figure is 3.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 70.1%. The median 2004 BMW 116 in this dataset had covered 108,799 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 99% of tests, with a 75.4% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 75.9% of the time, April–September 74.4%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 8.28% of tests.
- 1,522 recorded tests behind this page.
- 75.3% overall pass rate, 70.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 116, the average is 82.5% — best year 2021 (90.3%), worst 2004 (75.3%).
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
This page's data
- Tests analysed
- 1,522
- Typical mileage (median)
- 108,799 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 116
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the 116 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 64% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (99% of tests).
Where the BMW 116 is most common
Across all 116 model years on record (2004–2022): 170,141 BMW 116 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 371,127 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 6,954 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham (B) | 6,954 | 86.8% |
| 2 | Manchester (M) | 4,190 | 84.4% |
| 3 | Sheffield (S) | 3,650 | 84.9% |
| 4 | Leicester (LE) | 3,558 | 85.7% |
| 5 | Nottingham (NG) | 3,110 | 81.2% |
| 6 | Peterborough (PE) | 3,071 | 83.6% |
| 7 | Cardiff (CF) | 2,957 | 78.9% |
| 8 | Coventry (CV) | 2,925 | 83.5% |
| 9 | Bristol (BS) | 2,794 | 77.5% |
| 10 | Reading (RG) | 2,522 | 82.2% |
| 11 | Doncaster (DN) | 2,393 | 83.5% |
| 12 | Derby (DE) | 2,372 | 83.4% |
| 13 | Glasgow (G) | 2,297 | 80.8% |
| 14 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 2,292 | 83.0% |
| 15 | Warrington (WA) | 2,167 | 81.7% |
| 16 | Liverpool (L) | 2,159 | 83.9% |
| 17 | Guildford (GU) | 2,156 | 82.1% |
| 18 | Northampton (NN) | 2,148 | 81.2% |
| 19 | London (SE) | 2,119 | 86.9% |
| 20 | London (E) | 2,111 | 89.2% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 116 cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
Regional pass rates for the 116
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 476 | 80.3% |
| North West | 198 | 69.2% |
| South West | 162 | 67.9% |
| East of England | 152 | 75.7% |
| London | 127 | 86.6% |
| West Midlands | 119 | 75.6% |
| East Midlands | 91 | 71.4% |
| Yorkshire | 75 | 72.0% |
| Wales | 62 | 66.1% |
| Scotland | 34 | 73.5% |
| North East | 26 | 65.4% |
Regions come from the postcode area recorded at the test station. Areas on region borders are assigned to the region with the majority of their population.
What fails a 2004 116
Everything a tester recorded on this vehicle, grouped into the inspection sections that produced it. The notch on each bar is the national share, so you can see at a glance whether this car is unusual or just ordinary.
A test can record several items, so these percentages do not add up to 100%. The exact strings, with prices, are in the full DVSA record at the bottom of this page.
Before your test
Three checks worth doing on a 2004 116
These are not generic tips — they are the faults recorded most often on this exact model, rewritten as things you can check yourself. All three take about ten minutes and cost nothing.
-
Check the lights 8.3% of tests
“registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”
Switch everything on and walk round the car: both headlamps on dip and main, every indicator, both brake lights, reverse, fog and the two number-plate lamps. A bulb is a few pounds and a five-minute job.
-
Check the windscreen 4.1% of tests
“windscreen damaged”
Check the driver’s side of the screen within the swept area for chips and cracks; anything larger than 10mm in the driver’s central view is a fail. Most chips can be resin-repaired for far less than a new screen.
-
Check the shock absorbers 2.9% of tests
“shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak”
Press down hard on each corner of the car and let go. It should settle in one bounce; if it keeps rocking, or you can see oil weeping down a shock absorber, that is the fault a tester will find.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
What it costs to get a 2004 116 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £26–£71 — and 60% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £26–£71
- Cheapest common item: srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: steering rack gaiter missing or no longer…
- £120–£300
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 60%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 1,522 MOT tests on this vehicle. They exclude diagnostics, retest fees and garage labour where the part is a DIY fit, and they are not figures from the DVSA dataset. Older and higher-mileage examples cost more than the average. How these estimates are built → · All MOT repair costs → · Cheapest cars to put through a test →
Every year of the 116, side by side
19 model years on record, from 2004 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 75.3% to 90.3% — a spread of 15 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2004 75.3%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 76.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2006 76.8% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 77.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 78.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2009 78.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 78.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2011 79.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2012 79.1% position lamp not working
- 2013 82.1% position lamp not working
- 2014 83.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 84.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 85.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 86.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 87.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 87.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 89.1% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 90.3% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 88.4% has a cut in excess of the…
Colour is the pass rate on a fixed scale, so a block means the same thing on any model. Each year links to its own page with the full fault breakdown.
Compare the 2004 BMW 116 with another year
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Other 2004 cars with a similar record
- SEAT Leon 75.2%
- Subaru Forester 75.2%
- Audi A6 75.4%
- Land Rover Discovery 75.5%
- MG Zr 75.1%
- Toyota Hiace 75.6%
Closest pass rates among 2004 cars with at least 2,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. See the full rankings: best and worst MOT pass rates.
The full DVSA record for the 2004 BMW 116 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 10 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 4,470 individual items recorded on this vehicle, and the same share across all cars nationally. A single test can record several items, so a row is not a percentage of tests.
| Category | Items | This car | Nationally | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | 1,221 | 26.60% | 20.89% | +5.71 |
| Suspension | 863 | 18.80% | 20.98% | −2.18 |
| Tyres | 610 | 13.30% | 19.76% | −6.46 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 545 | 11.90% | 12.21% | −0.31 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 465 | 10.10% | 5.52% | +4.58 |
| Visibility | 250 | 5.40% | 4.97% | +0.43 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 148 | 3.20% | 5.57% | −2.37 |
| Non-component advisories | 140 | 3.00% | 4.18% | −1.18 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 121 | 2.60% | 0.82% | +1.78 |
| Steering | 107 | 2.30% | 2.57% | −0.27 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 8.3% | £5–20 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 5.2% | £3–12 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.1% | £80–200 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 2.9% | £30–75 |
| Flexible brake hoses excessively deteriorated Brakes | Major | 2.6% | £25–70 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.5% | £3–12 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 2.5% | £5–15 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.2% | £40–150 |
| Individual direction indicators incorrect colour Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £3–12 |
| Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 1.8% | £120–300 |
Severity is as recorded: Major and Dangerous fail the test outright; Minor and Advisory do not. Costs are estimates from typical UK parts prices — see how they are built.
What testers noted without failing the car
Advisories are the early warnings — the same parts a year or two before they fail. Reading them is how you tell a car that has been maintained from one that has been patched.
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flexible brake hoses excessively deteriorated Brakes | Advisory | 21.3% | £25–70 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 21.2% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 20.3% | £200–700 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 13.0% | £180–450 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 12.2% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 10.8% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 114 | 86.0% | 49,100 mi |
| 60-90k | 306 | 77.5% | 77,178 mi |
| 90-120k | 560 | 74.6% | 105,759 mi |
| 120k+ | 540 | 72.6% | 143,249 mi |
Source: 1,522 recorded tests on this vehicle-year. Every row above is recomputed from the same DVSA extract as the rest of the page — see the methodology.
2004 116 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2004 BMW 116?
75.3% of the 1,522 2004 BMW 116 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.2% for cars first used in 2004. First-attempt pass rate: 70.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2004 BMW 116?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (8.28%), srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault (5.19%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (4.14%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2004 BMW 116 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 86.0% of the time, falling to 72.6% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2004 BMW 116 in this dataset had covered 108,799 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2004 BMW 116?
Petrol: 75.4% pass rate across 1,506 tests. Diesel: 68.8% pass rate across 16 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2004 BMW 116 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 75.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 74.4%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.