Pass rate
88.3%
Above average — 2.9 pts behind the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 428 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £44–£97
2021 BMW 430D MOT pass rate
- 2021
- 2 trims combined
- typical 32,466 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
68.8% 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 2022 88.4% pass
- Avoid 2021 88.3% pass · this year
Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 0.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 86.9%
- Typical mileage
- 32k mi
The 2021 BMW 430D MOT pass rate is 88.3% of its MOT tests — 2.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 68.8% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 3.5× the national share
Tyres make up 68.8% of everything recorded on the 2021 BMW 430d, against 19.8% nationally — 49.0 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 8% 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 430D? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every BMW 430D first registered in 2021 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2021 BMW 430D compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 2.9 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 86.9%. The median 2021 BMW 430D in this dataset had covered 32,466 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 88.5% of the time, April–September 88.2%.
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 3.74% of tests.
- 428 recorded tests behind this page.
- 88.3% overall pass rate, 86.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 430D, the average is 88.3% — best year 2022 (88.4%), worst 2021 (88.3%).
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
- 428
- Typical mileage (median)
- 32,466 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 430D
- 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 430D MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 58% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 430D
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 106 | 84.0% |
| North West | 61 | 90.2% |
| West Midlands | 50 | 88.0% |
| Scotland | 41 | 85.4% |
| East of England | 36 | 86.1% |
| South West | 35 | 94.3% |
| East Midlands | 25 | 88.0% |
| Yorkshire | 24 | 91.7% |
| North East | 22 | 90.9% |
| Wales | 19 | 94.7% |
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 430D
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 430D
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 tyre tread 1.6% 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 windscreen 1.6% 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 wipers and washers 0.9% 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 2021 430D through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £44–£97 — and 8% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £44–£97
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 8%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 428 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 430D, side by side
2 model years on record, from 2021 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 88.3% to 88.4% — a spread of 0.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2021 88.3%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 88.4% 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 430D 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
- Isuzu D-Max 88.2%
- Ford Mondeo 88.4%
- Tesla Model 3 88.1%
- Nissan Navara 88.5%
- Hyundai I30 88.5%
- Land Rover Discovery 88.0%
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 430D 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 207 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 | 143 | 68.80% | 19.76% | +49.04 |
| Visibility | 16 | 7.70% | 4.97% | +2.73 |
| Non-component advisories | 13 | 6.20% | 4.18% | +2.02 |
| Brakes | 12 | 5.80% | 20.89% | −15.09 |
| Road Wheels | 6 | 2.90% | 0.75% | +2.15 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 5 | 2.40% | 5.52% | −3.12 |
| Suspension | 4 | 1.90% | 20.98% | −19.08 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 4 | 1.90% | 12.21% | −10.31 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 2 | 1.00% | 1.76% | −0.76 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 2 | 1.00% | 0.82% | +0.18 |
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 | 3.7% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 3.7% | £45–95 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 3.3% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.6% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.6% | £80–200 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.93% | £8–22 |
| Has a lump, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.70% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.70% | £30–80 |
| Fractured Road Wheels | Major | 0.47% | £20–55 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.47% | £3–12 |
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 | 12.2% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 3.3% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 1.9% | £18–45 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 1.9% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 1.2% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 190 | 90.0% | 21,516 mi |
| 30-60k | 212 | 87.7% | 42,198 mi |
| 60-90k | 23 | 82.6% | 68,918 mi |
| 90-120k | 3 | 66.7% | 93,556 mi |
Source: 428 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 430D MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 BMW 430D?
88.3% of the 428 2021 BMW 430D tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 86.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 BMW 430D?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (3.74%), has ply or cords exposed (3.74%), has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure (3.27%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 BMW 430D MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 90.0% of the time, falling to 66.7% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 BMW 430D in this dataset had covered 32,466 mi.
Does the season affect the 2021 BMW 430D MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 88.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 88.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.