Pass rate
90.7%
Above average — 1.2 pts ahead of the 89.5% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 140 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £42–£102
2019 BMW 4 Series MOT pass rate
- 2019
- typical 24,958 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
49.3% 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
- 90.0%
- Typical mileage
- 25k mi
The 2019 BMW 4 Series MOT pass rate is 90.7% of its MOT tests — 1.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 49.3% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW 4 Series does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.5× the national share
Tyres make up 49.3% of everything recorded on the 2019 BMW 4 Series, against 19.8% nationally — 29.5 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 14% 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. 140 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 4 Series? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2019 BMW 4 Series compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 89.5%, so this figure is 1.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 90.0%. The median 2019 BMW 4 Series in this dataset had covered 24,958 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 91.7% of the time, April–September 90.2%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords", noted on 3.57% of tests.
- 140 recorded tests behind this page.
- 90.7% overall pass rate, 90.0% 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
- 140
- Typical mileage (median)
- 24,958 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 4 Series
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
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 78% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 4 Series
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 35 | 88.6% |
| East of England | 25 | 92.0% |
| South West | 20 | 80.0% |
| Scotland | 15 | 93.3% |
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 2019 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 2019 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 windscreen 3.6% 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 coil springs 2.9% 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.
-
Check the wipers and washers 1.4% of tests
“wipers blade defective”
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 2019 4 Series through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £42–£102 — and 14% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £42–£102
- Cheapest common item: wipers blade defective
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 14%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 140 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 2019 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 2019 cars with a similar record
- Alfa Romeo Stelvio 90.7%
- Ford Ecosport 90.8%
- Kia Picanto 90.8%
- Volvo XC60 90.8%
- Fiat 500X 90.8%
- Audi A7 90.8%
Closest pass rates among 2019 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 2019 BMW 4 Series 10 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 69 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 | 34 | 49.30% | 19.76% | +29.54 |
| Visibility | 8 | 11.60% | 4.97% | +6.63 |
| Brakes | 7 | 10.10% | 20.89% | −10.79 |
| Non-component advisories | 7 | 10.10% | 4.18% | +5.92 |
| Suspension | 5 | 7.20% | 20.98% | −13.78 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 3 | 4.30% | 12.21% | −7.91 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2 | 2.90% | 5.52% | −2.62 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 2 | 2.90% | 1.76% | +1.14 |
| Road Wheels | 1 | 1.40% | 0.75% | +0.65 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 3.6% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.6% | £80–200 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 2.9% | £25–65 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.4% | £8–22 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.71% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim projected beam image is obviously incorrect Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.71% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.71% | £30–80 |
| Position lamp with a multiple light source up to 1/2 not functioning Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.71% | £5–25 |
| Registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements Identification of the vehicle | Major | 0.71% | £20–80 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.71% | £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 | 11.4% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.0% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 3.6% | £45–110 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.1% | £20–80 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 1.4% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 89 | 92.1% | 18,080 mi |
| 30-60k | 43 | 86.0% | 40,593 mi |
| 60-90k | 6 | 100.0% | 68,669 mi |
| 90-120k | 2 | 100.0% | 92,683 mi |
Source: 140 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.
2019 4 Series MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2019 BMW 4 Series?
90.7% of the 140 2019 BMW 4 Series tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 89.5% for cars first used in 2019. First-attempt pass rate: 90.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2019 BMW 4 Series?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (3.57%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (3.57%), coil spring fractured or broken (2.86%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2019 BMW 4 Series MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 92.1% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2019 BMW 4 Series in this dataset had covered 24,958 mi.
Does the season affect the 2019 BMW 4 Series MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 91.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 90.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.