Pass rate
91.1%
Above average — 0.1 pts behind the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 744 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £40–£93
2021 BMW 420 MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 30,037 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
47.9% 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 →
1.0 pts down across model years — 6.8% in 2013, 5.8% in 2021.
Which year to buy
- Best 2021 91.1% pass · this year
- Avoid 2013 82.7% pass
Across the 9 years on record, a spread of 8.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 90.3%
- Typical mileage
- 30k mi
The 2021 BMW 420 MOT pass rate is 91.1% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 47.9% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW 420 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.4× the national share
Tyres make up 47.9% of everything recorded on the 2021 BMW 420, against 19.8% nationally — 28.1 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.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 15% 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 420? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 BMW 420 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 0.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 90.3%. The median 2021 BMW 420 in this dataset had covered 30,037 mi.
96% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Petrol, which passed 91.2% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 91.6% of the time, April–September 90.6%.
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 2.15% of tests.
- 744 recorded tests behind this page.
- 91.1% overall pass rate, 90.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 420, the average is 87.1% — best year 2021 (91.1%), worst 2013 (82.7%).
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
- 744
- Typical mileage (median)
- 30,037 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 420
- 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 420 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 80% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (96% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the 420
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 139 | 93.5% |
| North West | 96 | 90.6% |
| East of England | 95 | 89.5% |
| West Midlands | 78 | 91.0% |
| Yorkshire | 69 | 94.2% |
| Scotland | 63 | 92.1% |
| South West | 57 | 89.5% |
| East Midlands | 48 | 89.6% |
| Wales | 48 | 85.4% |
| London | 28 | 96.4% |
| North East | 23 | 87.0% |
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 2021 420
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 2021 420
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 1.8% 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 1.1% 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.
-
Check the brakes 0.9% 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.
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 2021 420 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £40–£93 — and 15% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £40–£93
- 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
- 15%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 744 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 420, side by side
9 model years on record, from 2013 to 2021. Across them the pass rate runs from 82.7% to 91.1% — a spread of 8.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2013 82.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2014 83.3% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2015 85.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 87.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 88.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 88.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 88.6% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 90.3% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 91.1%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 2021 BMW 420 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 2021 cars with a similar record
- Audi A3 91.1%
- Vauxhall Mokka Ultimate 91.1%
- SEAT Ibiza 91.0%
- Audi E-Tron 91.0%
- Land Rover Range Rover Velar 91.0%
- Cupra Formentor V1 91.0%
Closest pass rates among 2021 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 2021 BMW 420 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 461 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 | 221 | 47.90% | 19.76% | +28.14 |
| Brakes | 135 | 29.30% | 20.89% | +8.41 |
| Non-component advisories | 33 | 7.20% | 4.18% | +3.02 |
| Visibility | 27 | 5.90% | 4.97% | +0.93 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 15 | 3.30% | 12.21% | −8.91 |
| Suspension | 11 | 2.40% | 20.98% | −18.58 |
| Road Wheels | 10 | 2.20% | 0.75% | +1.45 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 6 | 1.30% | 5.52% | −4.22 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 3 | 0.70% | 1.76% | −1.06 |
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 | 2.1% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.9% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.8% | £80–200 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.94% | £18–45 |
| Brake pads worn down to wear indicator Brakes | Major | 0.67% | £18–45 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.67% | £8–22 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 0.54% | £5–15 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.40% | £30–80 |
| Side repeaters not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.40% | £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 | 16.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 10.2% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 3.5% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.8% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.5% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 2.4% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 371 | 93.5% | 20,188 mi |
| 30-60k | 339 | 88.2% | 39,308 mi |
| 60-90k | 31 | 93.5% | 70,772 mi |
| 90-120k | 3 | 100.0% | 109,186 mi |
Source: 744 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.
2021 420 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 BMW 420?
91.1% of the 744 2021 BMW 420 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 90.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 BMW 420?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (2.15%), has ply or cords exposed (1.88%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.75%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 BMW 420 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.5% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 BMW 420 in this dataset had covered 30,037 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2021 BMW 420?
Petrol: 91.2% pass rate across 715 tests. Diesel: 89.7% pass rate across 29 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2021 BMW 420 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 91.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 90.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.