Pass rate
88.9%
Above average — 1.0 pts ahead of the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 307 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £36–£85
2018 BMW 225XE Luxury MOT pass rate
- 2018
- typical 46,589 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
50.0% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 92.9% pass
- Avoid 2021 86.5% pass
Across the 4 years on record, a spread of 6.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 87.7%
- Typical mileage
- 47k mi
The 2018 BMW 225XE Luxury MOT pass rate is 88.9% of its MOT tests — 1.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 50.0% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW 225XE Luxury does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.5× the national share
Tyres make up 50.0% of everything recorded on the 2018 BMW 225xe Luxury, against 19.8% nationally — 30.2 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 14% 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.
- Based on a small sample. 307 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 225XE Luxury? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2018 BMW 225XE Luxury compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, so this figure is 1.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 87.7%. The median 2018 BMW 225XE Luxury in this dataset had covered 46,589 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 86.3% 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 2.93% of tests.
- 307 recorded tests behind this page.
- 88.9% overall pass rate, 87.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 225XE Luxury, the average is 90.4% — best year 2019 (92.9%), worst 2021 (86.5%).
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
- 307
- Typical mileage (median)
- 46,589 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 225XE 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 225XE Luxury MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 71% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 225XE Luxury
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 116 | 87.9% |
| West Midlands | 34 | 94.1% |
| East of England | 34 | 82.4% |
| North West | 28 | 92.9% |
| Yorkshire | 23 | 82.6% |
| London | 17 | 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 2018 225XE 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 2018 225XE 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 lights 1.9% 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 coil springs 1.3% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
-
Check the windscreen 1.3% 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.
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 225XE Luxury through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £36–£85 — and 14% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £36–£85
- 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
- 14%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 307 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 225XE Luxury, side by side
4 model years on record, from 2018 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 86.5% to 92.9% — a spread of 6.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2018 88.9%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2019 92.9% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 88.5% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 86.5% 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 225XE 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 2018 cars with a similar record
- Mercedes-Benz Glc 88.9%
- MINI John COOPER Works 88.9%
- Alfa Romeo Giulia 88.9%
- MINI Clubman 89.0%
- Hyundai I10 88.8%
- Mercedes-Benz Gla 88.8%
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 225XE 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 216 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 | 108 | 50.00% | 19.76% | +30.24 |
| Brakes | 39 | 18.10% | 20.89% | −2.79 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 22 | 10.20% | 12.21% | −2.01 |
| Non-component advisories | 16 | 7.40% | 4.18% | +3.22 |
| Suspension | 10 | 4.60% | 20.98% | −16.38 |
| Visibility | 9 | 4.20% | 4.97% | −0.77 |
| Road Wheels | 5 | 2.30% | 0.75% | +1.55 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 4 | 1.90% | 5.52% | −3.62 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 2 | 0.90% | 1.76% | −0.86 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1 | 0.50% | 5.57% | −5.07 |
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 | 2.9% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.9% | £30–80 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.6% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £25–65 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.3% | £80–200 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.98% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.98% | £5–25 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.98% | £3–12 |
| Tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative Tyres | Major | 0.98% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.65% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 18.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 6.2% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.5% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 4.2% | £18–45 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.6% | £20–80 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 1.6% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 71 | 94.4% | 20,687 mi |
| 30-60k | 149 | 89.9% | 44,965 mi |
| 60-90k | 63 | 79.4% | 71,675 mi |
| 90-120k | 21 | 90.5% | 100,005 mi |
| 120k+ | 3 | 100.0% | 150,043 mi |
Source: 307 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 225XE Luxury MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 BMW 225XE Luxury?
88.9% of the 307 2018 BMW 225XE Luxury tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 87.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 BMW 225XE Luxury?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (2.93%), headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect (1.95%), has ply or cords exposed (1.63%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 BMW 225XE Luxury MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 94.4% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 BMW 225XE Luxury in this dataset had covered 46,589 mi.
Does the season affect the 2018 BMW 225XE Luxury MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 86.3% 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.