Pass rate
89.7%
Above average — 5.7 pts ahead of the 84.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 68 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £34–£78
2016 BMW 4 Series MOT pass rate
- 2016
- typical 61,825 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
42.6% 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 92.1% pass
- Avoid 2015 83.2% pass
Across the 7 years on record, a spread of 8.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 88.7%
- Typical mileage
- 62k mi
The 2016 BMW 4 Series MOT pass rate is 89.7% of its MOT tests — 5.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 42.6% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.2× the national share
Tyres make up 42.6% of everything recorded on the 2016 BMW 4 Series, against 19.8% nationally — 22.8 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 89.7% — 5.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 30% 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 4 Series? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2016 BMW 4 Series compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 84.0%, so this figure is 5.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 88.7%. The median 2016 BMW 4 Series in this dataset had covered 61,825 mi.
56% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 89.5% of the time.
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.
- 89.7% overall pass rate, 88.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 4 Series, the average is 85.4% — best year 2018 (92.1%), worst 2015 (83.2%).
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
- 68
- Typical mileage (median)
- 61,825 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 4 Series
- 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 4 Series MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 75% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (56% of tests).
Where the BMW 4 Series is most common
Across all 4 Series model years on record (2013–2019): 2,078 BMW 4 Series cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 4,210 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 97 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) | 97 | 90.5% |
| 2 | High Wycombe (HP) | 49 | 88.9% |
| 3 | Leicester (LE) | 46 | 90.3% |
| 4 | Peterborough (PE) | 46 | 87.8% |
| 5 | Sheffield (S) | 45 | 81.6% |
| 6 | Nottingham (NG) | 43 | 81.4% |
| 7 | Chelmsford (CM) | 43 | 89.3% |
| 8 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 40 | 79.0% |
| 9 | Glasgow (G) | 37 | 84.0% |
| 10 | Bristol (BS) | 35 | 76.9% |
| 11 | London (E) | 33 | 92.5% |
| 12 | Reading (RG) | 31 | 77.8% |
| 13 | Northampton (NN) | 31 | 87.9% |
| 14 | Middlesbrough (TS) | 30 | 87.5% |
| 15 | Manchester (M) | 29 | 91.4% |
| 16 | Wembley (HA) | 29 | 93.5% |
| 17 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 28 | 89.5% |
| 18 | Warrington (WA) | 27 | 82.1% |
| 19 | Coventry (CV) | 27 | 87.0% |
| 20 | Hayes (UB) | 27 | 88.2% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 4 Series 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 4 Series
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 18 | 94.4% |
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 4 Series
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 4 Series
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 wipers and washers 2.9% 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 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
“stop 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.
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 4 Series through its MOT
Across the 8 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £34–£78 — and 30% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 8 common items
- £34–£78
- Cheapest common item: stop lamp not working
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 88%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 30%
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 4 Series, side by side
7 model years on record, from 2013 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 83.2% to 92.1% — a spread of 8.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2013 84.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2014 84.6% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2015 83.2% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2016 89.7%has a bulge, caused by separation…
- 2017 89.2% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2018 92.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 90.7% 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 4 Series 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
- MINI Countryman 89.8%
- Porsche Cayenne 89.5%
- Mercedes-Benz Gle 90.0%
- Mercedes-Benz S-Class 89.4%
- SEAT Ateca 90.0%
- Land Rover Defender 90.0%
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 4 Series 8 failure items · 6 advisories · 9 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 54 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 | 23 | 42.60% | 19.76% | +22.84 |
| Brakes | 18 | 33.30% | 20.89% | +12.41 |
| Non-component advisories | 4 | 7.40% | 4.18% | +3.22 |
| Visibility | 3 | 5.60% | 4.97% | +0.63 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2 | 3.70% | 5.52% | −1.82 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1 | 1.90% | 12.21% | −10.31 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1 | 1.90% | 5.57% | −3.67 |
| Steering | 1 | 1.90% | 2.57% | −0.67 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1 | 1.90% | 1.76% | +0.14 |
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 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 2.9% | £5–15 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Rectified | 1.5% | £18–45 |
| Has a lump, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency less than 50% of the required value Brakes | Major | 1.5% | £45–110 |
| Stop lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.5% | £3–12 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Rectified | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.5% | £80–200 |
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 | 14.7% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 10.3% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 8.8% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.8% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 4.4% | £45–110 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.9% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 6 | 83.3% | 27,647 mi |
| 30-60k | 26 | 92.3% | 43,743 mi |
| 60-90k | 26 | 88.5% | 71,445 mi |
| 90-120k | 9 | 88.9% | 104,719 mi |
| 120k+ | 1 | 100.0% | 147,864 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.
2016 4 Series MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2016 BMW 4 Series?
89.7% of the 68 2016 BMW 4 Series tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 84.0% for cars first used in 2016. First-attempt pass rate: 88.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2016 BMW 4 Series?
The three most recorded items are has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure (2.94%), washers provides insufficient washer liquid (2.94%), brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick (1.47%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2016 BMW 4 Series MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 83.3% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2016 BMW 4 Series in this dataset had covered 61,825 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2016 BMW 4 Series?
Diesel: 89.5% pass rate across 38 tests. Petrol: 90.0% pass rate across 30 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.