Pass rate
91.5%
Above average — 0.3 pts ahead of the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 656 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £45–£106
2021 BMW 2 Series MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 19,607 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
54.9% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tyre has a tear. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2020 92.9% pass
- Avoid 2014 85.1% pass
Across the 8 years on record, a spread of 7.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 90.7%
- Typical mileage
- 20k mi
The 2021 BMW 2 Series MOT pass rate is 91.5% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 54.9% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW 2 Series does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.8× the national share
Tyres make up 54.9% of everything recorded on the 2021 BMW 2 Series, against 19.8% nationally — 35.1 points above. Check all four tyres yourself, including the inner shoulders, and look at the date stamp — a tyre can pass on tread and still be six years old.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 4% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
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 2 Series? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 BMW 2 Series compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 0.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 90.7%. The median 2021 BMW 2 Series in this dataset had covered 19,607 mi.
98% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 91.5% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 93.0% of the time, April–September 89.4%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords", noted on 2.59% of tests.
- 656 recorded tests behind this page.
- 91.5% overall pass rate, 90.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 2 Series, the average is 89.8% — best year 2020 (92.9%), worst 2014 (85.1%).
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
- 656
- Typical mileage (median)
- 19,607 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 2 Series
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Tyres
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the 2 Series MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 77% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (98% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the 2 Series
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 142 | 93.7% |
| East of England | 112 | 87.5% |
| North West | 78 | 91.0% |
| South West | 68 | 91.2% |
| West Midlands | 53 | 92.5% |
| Scotland | 49 | 87.8% |
| East Midlands | 45 | 95.6% |
| Yorkshire | 44 | 93.2% |
| Wales | 25 | 100.0% |
| North East | 20 | 80.0% |
| London | 19 | 94.7% |
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 2021 2 Series
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 2021 2 Series
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 1.8% of tests
“headlamp aim too high”
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 1.7% 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 wipers and washers 0.5% of tests
“washers provides insufficient washer liquid”
Run the wipers with the screen wet: they should clear it in one sweep without smearing or juddering. Top the washer bottle up and check both jets hit the screen.
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 2021 2 Series through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £45–£106 — and 4% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £45–£106
- Cheapest common item: washers provides insufficient washer liquid
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 4%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 656 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 2 Series, side by side
8 model years on record, from 2014 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 85.1% to 92.9% — a spread of 7.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2014 85.1% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2015 87.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 89.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 89.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 89.5% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2019 91.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 92.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2021 91.5%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 2021 BMW 2 Series 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 2021 cars with a similar record
- Hyundai Tucson 91.5%
- Hyundai Kona 91.5%
- Vauxhall Crossland 91.5%
- Cupra Formentor V2 91.5%
- Volkswagen Golf R 91.5%
- Ford Focus 91.6%
Closest pass rates among 2021 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 2021 BMW 2 Series 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 257 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 141 | 54.90% | 19.76% | +35.14 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 28 | 10.90% | 12.21% | −1.31 |
| Non-component advisories | 24 | 9.30% | 4.18% | +5.12 |
| Brakes | 23 | 8.90% | 20.89% | −11.99 |
| Visibility | 19 | 7.40% | 4.97% | +2.43 |
| Road Wheels | 9 | 3.50% | 0.75% | +2.75 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 5 | 1.90% | 1.76% | +0.14 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 4 | 1.60% | 5.52% | −3.92 |
| Suspension | 3 | 1.20% | 20.98% | −19.78 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 1 | 0.40% | 0.82% | −0.42 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 2.6% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.8% | £30–80 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.7% | £80–200 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 1.2% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.1% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too far to the right Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.61% | £30–80 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Rectified | 0.46% | £5–15 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.30% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.30% | £30–80 |
| Parking brake performance inoperative on one side Brakes | Major | 0.30% | £60–150 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 7.9% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 3.5% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 3.0% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 2.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 1.5% | £18–45 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 1.2% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 499 | 93.4% | 16,567 mi |
| 30-60k | 154 | 85.1% | 38,387 mi |
| 60-90k | 3 | 100.0% | 67,691 mi |
Source: 656 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.
2021 2 Series MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 BMW 2 Series?
91.5% of the 656 2021 BMW 2 Series tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 90.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 BMW 2 Series?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (2.59%), headlamp aim too high (1.83%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.68%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 BMW 2 Series MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.4% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 BMW 2 Series in this dataset had covered 19,607 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2021 BMW 2 Series?
Petrol: 91.5% pass rate across 644 tests. Diesel: 91.7% pass rate across 12 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2021 BMW 2 Series MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 93.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 89.4%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.