Pass rate
87.7%
Above average — 4.3 pts behind the 92.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 81 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £36–£79
2022 BMW 3 Series MOT pass rate
- 2022
- typical 25,512 mi
Only 81 tests of this exact model and year are in the DVSA data, below the 100 we ask for before a page goes in the index. The figures are still shown, because they are the only ones there are.
Most common fault
Tyres
62.5% 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 →
0.9 pts down across model years — 5.1% in 2000, 4.2% in 2021.
Which year to buy
- Best 2021 91.0% pass
- Avoid 2004 76.5% pass
Across the 23 years on record, a spread of 14.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 86.1%
- Typical mileage
- 26k mi
The 2022 BMW 3 Series MOT pass rate is 87.7% of its MOT tests — 4.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 62.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW 3 Series does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 3.2× the national share
Tyres make up 62.5% of everything recorded on the 2022 BMW 3 Series, against 19.8% nationally — 42.7 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.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 92.0%; this one manages 87.7% — 4.3 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 13% 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 3 Series? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2022 BMW 3 Series compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 92.0%, so this figure is 4.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 86.1%. The median 2022 BMW 3 Series in this dataset had covered 25,512 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure", noted on 3.70% of tests.
- 81 recorded tests behind this page.
- 87.7% overall pass rate, 86.1% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 3 Series, the average is 81.2% — best year 2021 (91.0%), worst 2004 (76.5%).
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
- 81
- Typical mileage (median)
- 25,512 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 3 Series
- 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 3 Series MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 77% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 3 Series
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 28 | 92.9% |
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 2022 3 Series
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 2022 3 Series
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 1.2% of tests
“headlamp aim too high”
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 tyre tread 1.2% 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 wipers and washers 1.2% 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 2022 3 Series through its MOT
Across the 9 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £36–£79 — and 13% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 9 common items
- £36–£79
- Cheapest common item: wipers blade defective
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: has a bulge, caused by separation or partial…
- £45–£95
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 89%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 13%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 81 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 3 Series, side by side
23 model years on record, from 2000 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 76.5% to 91.0% — a spread of 14.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 76.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2001 76.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2002 77.2% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2003 76.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2004 76.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2005 77.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2006 78.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2007 78.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2008 78.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2009 77.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2010 78.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2011 79.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2012 79.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2013 82.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2014 84.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 87.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 88.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 88.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 89.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 89.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 89.3% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 91.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 87.7%has a bulge, caused by separation…
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 2022 BMW 3 Series 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 2022 cars with a similar record
- Ford Ranger 87.7%
- MG 5 Excite 87.8%
- Toyota Hilux 87.6%
- MG Zs Excite Vti-Tech 88.0%
- Tesla Model Y 87.0%
- Citroen E-C4 88.4%
Closest pass rates among 2022 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 2022 BMW 3 Series 9 failure items · 6 advisories · 7 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 32 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 | 20 | 62.50% | 19.76% | +42.74 |
| Non-component advisories | 3 | 9.40% | 4.18% | +5.22 |
| Road Wheels | 3 | 9.40% | 0.75% | +8.65 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2 | 6.20% | 5.52% | +0.68 |
| Visibility | 2 | 6.20% | 4.97% | +1.23 |
| Suspension | 1 | 3.10% | 20.98% | −17.88 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1 | 3.10% | 12.21% | −9.11 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 3.7% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 3.7% | £45–95 |
| Fixing missing Road Wheels | Major | 2.5% | £20–55 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 2.5% | £45–95 |
| Has a lump, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 1.2% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.2% | £30–80 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.2% | £45–95 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.2% | £8–22 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Rectified | 1.2% | £8–22 |
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 | 7.4% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 3.7% | £45–95 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.5% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.5% | £45–95 |
| Badly distorted Road Wheels | Advisory | 1.2% | £20–55 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 1.2% | £200–700 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 52 | 88.5% | 19,641 mi |
| 30-60k | 27 | 85.2% | 37,302 mi |
| 60-90k | 2 | 100.0% | 70,891 mi |
Source: 81 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.
2022 3 Series MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2022 BMW 3 Series?
87.7% of the 81 2022 BMW 3 Series tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 92.0% for cars first used in 2022. First-attempt pass rate: 86.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2022 BMW 3 Series?
The three most recorded items are has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure (3.70%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (3.70%), fixing missing (2.47%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2022 BMW 3 Series MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.5% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2022 BMW 3 Series in this dataset had covered 25,512 mi.