Pass rate
94.1%
Above average — 0.7 pts behind the 94.8% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 68 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £32–£72
2023 BMW 320I MOT pass rate
- 2023
- 2 trims combined
- typical 20,246 mi
Only 68 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.
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
42.9% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Part only £55–£85 for Tyre has a tear. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 94.1% pass · this year
- Avoid 2020 90.6% pass
Across the 5 years on record, a spread of 3.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 93.8%
- Typical mileage
- 20k mi
The 2023 BMW 320I MOT pass rate is 94.1% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 42.9% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.2× the national share
Tyres make up 42.9% of everything recorded on the 2023 BMW 320i, against 19.8% nationally — 23.1 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 17% 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. 68 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 320I? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every BMW 320I first registered in 2023 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2023 BMW 320I compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 94.8%, so this figure is 0.7 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 93.8%. The median 2023 BMW 320I in this dataset had covered 20,246 mi.
The single most recorded failure item is "Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure", noted on 2.94% of tests.
- 68 recorded tests behind this page.
- 94.1% overall pass rate, 93.8% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 320I, the average is 91.2% — best year 2023 (94.1%), worst 2020 (90.6%).
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
- 68
- Typical mileage (median)
- 20,246 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 320I
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
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 320I MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 85% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the BMW 320I is most common
Across all 320I model years on record (2019–2023): 11,246 BMW 320I cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 17,070 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 387 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) | 387 | 88.6% |
| 2 | Glasgow (G) | 326 | 87.0% |
| 3 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 253 | 95.4% |
| 4 | Manchester (M) | 230 | 88.3% |
| 5 | Peterborough (PE) | 223 | 92.2% |
| 6 | Nottingham (NG) | 219 | 92.6% |
| 7 | Sheffield (S) | 203 | 90.6% |
| 8 | Doncaster (DN) | 189 | 92.2% |
| 9 | Ilford (IG) | 188 | 91.1% |
| 10 | Stockport (SK) | 187 | 87.4% |
| 11 | Liverpool (L) | 181 | 92.3% |
| 12 | Coventry (CV) | 175 | 92.9% |
| 13 | Warrington (WA) | 174 | 90.7% |
| 14 | Leeds (LS) | 171 | 94.0% |
| 15 | Reading (RG) | 167 | 88.8% |
| 16 | Guildford (GU) | 167 | 94.9% |
| 17 | Bolton (BL) | 166 | 89.1% |
| 18 | Northampton (NN) | 164 | 88.8% |
| 19 | Leicester (LE) | 163 | 92.7% |
| 20 | Preston (PR) | 158 | 90.9% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 320I 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 320I
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| North West | 15 | 93.3% |
| South East | 15 | 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 2023 320I
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 2023 320I
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 brakes 1.5% of tests
“brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick”
Look through the spokes of each wheel at the pad — less than 3mm of friction material, or a lip on the disc edge, is the usual failure. Check the handbrake holds on a slope with a few clicks, not at the top of its travel.
-
Check the lights 1.5% 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 wipers and washers 1.5% of tests
“wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively”
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 2023 320I through its MOT
Across the 5 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £32–£72 — and 17% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 5 common items
- £32–£72
- Cheapest common item: wipers does not clear the windscreen…
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: has a bulge, caused by separation or partial…
- £45–£95
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 17%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 68 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 320I, side by side
5 model years on record, from 2019 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 90.6% to 94.1% — a spread of 3.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2019 93.1% has a bulge, caused by separation…
- 2020 90.6% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 91.1% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 92.7% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 94.1%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 2023 BMW 320I 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 2023 cars with a similar record
- Polestar Polestar 94.6%
- Tesla Model Y 92.9%
- Kia Niro 95.5%
- Toyota Corolla 95.7%
- Mercedes-Benz Eqe 96.5%
- Ford Puma 96.5%
Closest pass rates among 2023 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 2023 BMW 320I 5 failure items · 5 advisories · 5 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 14 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 | 6 | 42.90% | 19.76% | +23.14 |
| Brakes | 4 | 28.60% | 20.89% | +7.71 |
| Non-component advisories | 2 | 14.30% | 4.18% | +10.12 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1 | 7.10% | 12.21% | −5.11 |
| Visibility | 1 | 7.10% | 4.97% | +2.13 |
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 | 2.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.5% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.5% | £30–80 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.5% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 4.4% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.9% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.5% | £20–80 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 1.5% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 58 | 93.1% | 17,859 mi |
| 30-60k | 10 | 100.0% | 37,819 mi |
Source: 68 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.
2023 320I MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2023 BMW 320I?
94.1% of the 68 2023 BMW 320I tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 94.8% for cars first used in 2023. First-attempt pass rate: 93.8%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2023 BMW 320I?
The three most recorded items are has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure (2.94%), brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick (1.47%), has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure (1.47%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2023 BMW 320I MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.1% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2023 BMW 320I in this dataset had covered 20,246 mi.