Pass rate
89.6%
Above average — 1.7 pts ahead of the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 3,949 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £45–£109
2018 BMW 220 MOT pass rate
- 2018
- typical 45,723 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
40.6% 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 →
1.4 pts down across model years — 6.1% in 2014, 4.7% in 2019.
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 91.1% pass
- Avoid 2014 82.4% pass
Across the 7 years on record, a spread of 8.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 88.5%
- Typical mileage
- 46k mi
The 2018 BMW 220 MOT pass rate is 89.6% of its MOT tests — 1.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 40.6% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.1× the national share
Tyres make up 40.6% of everything recorded on the 2018 BMW 220, against 19.8% nationally — 20.8 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 6% 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 220? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2018 BMW 220 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, so this figure is 1.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 88.5%. The median 2018 BMW 220 in this dataset had covered 45,723 mi.
80% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 89.2% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 89.9% of the time, April–September 89.2%.
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 1.77% of tests.
- 3,949 recorded tests behind this page.
- 89.6% overall pass rate, 88.5% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 220, the average is 86.7% — best year 2019 (91.1%), worst 2014 (82.4%).
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
- 3,949
- Typical mileage (median)
- 45,723 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 220
- 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 220 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. Diesel is the most common here (80% of tests).
Where the BMW 220 is most common
Across all 220 model years on record (2014–2020): 22,642 BMW 220 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 49,847 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 792 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) | 792 | 87.9% |
| 2 | Reading (RG) | 490 | 83.7% |
| 3 | Guildford (GU) | 445 | 86.4% |
| 4 | Peterborough (PE) | 428 | 87.3% |
| 5 | Sheffield (S) | 420 | 88.6% |
| 6 | Nottingham (NG) | 409 | 84.2% |
| 7 | Coventry (CV) | 408 | 86.3% |
| 8 | Leicester (LE) | 386 | 87.3% |
| 9 | Bristol (BS) | 377 | 84.7% |
| 10 | Manchester (M) | 324 | 87.7% |
| 11 | Chelmsford (CM) | 322 | 88.1% |
| 12 | Cardiff (CF) | 297 | 85.3% |
| 13 | High Wycombe (HP) | 292 | 87.1% |
| 14 | London (SE) | 288 | 87.6% |
| 15 | Kingston upon Thames (KT) | 284 | 88.9% |
| 16 | London (E) | 281 | 92.9% |
| 17 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 280 | 87.9% |
| 18 | Derby (DE) | 280 | 85.6% |
| 19 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 279 | 85.1% |
| 20 | Romford (RM) | 279 | 89.3% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 220 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 220
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 905 | 90.2% |
| North West | 498 | 91.0% |
| West Midlands | 418 | 88.0% |
| Scotland | 396 | 88.4% |
| East of England | 387 | 88.6% |
| South West | 330 | 89.4% |
| Yorkshire | 270 | 90.7% |
| East Midlands | 249 | 88.8% |
| London | 220 | 90.0% |
| Wales | 185 | 88.1% |
| North East | 91 | 95.6% |
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 220
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 220
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 tyre tread 0.9% of tests
“tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm”
Check all four tyres cold, including the inner shoulder where wear hides — 1.6mm across the central three-quarters is the legal limit, and most testers fail at 1.6mm without argument.
-
Check the lights 0.7% of tests
“headlamp aim too low”
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.
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 220 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £45–£109 — and 6% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £45–£109
- 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
- 60%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 6%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 3,949 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 220, side by side
7 model years on record, from 2014 to 2020. Across them the pass rate runs from 82.4% to 91.1% — a spread of 8.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2014 82.4% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2015 86.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 87.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 88.4% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2018 89.6%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2019 91.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 91.1% 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 2018 BMW 220 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
- Ford Ecosport 89.6%
- Mitsubishi Outlander 89.6%
- Honda Civic 89.5%
- Mazda Cx-5 89.7%
- Kia Rio 89.7%
- Ford Fiesta 89.4%
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 220 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 2,960 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 | 1,215 | 40.60% | 19.76% | +20.84 |
| Brakes | 676 | 22.60% | 20.89% | +1.71 |
| Suspension | 301 | 10.10% | 20.98% | −10.88 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 237 | 7.90% | 12.21% | −4.31 |
| Non-component advisories | 203 | 6.80% | 4.18% | +2.62 |
| Visibility | 166 | 5.50% | 4.97% | +0.53 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 57 | 1.90% | 5.52% | −3.62 |
| Road Wheels | 45 | 1.50% | 0.75% | +0.75 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 35 | 1.20% | 1.76% | −0.56 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 25 | 0.80% | 5.57% | −4.77 |
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 | 1.8% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.8% | £80–200 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.86% | £45–95 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.73% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.73% | £30–80 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.71% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.68% | £30–80 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.61% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 0.61% | £40–150 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 0.53% | £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 | 15.2% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 7.8% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.5% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 4.5% | £45–110 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 3.8% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.3% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 762 | 94.0% | 21,845 mi |
| 30-60k | 2,155 | 89.9% | 44,471 mi |
| 60-90k | 821 | 85.5% | 71,110 mi |
| 90-120k | 140 | 86.4% | 100,434 mi |
| 120k+ | 70 | 88.6% | 151,923 mi |
Source: 3,949 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 220 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 BMW 220?
89.6% of the 3,949 2018 BMW 220 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 88.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 BMW 220?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.77%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.75%), tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (0.86%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 BMW 220 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 94.0% of the time, falling to 88.6% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 BMW 220 in this dataset had covered 45,723 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2018 BMW 220?
Diesel: 89.2% pass rate across 3,151 tests. Petrol: 91.4% pass rate across 798 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2018 BMW 220 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 89.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 89.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.