Pass rate
92.6%
Above average — 8.6 pts ahead of the 84.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 404 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £35–£86
2016 BMW 340I MOT pass rate
- 2016
- typical 56,092 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
37.9% 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 →
Which year to buy
- Best 2018 93.8% pass
- Avoid 2019 92.0% pass
Across the 4 years on record, a spread of 1.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 92.0%
- Typical mileage
- 56k mi
The 2016 BMW 340I MOT pass rate is 92.6% of its MOT tests — 8.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 37.9% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.9× the national share
Tyres make up 37.9% of everything recorded on the 2016 BMW 340i, against 19.8% nationally — 18.1 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.
- 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 84.0% and this one manages 92.6% — 8.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 20% 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 340I? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2016 BMW 340I compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 84.0%, so this figure is 8.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 92.0%. The median 2016 BMW 340I in this dataset had covered 56,092 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 92.1% of the time, April–September 93.7%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt", noted on 1.73% of tests.
- 404 recorded tests behind this page.
- 92.6% overall pass rate, 92.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 340I, the average is 92.7% — best year 2018 (93.8%), worst 2019 (92.0%).
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
- 404
- Typical mileage (median)
- 56,092 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 340I
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the 340I MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 81% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the BMW 340I is most common
Across all 340I model years on record (2016–2019): 1,408 BMW 340I cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 2,807 tests. Guildford (GU) has the most, with 46 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 | Guildford (GU) | 46 | 92.6% |
| 2 | Reading (RG) | 38 | 90.5% |
| 3 | Bristol (BS) | 38 | 94.7% |
| 4 | Birmingham (B) | 34 | 93.3% |
| 5 | Crawley (RH) | 31 | 81.6% |
| 6 | High Wycombe (HP) | 29 | 96.0% |
| 7 | Hounslow (TW) | 26 | 96.7% |
| 8 | Brighton (BN) | 26 | 91.4% |
| 9 | Peterborough (PE) | 25 | 93.9% |
| 10 | Ashford (TN) | 24 | 85.7% |
| 11 | Leicester (LE) | 24 | 88.6% |
| 12 | Slough (SL) | 23 | 86.3% |
| 13 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 23 | 95.9% |
| 14 | Nottingham (NG) | 22 | 89.2% |
| 15 | London (E) | 22 | 91.4% |
| 16 | Coventry (CV) | 21 | 97.7% |
| 17 | Enfield (EN) | 21 | 90.2% |
| 18 | Sheffield (S) | 21 | 95.1% |
| 19 | Derby (DE) | 20 | — |
| 20 | Leeds (LS) | 19 | 92.5% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 340I 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 340I
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 185 | 92.4% |
| London | 36 | 91.7% |
| South West | 34 | 91.2% |
| East of England | 29 | 89.7% |
| West Midlands | 29 | 93.1% |
| North West | 22 | 95.5% |
| Yorkshire | 22 | 86.4% |
| East Midlands | 16 | 100.0% |
| Wales | 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 2016 340I
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 2016 340I
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 suspension joints 1.7% of tests
“track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated,”
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 windscreen 1.7% 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 tyre tread 1.0% 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 2016 340I through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £35–£86 — and 20% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £35–£86
- Cheapest common item: washers provides insufficient washer liquid
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 20%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 404 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 340I, side by side
4 model years on record, from 2016 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 92.0% to 93.8% — a spread of 1.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2016 92.6%track rod end ball joint dust…
- 2017 92.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 93.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 92.0% 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 2016 BMW 340I 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 2016 cars with a similar record
Closest pass rates among 2016 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 2016 BMW 340I 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 172 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 | 66 | 37.90% | 19.76% | +18.14 |
| Visibility | 20 | 11.50% | 4.97% | +6.53 |
| Non-component advisories | 20 | 11.50% | 4.18% | +7.32 |
| Brakes | 19 | 10.90% | 20.89% | −9.99 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 15 | 8.60% | 12.21% | −3.61 |
| Suspension | 12 | 6.90% | 20.98% | −14.08 |
| Steering | 8 | 4.60% | 2.57% | +2.03 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 6 | 3.40% | 1.76% | +1.64 |
| Road Wheels | 4 | 2.30% | 0.75% | +1.55 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2 | 1.10% | 5.52% | −4.42 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt Steering | Minor | 1.7% | £18–45 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.7% | £80–200 |
| Side repeaters not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.2% | £5–25 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.99% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.99% | £45–95 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.74% | £45–95 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Rectified | 0.74% | £5–15 |
| Window excessively tinted but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 0.74% | £20–80 |
| Fractured Road Wheels | Major | 0.50% | £20–55 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.50% | £30–80 |
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 | 8.4% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 3.0% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 2.7% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.5% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 1.2% | £45–110 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.2% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 39 | 94.9% | 22,726 mi |
| 30-60k | 196 | 93.4% | 46,720 mi |
| 60-90k | 136 | 91.2% | 72,418 mi |
| 90-120k | 28 | 89.3% | 101,330 mi |
| 120k+ | 5 | 100.0% | 130,100 mi |
Source: 404 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.
2016 340I MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2016 BMW 340I?
92.6% of the 404 2016 BMW 340I tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 84.0% for cars first used in 2016. First-attempt pass rate: 92.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2016 BMW 340I?
The three most recorded items are track rod end ball joint dust cover damaged or deteriorated, but preventing the ingress of dirt (1.73%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.73%), side repeaters not working (1.24%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2016 BMW 340I MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 94.9% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2016 BMW 340I in this dataset had covered 56,092 mi.
Does the season affect the 2016 BMW 340I MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 92.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 93.7%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.