Pass rate
83.5%
Around average — 3.3 pts ahead of the 80.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 109 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £23–£65
2014 BMW 318 MOT pass rate
- 2014
- typical 91,817 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
31.1% 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 →
1.5 pts down across model years — 7.5% in 2016, 6.0% in 2020.
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
- 80.2%
- Typical mileage
- 92k mi
The 2014 BMW 318 MOT pass rate is 83.5% of its MOT tests — 3.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 31.1% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.6× the national share
Tyres make up 31.1% of everything recorded on the 2014 BMW 318, against 19.8% nationally — 11.3 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 83.5% — 3.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Based on a small sample. 109 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 318? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2014 BMW 318 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 80.2%, so this figure is 3.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 80.2%. The median 2014 BMW 318 in this dataset had covered 91,817 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 84.6% of the time, April–September 81.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp not working on dipped beam", noted on 2.75% of tests.
- 109 recorded tests behind this page.
- 83.5% overall pass rate, 80.2% 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
- 109
- Typical mileage (median)
- 91,817 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
Headlight Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the 318 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 72% so small gaps stay visible.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 21 | 81.0% |
| East of England | 18 | 88.9% |
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 2014 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 2014 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 lights 2.8% of tests
“headlamp not working on dipped beam”
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 1.8% 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 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 318 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £23–£65 — and 39% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £23–£65
- Cheapest common item: washers provides insufficient washer liquid
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: pins
- £40–£150
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 39%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 109 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 2014 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 2014 cars with a similar record
- Audi A5 83.5%
- Land Rover Discovery 83.5%
- Volvo XC70 83.5%
- Citroen C1 83.4%
- Skoda Yeti 83.6%
- Peugeot 108 83.4%
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 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 134 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 | 42 | 31.10% | 19.76% | +11.34 |
| Brakes | 35 | 25.90% | 20.89% | +5.01 |
| Suspension | 18 | 13.30% | 20.98% | −7.68 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 13 | 9.60% | 12.21% | −2.61 |
| Non-component advisories | 10 | 7.40% | 4.18% | +3.22 |
| Visibility | 5 | 3.70% | 4.97% | −1.27 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 4 | 3.00% | 1.76% | +1.24 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 3 | 2.20% | 5.52% | −3.32 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 2 | 1.50% | 5.57% | −4.07 |
| Steering | 2 | 1.50% | 2.57% | −1.07 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.8% | £5–25 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.8% | £30–80 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.8% | £40–150 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £5–25 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.8% | £45–95 |
| Tyre pressure monitoring system malfunctioning or obviously inoperative Tyres | Major | 1.8% | £45–95 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 1.8% | £5–15 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 0.92% | £18–45 |
| Bonnet cannot be secured in the closed position Visibility | Rectified | 0.92% | £20–80 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.92% | £18–45 |
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 | 21.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 11.0% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 8.3% | £45–110 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 5.5% | £40–150 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 5.5% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 4.6% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 10 | 80.0% | 50,770 mi |
| 60-90k | 39 | 84.6% | 78,252 mi |
| 90-120k | 38 | 84.2% | 101,640 mi |
| 120k+ | 22 | 81.8% | 148,110 mi |
Source: 109 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 318 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2014 BMW 318?
83.5% of the 109 2014 BMW 318 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 80.2% for cars first used in 2014. First-attempt pass rate: 80.2%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2014 BMW 318?
The three most recorded items are headlamp not working on dipped beam (2.75%), headlamp aim too low (1.83%), pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn (1.83%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2014 BMW 318 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 80.0% of the time, falling to 81.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2014 BMW 318 in this dataset had covered 91,817 mi.
Does the season affect the 2014 BMW 318 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 84.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 81.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.