Pass rate
89.1%
Above average — 1.2 pts ahead of the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 1,406 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £35–£87
2018 BMW 220I MOT pass rate
- 2018
- 2 trims combined
- typical 36,264 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
40.4% 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 2023 95.5% pass
- Avoid 2018 89.1% pass · this year
Across the 6 years on record, a spread of 6.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 88.0%
- Typical mileage
- 36k mi
The 2018 BMW 220I MOT pass rate is 89.1% of its MOT tests — 1.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 40.4% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.0× the national share
Tyres make up 40.4% of everything recorded on the 2018 BMW 220i, against 19.8% nationally — 20.6 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.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 19% 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 220I? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every BMW 220I first registered in 2018 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2018 BMW 220I compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, so this figure is 1.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 88.0%. The median 2018 BMW 220I in this dataset had covered 36,264 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 89.0% of the time, April–September 89.3%.
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 2.20% of tests.
- 1,406 recorded tests behind this page.
- 89.1% overall pass rate, 88.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 220I, the average is 91.2% — best year 2023 (95.5%), worst 2018 (89.1%).
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
- 1,406
- Typical mileage (median)
- 36,264 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 220I
- 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 220I MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 67% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the BMW 220I is most common
Across all 220I model years on record (2018–2023): 6,680 BMW 220I cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 11,006 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 221 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) | 221 | 90.8% |
| 2 | Glasgow (G) | 138 | 90.7% |
| 3 | Sheffield (S) | 138 | 92.0% |
| 4 | Nottingham (NG) | 129 | 91.2% |
| 5 | Peterborough (PE) | 120 | 89.3% |
| 6 | Reading (RG) | 113 | 88.5% |
| 7 | Edinburgh (EH) | 112 | 91.0% |
| 8 | Manchester (M) | 109 | 87.8% |
| 9 | Bristol (BS) | 105 | 91.5% |
| 10 | Guildford (GU) | 105 | 92.4% |
| 11 | Derby (DE) | 105 | 90.1% |
| 12 | London (NW) | 105 | 94.9% |
| 13 | Warrington (WA) | 103 | 93.5% |
| 14 | Leicester (LE) | 102 | 91.6% |
| 15 | Liverpool (L) | 101 | 88.8% |
| 16 | Kingston upon Thames (KT) | 99 | 90.5% |
| 17 | Preston (PR) | 97 | 87.4% |
| 18 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 92 | 96.5% |
| 19 | London (SE) | 87 | 89.7% |
| 20 | Blackburn (BB) | 84 | 93.5% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 220I 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 220I
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 367 | 89.4% |
| London | 177 | 86.4% |
| North West | 142 | 90.1% |
| East of England | 126 | 86.5% |
| Yorkshire | 125 | 86.4% |
| West Midlands | 99 | 87.9% |
| South West | 97 | 92.8% |
| Scotland | 89 | 89.9% |
| East Midlands | 77 | 90.9% |
| Wales | 66 | 92.4% |
| North East | 39 | 94.9% |
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 220I
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 220I
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 1.3% 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 1.3% 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.
-
Check the brakes 1.1% 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 2018 220I through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £35–£87 — and 19% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £35–£87
- 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
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 19%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 1,406 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 220I, side by side
6 model years on record, from 2018 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 89.1% to 95.5% — a spread of 6.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2018 89.1%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2019 90.6% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 91.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 92.8% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 93.5% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 95.5% windscreen damaged but not…
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 220I 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
- Jaguar F-Pace 89.1%
- Mercedes-Benz B-Class 89.1%
- Subaru Forester 89.1%
- Toyota Verso 89.1%
- MINI Clubman 89.0%
- Suzuki Ignis 89.2%
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 220I 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 1,146 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 | 466 | 40.40% | 19.76% | +20.64 |
| Brakes | 257 | 22.30% | 20.89% | +1.41 |
| Suspension | 121 | 10.50% | 20.98% | −10.48 |
| Non-component advisories | 113 | 9.80% | 4.18% | +5.62 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 84 | 7.30% | 12.21% | −4.91 |
| Visibility | 45 | 3.90% | 4.97% | −1.07 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 26 | 2.30% | 5.57% | −3.27 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 19 | 1.60% | 1.76% | −0.16 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 9 | 0.80% | 5.52% | −4.72 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 6 | 0.50% | 0.82% | −0.32 |
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 | 2.2% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.3% | £30–80 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £40–150 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.1% | £18–45 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.92% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.92% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 0.78% | £80–200 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.71% | £3–12 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.71% | £8–22 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.57% | £3–12 |
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 | 15.0% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 8.7% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.3% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 5.8% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 4.5% | £45–110 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 4.5% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 511 | 93.7% | 21,262 mi |
| 30-60k | 696 | 86.8% | 42,817 mi |
| 60-90k | 177 | 86.4% | 71,369 mi |
| 90-120k | 18 | 77.8% | 100,197 mi |
| 120k+ | 4 | 75.0% | 139,590 mi |
Source: 1,406 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 220I MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 BMW 220I?
89.1% of the 1,406 2018 BMW 220I tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 88.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 BMW 220I?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (2.20%), headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (1.28%), pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn (1.28%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 BMW 220I MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.7% of the time, falling to 75.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 BMW 220I in this dataset had covered 36,264 mi.
Does the season affect the 2018 BMW 220I MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 89.0% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 89.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.