Pass rate
85.6%
Above average — 5.4 pts ahead of the 80.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 500 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £40–£95
2014 BMW 225 MOT pass rate
- 2014
- typical 86,633 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
26.6% 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 2019 97.5% pass
- Avoid 2014 85.6% pass · this year
Across the 6 years on record, a spread of 11.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 83.4%
- Typical mileage
- 87k mi
The 2014 BMW 225 MOT pass rate is 85.6% of its MOT tests — 5.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.6% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.3× the national share
Tyres make up 26.6% of everything recorded on the 2014 BMW 225, against 19.8% nationally — 6.8 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.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 80.2% and this one manages 85.6% — 5.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- 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 225? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2014 BMW 225 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 80.2%, so this figure is 5.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 83.4%. The median 2014 BMW 225 in this dataset had covered 86,633 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 94% of tests, with a 85.9% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 86.6% of the time, April–September 84.5%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak", noted on 5.20% of tests.
- 500 recorded tests behind this page.
- 85.6% overall pass rate, 83.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 225, the average is 88.4% — best year 2019 (97.5%), worst 2014 (85.6%).
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
- 500
- Typical mileage (median)
- 86,633 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 225
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Shock Absorber
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the 225 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 72% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (94% of tests).
Where the BMW 225 is most common
Across all 225 model years on record (2014–2019): 3,888 BMW 225 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 8,279 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 109 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) | 109 | 89.2% |
| 2 | London (NW) | 94 | 89.6% |
| 3 | Reading (RG) | 80 | 81.9% |
| 4 | Wembley (HA) | 79 | 90.5% |
| 5 | Coventry (CV) | 79 | 90.0% |
| 6 | Sheffield (S) | 77 | 91.5% |
| 7 | Leicester (LE) | 76 | 90.3% |
| 8 | Guildford (GU) | 75 | 87.3% |
| 9 | High Wycombe (HP) | 71 | 90.0% |
| 10 | Bristol (BS) | 67 | 84.0% |
| 11 | London (E) | 67 | 96.3% |
| 12 | London (SE) | 66 | 89.2% |
| 13 | Oxford (OX) | 65 | 87.6% |
| 14 | Nottingham (NG) | 65 | 85.3% |
| 15 | Manchester (M) | 63 | 90.0% |
| 16 | Kingston upon Thames (KT) | 61 | 89.1% |
| 17 | Slough (SL) | 60 | 87.6% |
| 18 | Peterborough (PE) | 59 | 87.1% |
| 19 | Chelmsford (CM) | 59 | 95.4% |
| 20 | Hayes (UB) | 58 | 94.7% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 225 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 225
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 94 | 84.0% |
| North West | 75 | 88.0% |
| West Midlands | 67 | 89.6% |
| East of England | 64 | 92.2% |
| South West | 54 | 77.8% |
| Wales | 36 | 80.6% |
| East Midlands | 36 | 83.3% |
| Yorkshire | 31 | 83.9% |
| Scotland | 18 | 77.8% |
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 2014 225
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 2014 225
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 shock absorbers 5.2% of tests
“shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak”
Press down hard on each corner of the car and let go. It should settle in one bounce; if it keeps rocking, or you can see oil weeping down a shock absorber, that is the fault a tester will find.
-
Check the windscreen 2.8% 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 1.8% 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.
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 2014 225 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £40–£95 — and 6% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £40–£95
- 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
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 6%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 500 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 225, side by side
6 model years on record, from 2014 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 85.6% to 97.5% — a spread of 11.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2014 85.6%shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2015 87.4% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2016 88.4% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2017 88.8% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2018 88.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 97.5% 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 2014 BMW 225 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 2014 cars with a similar record
- Volkswagen Golf 85.6%
- Audi A6 85.6%
- Mercedes-Benz Gla 85.6%
- Smart Mcc Fortwo 85.5%
- Land Rover Range Rover 85.7%
- Skoda Citigo 85.4%
Closest pass rates among 2014 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 2014 BMW 225 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 514 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 | 138 | 26.60% | 19.76% | +6.84 |
| Suspension | 118 | 22.70% | 20.98% | +1.72 |
| Brakes | 101 | 19.50% | 20.89% | −1.39 |
| Non-component advisories | 41 | 7.90% | 4.18% | +3.72 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 33 | 6.40% | 5.52% | +0.88 |
| Visibility | 30 | 5.80% | 4.97% | +0.83 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 20 | 3.90% | 12.21% | −8.31 |
| Road Wheels | 16 | 3.10% | 0.75% | +2.35 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 10 | 1.90% | 5.57% | −3.67 |
| Steering | 7 | 1.30% | 2.57% | −1.27 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 5.2% | £30–75 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.8% | £80–200 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.8% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.2% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.2% | £30–80 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 1.0% | £5–15 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 0.80% | £18–45 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.80% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.80% | £45–95 |
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 | 15.6% | £45–95 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 8.4% | £30–75 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 6.4% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 5.4% | £18–45 |
| Non-component advisories Play in steering rack inner joint(s) Non-component advisories | Advisory | 4.0% | £120–300 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 3.8% | £200–700 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 19 | 94.7% | 21,993 mi |
| 30-60k | 63 | 87.3% | 47,438 mi |
| 60-90k | 196 | 87.8% | 76,244 mi |
| 90-120k | 175 | 80.0% | 102,250 mi |
| 120k+ | 47 | 91.5% | 142,142 mi |
Source: 500 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.
2014 225 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2014 BMW 225?
85.6% of the 500 2014 BMW 225 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 80.2% for cars first used in 2014. First-attempt pass rate: 83.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2014 BMW 225?
The three most recorded items are shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak (5.20%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.80%), tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (1.80%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2014 BMW 225 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 94.7% of the time, falling to 91.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2014 BMW 225 in this dataset had covered 86,633 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2014 BMW 225?
Diesel: 85.9% pass rate across 468 tests. Petrol: 81.3% pass rate across 32 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2014 BMW 225 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 86.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 84.5%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.