Pass rate
91.7%
Above average — 2.2 pts ahead of the 89.5% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 385 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £53–£139
2019 BMW 520 MOT pass rate
- 2019
- typical 51,193 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
35.2% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 91.7% pass · this year
- Avoid 2005 74.1% pass
Across the 21 years on record, a spread of 17.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 91.0%
- Typical mileage
- 51k mi
The 2019 BMW 520 MOT pass rate is 91.7% of its MOT tests — 2.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 35.2% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.8× the national share
Tyres make up 35.2% of everything recorded on the 2019 BMW 520, against 19.8% nationally — 15.4 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 16% 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. 385 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 520? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2019 BMW 520 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 89.5%, so this figure is 2.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 91.0%. The median 2019 BMW 520 in this dataset had covered 51,193 mi.
73% of the tests on this vehicle ran on Diesel, which passed 91.1% of the time. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 92.9% of the time, April–September 90.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 3.64% of tests.
- 385 recorded tests behind this page.
- 91.7% overall pass rate, 91.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 520, the average is 83.5% — best year 2019 (91.7%), worst 2005 (74.1%).
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
- 385
- Typical mileage (median)
- 51,193 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 520
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Windscreen
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the 520 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 81% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (73% of tests).
Where the BMW 520 is most common
Across all 520 model years on record (2000–2020): 117,227 BMW 520 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 266,372 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 5,397 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) | 5,397 | 88.5% |
| 2 | Peterborough (PE) | 2,783 | 83.3% |
| 3 | Manchester (M) | 2,641 | 85.6% |
| 4 | Leicester (LE) | 2,445 | 86.7% |
| 5 | Coventry (CV) | 2,262 | 85.7% |
| 6 | London (E) | 2,243 | 93.3% |
| 7 | Sheffield (S) | 2,142 | 85.4% |
| 8 | Nottingham (NG) | 1,935 | 81.0% |
| 9 | Reading (RG) | 1,924 | 80.6% |
| 10 | Romford (RM) | 1,896 | 90.1% |
| 11 | Luton (LU) | 1,891 | 88.9% |
| 12 | Northampton (NN) | 1,855 | 83.8% |
| 13 | Glasgow (G) | 1,849 | 83.1% |
| 14 | Hayes (UB) | 1,692 | 91.3% |
| 15 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 1,629 | 82.9% |
| 16 | Doncaster (DN) | 1,592 | 82.8% |
| 17 | Bristol (BS) | 1,554 | 78.2% |
| 18 | Slough (SL) | 1,508 | 87.5% |
| 19 | Derby (DE) | 1,503 | 85.2% |
| 20 | London (N) | 1,494 | 91.9% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 520 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 520
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 78 | 92.3% |
| South East | 66 | 89.4% |
| East of England | 57 | 87.7% |
| South West | 48 | 81.3% |
| London | 46 | 95.7% |
| North West | 25 | 96.0% |
| East Midlands | 24 | 100.0% |
| West Midlands | 22 | 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 2019 520
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 520
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 lights 1.3% of tests
“malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction”
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.
-
Check the shock absorbers 0.5% of tests
“shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak”
Press down hard on each corner of the car and let go. It should settle in one bounce; if it keeps rocking, or you can see oil weeping down a shock absorber, that is the fault a tester will find.
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 520 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £53–£139 — and 16% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £53–£139
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 16%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 385 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 520, side by side
21 model years on record, from 2000 to 2020. Across them the pass rate runs from 74.1% to 91.7% — a spread of 17.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 74.3% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2001 76.3% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2002 75.0% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2003 74.7% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2004 76.8% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2005 74.1% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2006 75.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2007 76.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2008 79.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2009 78.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2010 80.0% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2011 80.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2012 80.5% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 83.5% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 86.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 87.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 88.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 88.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 89.6% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2019 91.7%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 91.0% 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 2019 BMW 520 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
- Volkswagen Sharan 91.7%
- Vauxhall Viva 91.7%
- MINI John COOPER Works 91.7%
- Suzuki Ignis 91.8%
- Peugeot 108 91.6%
- Citroen C1 91.6%
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 520 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 209 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 | 74 | 35.20% | 19.76% | +15.44 |
| Brakes | 40 | 19.00% | 20.89% | −1.89 |
| Non-component advisories | 26 | 12.40% | 4.18% | +8.22 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 19 | 9.00% | 5.57% | +3.43 |
| Visibility | 19 | 9.00% | 4.97% | +4.03 |
| Suspension | 13 | 6.20% | 20.98% | −14.78 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 7 | 3.30% | 12.21% | −8.91 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 5 | 2.40% | 5.52% | −3.12 |
| Road Wheels | 4 | 1.90% | 0.75% | +1.15 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.6% | £80–200 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.8% | £45–95 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.3% | £3–12 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.0% | £30–80 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 0.78% | £80–250 |
| Flexible couplings excessively deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Major | 0.52% | £80–250 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.52% | £45–95 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 0.52% | £80–250 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 0.52% | £30–75 |
| Side repeaters not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.52% | £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 | 9.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 3.6% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 3.1% | £45–95 |
| Flexible couplings excessively deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 2.9% | £80–250 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.9% | £45–95 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Advisory | 2.6% | £30–75 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 66 | 90.9% | 20,346 mi |
| 30-60k | 175 | 92.0% | 45,077 mi |
| 60-90k | 101 | 92.1% | 72,066 mi |
| 90-120k | 28 | 89.3% | 100,706 mi |
| 120k+ | 12 | 100.0% | 154,074 mi |
Source: 385 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 520 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2019 BMW 520?
91.7% of the 385 2019 BMW 520 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 89.5% for cars first used in 2019. First-attempt pass rate: 91.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2019 BMW 520?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (3.64%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.82%), malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (1.30%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2019 BMW 520 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 90.9% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2019 BMW 520 in this dataset had covered 51,193 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2019 BMW 520?
Diesel: 91.1% pass rate across 282 tests. Petrol: 93.6% pass rate across 94 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2019 BMW 520 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 92.9% 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.