Pass rate
87.1%
Above average — 4.1 pts behind the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 124 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £37–£88
2021 BMW 218 MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 28,620 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
48.4% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2020 91.0% pass
- Avoid 2014 83.5% pass
Across the 8 years on record, a spread of 7.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 85.0%
- Typical mileage
- 29k mi
The 2021 BMW 218 MOT pass rate is 87.1% of its MOT tests — 4.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 48.4% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW 218 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.4× the national share
Tyres make up 48.4% of everything recorded on the 2021 BMW 218, against 19.8% nationally — 28.6 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.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 91.2%; this one manages 87.1% — 4.1 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 17% 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 218? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 BMW 218 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 4.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 85.0%. The median 2021 BMW 218 in this dataset had covered 28,620 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 78% of tests, with a 88.7% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 83.6% of the time, April–September 89.9%.
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 3.23% of tests.
- 124 recorded tests behind this page.
- 87.1% overall pass rate, 85.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 218, the average is 87.5% — best year 2020 (91.0%), worst 2014 (83.5%).
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
- 124
- Typical mileage (median)
- 28,620 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 218
- 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 218 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 42% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (78% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the 218
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 21 | 90.5% |
| North West | 20 | 95.0% |
| East of England | 16 | 75.0% |
| Scotland | 15 | 100.0% |
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 2021 218
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 218
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 3.2% 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 suspension joints 2.4% of tests
“ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated”
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.
-
Check the brakes 1.6% of tests
“brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick”
Look through the spokes of each wheel at the pad — less than 3mm of friction material, or a lip on the disc edge, is the usual failure. Check the handbrake holds on a slope with a few clicks, not at the top of its travel.
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 218 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £37–£88 — and 17% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £37–£88
- 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
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 17%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 124 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 218, side by side
8 model years on record, from 2014 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 83.5% to 91.0% — a spread of 7.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2014 83.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 86.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 86.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 88.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 89.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 89.9% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 91.0% has a bulge, caused by separation…
- 2021 87.1%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 218 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
- Ford Ranger 86.9%
- Citroen C4 86.9%
- Peugeot 508 86.9%
- Mercedes-Benz Eqc 87.3%
- Land Rover Discovry 86.7%
- Fiat 500E La Prima 86.5%
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 218 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 9 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 91 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 | 44 | 48.40% | 19.76% | +28.64 |
| Brakes | 18 | 19.80% | 20.89% | −1.09 |
| Visibility | 7 | 7.70% | 4.97% | +2.73 |
| Non-component advisories | 7 | 7.70% | 4.18% | +3.52 |
| Road Wheels | 5 | 5.50% | 0.75% | +4.75 |
| Suspension | 3 | 3.30% | 20.98% | −17.68 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 3 | 3.30% | 12.21% | −8.91 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 3 | 3.30% | 5.52% | −2.22 |
| Steering | 1 | 1.10% | 2.57% | −1.47 |
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 | 3.2% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.2% | £80–200 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 2.4% | £18–45 |
| Side repeaters not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.4% | £5–25 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.6% | £18–45 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 1.6% | £45–95 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Rectified | 1.6% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.6% | £45–95 |
| Fractured Road Wheels | Major | 0.81% | £20–55 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Rectified | 0.81% | £5–15 |
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 | 19.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.1% | £18–45 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 4.8% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 4.0% | £45–95 |
| Badly distorted Road Wheels | Advisory | 3.2% | £20–55 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 3.2% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 72 | 90.3% | 20,422 mi |
| 30-60k | 47 | 85.1% | 40,847 mi |
| 60-90k | 3 | 66.7% | 64,143 mi |
| 90-120k | 2 | 50.0% | 97,215 mi |
Source: 124 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 218 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 BMW 218?
87.1% of the 124 2021 BMW 218 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 85.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 BMW 218?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (3.23%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (3.23%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (2.42%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 BMW 218 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 90.3% of the time, falling to 50.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 BMW 218 in this dataset had covered 28,620 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2021 BMW 218?
Petrol: 88.7% pass rate across 97 tests. Diesel: 81.5% pass rate across 27 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2021 BMW 218 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 83.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 89.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.