Pass rate
86.7%
Above average — 13.6 pts ahead of the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 60 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £43–£104
2008 BMW 330 MOT pass rate
- 2008
- typical 89,840 mi
Only 60 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
Suspension
35.3% 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 89.6% pass
- Avoid 2003 73.8% pass
Across the 18 years on record, a spread of 15.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 84.9%
- Typical mileage
- 90k mi
The 2008 BMW 330 MOT pass rate is 86.7% of its MOT tests — 13.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 35.3% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW 330 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.7× the national share
Suspension accounts for 35.3% of everything recorded on the 2008 BMW 330, against 21.0% nationally — 14.3 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 73.1% and this one manages 86.7% — 13.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 7% 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 330? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2008 BMW 330 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, so this figure is 13.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 84.9%. The median 2008 BMW 330 in this dataset had covered 89,840 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 67% of tests, with a 90.0% pass rate.
The single most recorded failure item is "Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak", noted on 8.33% of tests.
- 60 recorded tests behind this page.
- 86.7% overall pass rate, 84.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 330, the average is 88.9% — best year 2019 (89.6%), worst 2003 (73.8%).
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
- 60
- Typical mileage (median)
- 89,840 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 330
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
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 330 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 65% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (67% of tests).
What fails a 2008 330
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 2008 330
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 8.3% 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 brakes 1.7% of tests
“brake discs significantly and obviously worn”
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.
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 2008 330 through its MOT
Across the 9 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £43–£104 — and 7% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 9 common items
- £43–£104
- Cheapest common item: position lamp not working
- £5–£25
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 89%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 7%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 60 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 330, side by side
18 model years on record, from 2001 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 73.8% to 89.6% — a spread of 15.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2001 84.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2002 78.9% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2003 73.8% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2005 80.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2006 80.6% position lamp with a multiple…
- 2007 74.0% position lamp with a multiple…
- 2008 86.7%shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2011 81.9% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2012 82.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2013 85.5% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2014 82.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 87.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 89.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 89.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 89.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 89.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 88.1% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 89.3% 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 2008 BMW 330 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 2008 cars with a similar record
- Mercedes-Benz Sl 86.7%
- Audi A8 87.0%
- Toyota Estima 84.8%
- Porsche Cayman 84.8%
- Porsche Boxster 89.4%
- Toyota Alphard 83.8%
Closest pass rates among 2008 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 2008 BMW 330 9 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 68 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 | 24 | 35.30% | 20.98% | +14.32 |
| Brakes | 16 | 23.50% | 20.89% | +2.61 |
| Tyres | 15 | 22.10% | 19.76% | +2.34 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 4 | 5.90% | 5.52% | +0.38 |
| Visibility | 3 | 4.40% | 4.97% | −0.57 |
| Non-component advisories | 3 | 4.40% | 4.18% | +0.22 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 2 | 2.90% | 1.76% | +1.14 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1 | 1.50% | 12.21% | −10.71 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 8.3% | £30–75 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 5.0% | £80–200 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Major | 1.7% | £45–110 |
| Flexible brake hoses slightly damaged Brakes | Minor | 1.7% | £25–70 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 1.7% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords damaged Tyres | Major | 1.7% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.7% | £45–95 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.7% | £5–25 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.7% | £45–95 |
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 | 15.0% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 8.3% | £45–110 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 8.3% | £25–65 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 8.3% | £30–75 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 6.7% | £200–700 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 6.7% | £40–150 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 7 | 100.0% | 48,052 mi |
| 60-90k | 23 | 73.9% | 75,667 mi |
| 90-120k | 12 | 83.3% | 98,217 mi |
| 120k+ | 18 | 100.0% | 154,835 mi |
Source: 60 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.
2008 330 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2008 BMW 330?
86.7% of the 60 2008 BMW 330 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 84.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2008 BMW 330?
The three most recorded items are shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak (8.33%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (5.00%), brake discs significantly and obviously worn (1.67%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2008 BMW 330 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 2008 BMW 330 in this dataset had covered 89,840 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2008 BMW 330?
Petrol: 90.0% pass rate across 40 tests. Diesel: 80.0% pass rate across 20 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.