Pass rate
91.8%
Above average — 1.1 pts ahead of the 90.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 952 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £42–£97
2020 BMW 218I Luxury MOT pass rate
- 2020
- typical 24,609 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
54.6% 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 2020 91.8% pass · this year
- Avoid 2018 88.7% pass
Across the 4 years on record, a spread of 3.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 91.1%
- Typical mileage
- 25k mi
The 2020 BMW 218I Luxury MOT pass rate is 91.8% of its MOT tests — 1.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 54.6% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW 218I Luxury does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.8× the national share
Tyres make up 54.6% of everything recorded on the 2020 BMW 218i Luxury, against 19.8% nationally — 34.8 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 16% 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 218I Luxury? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2020 BMW 218I Luxury compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 90.7%, so this figure is 1.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 91.1%. The median 2020 BMW 218I Luxury in this dataset had covered 24,609 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 91.5% of the time, April–September 92.1%.
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 3.15% of tests.
- 952 recorded tests behind this page.
- 91.8% overall pass rate, 91.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 218I Luxury, the average is 90.8% — best year 2020 (91.8%), worst 2018 (88.7%).
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
- 952
- Typical mileage (median)
- 24,609 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 218I Luxury
- 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 218I Luxury MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 80% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 218I Luxury
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 211 | 91.5% |
| North West | 134 | 88.1% |
| East of England | 87 | 95.4% |
| West Midlands | 86 | 91.9% |
| South West | 85 | 89.4% |
| Scotland | 82 | 92.7% |
| London | 81 | 92.6% |
| East Midlands | 71 | 94.4% |
| Yorkshire | 60 | 90.0% |
| Wales | 31 | 96.8% |
| North East | 24 | 95.8% |
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 2020 218I Luxury
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 2020 218I Luxury
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 1.8% 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 0.7% of tests
“stop lamp not working”
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 wipers and washers 0.7% of tests
“wipers blade defective”
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 2020 218I Luxury through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £42–£97 — and 16% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £42–£97
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 16%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 952 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 218I Luxury, side by side
4 model years on record, from 2018 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 88.7% to 91.8% — a spread of 3.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2018 88.7% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2019 91.3% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 91.8%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 89.4% has ply or cords exposed
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 2020 BMW 218I Luxury 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 2020 cars with a similar record
- Skoda Karoq 91.8%
- Vauxhall Grandland X Griffin 91.8%
- Kia Sportage Platinum 91.8%
- Vauxhall Corsa Ultimate 91.8%
- Nissan Leaf 91.7%
- Hyundai Kona Play T-Gdi 91.7%
Closest pass rates among 2020 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 2020 BMW 218I Luxury 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 572 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 | 316 | 54.60% | 19.76% | +34.84 |
| Brakes | 85 | 14.70% | 20.89% | −6.19 |
| Non-component advisories | 59 | 10.20% | 4.18% | +6.02 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 42 | 7.30% | 12.21% | −4.91 |
| Visibility | 35 | 6.00% | 4.97% | +1.03 |
| Suspension | 10 | 1.70% | 20.98% | −19.28 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 7 | 1.20% | 5.57% | −4.37 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 7 | 1.20% | 5.52% | −4.32 |
| Road Wheels | 6 | 1.00% | 0.75% | +0.25 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 5 | 0.90% | 1.76% | −0.86 |
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 | 3.1% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.8% | £80–200 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.74% | £3–12 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.74% | £8–22 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.53% | £18–45 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.53% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads worn down to wear indicator Brakes | Major | 0.42% | £18–45 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.42% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.42% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.42% | £30–80 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 11.6% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 10.2% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 4.8% | £18–45 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 3.5% | £20–80 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 2.4% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.2% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 606 | 92.7% | 18,422 mi |
| 30-60k | 306 | 90.2% | 40,025 mi |
| 60-90k | 36 | 88.9% | 69,039 mi |
| 90-120k | 4 | 100.0% | 96,659 mi |
Source: 952 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.
2020 218I Luxury MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2020 BMW 218I Luxury?
91.8% of the 952 2020 BMW 218I Luxury tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 90.7% for cars first used in 2020. First-attempt pass rate: 91.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2020 BMW 218I Luxury?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (3.15%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.79%), stop lamp not working (0.74%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2020 BMW 218I Luxury MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 92.7% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2020 BMW 218I Luxury in this dataset had covered 24,609 mi.
Does the season affect the 2020 BMW 218I Luxury MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 91.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 92.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.