Pass rate
77.9%
Around average — 3.2 pts ahead of the 74.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 140 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £31–£80
2010 BMW 318 MOT pass rate
- 2010
- typical 104,562 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
26.9% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £40–£65 for Shock absorber leaking. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 89.4% pass
- Avoid 2004 74.0% pass
Across the 17 years on record, a spread of 15.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 71.8%
- Typical mileage
- 105k mi
The 2010 BMW 318 MOT pass rate is 77.9% of its MOT tests — 3.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.9% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.3× the national share
Suspension accounts for 26.9% of everything recorded on the 2010 BMW 318, against 21.0% nationally — 5.9 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
- 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 74.7% and this one manages 77.9% — 3.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 31% 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 318? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2010 BMW 318 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 74.7%, so this figure is 3.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 71.8%. The median 2010 BMW 318 in this dataset had covered 104,562 mi.
50% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 81.4% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 72.9% of the time, April–September 82.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak", noted on 10.00% of tests.
- 140 recorded tests behind this page.
- 77.9% overall pass rate, 71.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 318, the average is 87.9% — best year 2019 (89.4%), worst 2004 (74.0%).
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
- 140
- Typical mileage (median)
- 104,562 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 318
- 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 318 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 60% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (50% of tests).
Where the BMW 318 is most common
Across all 318 model years on record (2004–2021): 14,243 BMW 318 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 29,335 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 525 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) | 525 | 89.9% |
| 2 | Glasgow (G) | 470 | 86.2% |
| 3 | Manchester (M) | 300 | 88.4% |
| 4 | Coventry (CV) | 261 | 90.0% |
| 5 | Peterborough (PE) | 261 | 87.4% |
| 6 | Sheffield (S) | 256 | 86.6% |
| 7 | Leicester (LE) | 253 | 90.3% |
| 8 | Warrington (WA) | 240 | 90.1% |
| 9 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 230 | 90.6% |
| 10 | Liverpool (L) | 229 | 87.2% |
| 11 | Nottingham (NG) | 228 | 87.8% |
| 12 | Bristol (BS) | 220 | 81.7% |
| 13 | Edinburgh (EH) | 218 | 84.5% |
| 14 | Cardiff (CF) | 202 | 86.4% |
| 15 | London (E) | 200 | 91.2% |
| 16 | Northampton (NN) | 192 | 84.2% |
| 17 | Hamilton (ML) | 190 | 87.1% |
| 18 | Preston (PR) | 188 | 89.8% |
| 19 | Stockport (SK) | 188 | 88.4% |
| 20 | London (SE) | 183 | 91.0% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 318 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 318
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 37 | 73.0% |
| West Midlands | 24 | 66.7% |
| South East | 23 | 87.0% |
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 2010 318
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 2010 318
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 10.0% 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 5.0% 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 lights 4.3% of tests
“headlamp lens slightly defective”
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 2010 318 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £31–£80 — and 31% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £31–£80
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 31%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 140 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 318, side by side
17 model years on record, from 2004 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 74.0% to 89.4% — a spread of 15.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2004 74.0% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2006 85.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2007 80.4% ball joint dust cover no longer…
- 2008 77.4% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2009 74.6% position lamp not working
- 2010 77.9%shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2011 82.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2012 81.0% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2013 82.4% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2014 83.5% headlamp not working on dipped…
- 2015 83.3% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2016 86.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 87.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 89.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 89.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 88.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2021 86.8% 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 2010 BMW 318 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 2010 cars with a similar record
- Nissan Pixo 77.9%
- Toyota Verso 77.9%
- Volkswagen Touareg 77.9%
- Smart Mcc Fortwo Cabriolet 77.9%
- Smart Mcc Fortwo 78.0%
- Suzuki Grand Vitara 78.0%
Closest pass rates among 2010 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 2010 BMW 318 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 281 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 76 | 26.90% | 20.98% | +5.92 |
| Brakes | 61 | 21.60% | 20.89% | +0.71 |
| Tyres | 48 | 17.00% | 19.76% | −2.76 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 22 | 7.80% | 12.21% | −4.41 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 21 | 7.40% | 5.52% | +1.88 |
| Visibility | 14 | 4.90% | 4.97% | −0.07 |
| Non-component advisories | 14 | 4.90% | 4.18% | +0.72 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 13 | 4.60% | 5.57% | −0.97 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 11 | 3.90% | 1.76% | +2.14 |
| Steering | 1 | 0.40% | 2.57% | −2.17 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 10.0% | £30–75 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 5.0% | £80–200 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.3% | £5–25 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 3.6% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 2.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 2.1% | £18–45 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.1% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.4% | £5–25 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.4% | £3–12 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.4% | £5–20 |
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 | 21.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 12.1% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 10.7% | £18–45 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 10.7% | £200–700 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 10.7% | £40–150 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 8.6% | £30–75 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 7 | 85.7% | 52,955 mi |
| 60-90k | 26 | 88.5% | 73,186 mi |
| 90-120k | 62 | 79.0% | 102,965 mi |
| 120k+ | 45 | 68.9% | 159,441 mi |
Source: 140 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.
2010 318 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2010 BMW 318?
77.9% of the 140 2010 BMW 318 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.7% for cars first used in 2010. First-attempt pass rate: 71.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2010 BMW 318?
The three most recorded items are shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak (10.00%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (5.00%), headlamp lens slightly defective (4.29%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2010 BMW 318 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 85.7% of the time, falling to 68.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2010 BMW 318 in this dataset had covered 104,562 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2010 BMW 318?
Petrol: 81.4% pass rate across 70 tests. Diesel: 74.3% pass rate across 70 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2010 BMW 318 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 72.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 82.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.