Pass rate
88.6%
Above average — 12.7 pts ahead of the 75.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 79 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £16–£44
2011 BMW 325 MOT pass rate
- 2011
- typical 66,593 mi
Only 79 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
Suspension
33.0% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2011 88.6% pass · this year
- Avoid 2003 73.2% pass
Across the 9 years on record, a spread of 15.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 88.7%
- Typical mileage
- 67k mi
The 2011 BMW 325 MOT pass rate is 88.6% of its MOT tests — 12.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 33.0% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.6× the national share
Suspension accounts for 33.0% of everything recorded on the 2011 BMW 325, against 21.0% nationally — 12.0 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 75.9% and this one manages 88.6% — 12.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Failures here tend to be cheap ones. 58% of the repairs this model fails on cost under £30 in parts. The pass rate matters less than what a bad afternoon at the test centre actually costs you.
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 325? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2011 BMW 325 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 75.9%, so this figure is 12.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 88.7%. The median 2011 BMW 325 in this dataset had covered 66,593 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 77% of tests, with a 85.2% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 82.4% of the time, April–September 93.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Position lamp not working", noted on 2.53% of tests.
- 79 recorded tests behind this page.
- 88.6% overall pass rate, 88.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 325, the average is 80.4% — best year 2011 (88.6%), worst 2003 (73.2%).
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
- 79
- Typical mileage (median)
- 66,593 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 325
- 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 325 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 69% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (77% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the 325
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 26 | 92.3% |
| South West | 25 | 84.0% |
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 2011 325
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 2011 325
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 2.5% of tests
“position lamp not working”
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 2.5% of tests
“washers provides insufficient washer liquid”
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.
-
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.
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 2011 325 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £16–£44 — and 58% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £16–£44
- Cheapest common item: washers provides insufficient washer liquid
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: has a cut in excess of the requirements deep…
- £45–£95
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 58%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 79 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 325, side by side
9 model years on record, from 2001 to 2011. Across them the pass rate runs from 73.2% to 88.6% — a spread of 15.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2001 74.6% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2003 73.2% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2005 80.0% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2006 84.0% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 76.8% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2008 80.8% anti-lock braking system warning…
- 2009 80.1% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2010 87.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2011 88.6%position lamp not working
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 2011 BMW 325 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 2011 cars with a similar record
- Honda Fit 86.9%
- Audi A8 90.3%
- Porsche Cayenne 86.8%
- Lexus IS250 86.8%
- Jaguar Xkr 86.4%
- Lexus Ct 85.8%
Closest pass rates among 2011 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 2011 BMW 325 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 8 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 88 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 | 29 | 33.00% | 20.98% | +12.02 |
| Tyres | 23 | 26.10% | 19.76% | +6.34 |
| Brakes | 17 | 19.30% | 20.89% | −1.59 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 7 | 8.00% | 12.21% | −4.21 |
| Visibility | 6 | 6.80% | 4.97% | +1.83 |
| Non-component advisories | 3 | 3.40% | 4.18% | −0.78 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2 | 2.30% | 5.52% | −3.22 |
| Road Wheels | 1 | 1.10% | 0.75% | +0.35 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.5% | £5–25 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 2.5% | £5–15 |
| Anti-lock braking system warning lamp indicates an ABS fault Brakes | Rectified | 1.3% | £3–15 |
| Anti-lock braking system warning lamp indicates an ABS fault Brakes | Major | 1.3% | £3–15 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £25–65 |
| Fixing missing Road Wheels | Major | 1.3% | £20–55 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.3% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Rectified | 1.3% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.3% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp cleaning device for LED or HID headlamp inoperative Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.3% | £5–25 |
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 | 12.7% | £45–95 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 11.4% | £30–75 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 7.6% | £18–45 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 6.3% | £45–95 |
| Sub-frame corroded and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 5.1% | £180–450 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 3.8% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 3 | 100.0% | 26,560 mi |
| 30-60k | 33 | 90.9% | 49,019 mi |
| 60-90k | 22 | 77.3% | 72,106 mi |
| 90-120k | 13 | 92.3% | 106,844 mi |
| 120k+ | 8 | 100.0% | 158,878 mi |
Source: 79 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.
2011 325 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2011 BMW 325?
88.6% of the 79 2011 BMW 325 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 75.9% for cars first used in 2011. First-attempt pass rate: 88.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2011 BMW 325?
The three most recorded items are position lamp not working (2.53%), washers provides insufficient washer liquid (2.53%), anti-lock braking system warning lamp indicates an abs fault (1.27%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2011 BMW 325 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2011 BMW 325 in this dataset had covered 66,593 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2011 BMW 325?
Petrol: 85.2% pass rate across 61 tests. Diesel: 100.0% pass rate across 18 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2011 BMW 325 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 82.4% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 93.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.