Pass rate
86.7%
Above average — 1.2 pts behind the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 1,440 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £38–£97
2018 BMW 216 MOT pass rate
- 2018
- typical 53,700 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
39.1% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tread depth below 1.6 mm. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2018 86.7% pass · this year
- Avoid 2015 84.0% pass
Across the 4 years on record, a spread of 2.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 84.8%
- Typical mileage
- 54k mi
The 2018 BMW 216 MOT pass rate is 86.7% of its MOT tests — 1.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 39.1% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.0× the national share
Tyres make up 39.1% of everything recorded on the 2018 BMW 216, against 19.8% nationally — 19.3 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 15% 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 216? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2018 BMW 216 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, so this figure is 1.2 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 84.8%. The median 2018 BMW 216 in this dataset had covered 53,700 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 86.5% of the time, April–September 87.1%.
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 2.01% of tests.
- 1,440 recorded tests behind this page.
- 86.7% overall pass rate, 84.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 216, the average is 85.3% — best year 2018 (86.7%), worst 2015 (84.0%).
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
- 1,440
- Typical mileage (median)
- 53,700 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 216
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
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 216 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 64% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the BMW 216 is most common
Across all 216 model years on record (2015–2018): 6,829 BMW 216 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 15,647 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 312 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) | 312 | 86.4% |
| 2 | Liverpool (L) | 179 | 88.5% |
| 3 | Manchester (M) | 175 | 86.9% |
| 4 | Leicester (LE) | 145 | 87.7% |
| 5 | Nottingham (NG) | 142 | 79.1% |
| 6 | Coventry (CV) | 136 | 85.7% |
| 7 | Sheffield (S) | 130 | 84.2% |
| 8 | Glasgow (G) | 118 | 84.2% |
| 9 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 116 | 84.9% |
| 10 | Peterborough (PE) | 116 | 87.5% |
| 11 | London (E) | 108 | 93.1% |
| 12 | London (SE) | 108 | 87.2% |
| 13 | London (NW) | 108 | 86.9% |
| 14 | Cardiff (CF) | 105 | 83.4% |
| 15 | Chester (CH) | 102 | 84.5% |
| 16 | Romford (RM) | 95 | 84.2% |
| 17 | Warrington (WA) | 93 | 83.1% |
| 18 | Stockport (SK) | 93 | 84.9% |
| 19 | Stoke On Trent (ST) | 92 | 81.6% |
| 20 | Hayes (UB) | 91 | 94.1% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 216 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 216
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 273 | 87.9% |
| North West | 265 | 89.1% |
| West Midlands | 157 | 85.4% |
| London | 134 | 85.1% |
| East of England | 132 | 84.8% |
| Scotland | 112 | 84.8% |
| Yorkshire | 89 | 84.3% |
| Wales | 84 | 89.3% |
| South West | 82 | 89.0% |
| East Midlands | 58 | 82.8% |
| North East | 54 | 87.0% |
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 2018 216
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 2018 216
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 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 lights 1.4% of tests
“headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect”
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 suspension joints 1.1% of tests
“pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn”
With the car parked on level ground, rock the top of each front wheel in and out while someone watches the suspension arm. Clunks, or rubber boots split and greasy, are what testers record here.
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 2018 216 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £38–£97 — and 15% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £38–£97
- Cheapest common item: headlamp not working on dipped beam
- £5–£25
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 15%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 1,440 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 216, side by side
4 model years on record, from 2015 to 2018. Across them the pass rate runs from 84.0% to 86.7% — a spread of 2.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2015 84.0% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2016 84.9% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2017 86.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 86.7%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 2018 BMW 216 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 2018 cars with a similar record
- Audi A1 86.7%
- Alfa Romeo Giulietta 86.7%
- Citroen C3 86.8%
- Audi A4 86.6%
- Vauxhall Insignia 86.6%
- SEAT Leon 86.5%
Closest pass rates among 2018 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 2018 BMW 216 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 1,296 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 | 512 | 39.10% | 19.76% | +19.34 |
| Brakes | 295 | 22.50% | 20.89% | +1.61 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 124 | 9.50% | 12.21% | −2.71 |
| Suspension | 116 | 8.90% | 20.98% | −12.08 |
| Non-component advisories | 107 | 8.20% | 4.18% | +4.02 |
| Visibility | 66 | 5.00% | 4.97% | +0.03 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 25 | 1.90% | 1.76% | +0.14 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 20 | 1.50% | 5.52% | −4.02 |
| Road Wheels | 18 | 1.40% | 0.75% | +0.65 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 13 | 1.00% | 0.82% | +0.18 |
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 | 2.0% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.7% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.4% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.3% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.2% | £5–25 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.1% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.0% | £18–45 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.83% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.63% | £5–25 |
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 | 16.8% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 8.8% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 7.2% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 6.4% | £45–110 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 4.4% | £20–80 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 4.4% | £40–150 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 165 | 91.5% | 22,966 mi |
| 30-60k | 699 | 89.7% | 45,276 mi |
| 60-90k | 376 | 84.8% | 71,773 mi |
| 90-120k | 130 | 77.7% | 102,776 mi |
| 120k+ | 70 | 72.9% | 146,161 mi |
Source: 1,440 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.
2018 216 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 BMW 216?
86.7% of the 1,440 2018 BMW 216 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 84.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 BMW 216?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (2.01%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.74%), headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (1.39%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 BMW 216 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.5% of the time, falling to 72.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 BMW 216 in this dataset had covered 53,700 mi.
Does the season affect the 2018 BMW 216 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 86.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 87.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.