Pass rate
97.1%
Above average — 2.3 pts ahead of the 94.8% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 102 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £58–£157
2023 BMW 520D MOT pass rate
- 2023
- 2 trims combined
- typical 25,811 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
38.5% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 97.1% pass · this year
- Avoid 2021 89.1% pass
Across the 5 years on record, a spread of 8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 97.0%
- Typical mileage
- 26k mi
The 2023 BMW 520D MOT pass rate is 97.1% of its MOT tests — 2.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 38.5% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Body & chassis: 5.5× the national share
Body & chassis accounts for 30.8% of everything recorded on the 2023 BMW 520d, against 5.6% nationally — 25.2 points above. Tyres are still the single largest share at 38.5%, but at 19.8% nationally that one is ordinary. Look underneath for corrosion near the jacking points and suspension mounts; surface rust is normal, flaking metal is not.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 0% 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. 102 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 520D? Get an email when these numbers change .
Every BMW 520D first registered in 2023 is combined here — 2 trim and body variants in total — so the sample is as large as the DVSA data allows.
How does the 2023 BMW 520D compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 94.8%, so this figure is 2.3 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 97.0%. The median 2023 BMW 520D in this dataset had covered 25,811 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 98.4% of the time, April–September 95.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Flexible couplings excessively deteriorated", noted on 0.98% of tests.
- 102 recorded tests behind this page.
- 97.1% overall pass rate, 97.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 520D, the average is 89.9% — best year 2023 (97.1%), worst 2021 (89.1%).
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
- 102
- Typical mileage (median)
- 25,811 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 520D
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Body Panel Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the 520D MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 75% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the BMW 520D is most common
Across all 520D model years on record (2019–2023): 13,359 BMW 520D cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 22,113 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 524 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) | 524 | 89.2% |
| 2 | Glasgow (G) | 390 | 89.7% |
| 3 | Peterborough (PE) | 298 | 91.3% |
| 4 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 285 | 92.8% |
| 5 | Manchester (M) | 265 | 90.8% |
| 6 | Coventry (CV) | 258 | 93.3% |
| 7 | Sheffield (S) | 241 | 90.0% |
| 8 | Leicester (LE) | 225 | 94.5% |
| 9 | Warrington (WA) | 223 | 92.1% |
| 10 | Reading (RG) | 212 | 86.8% |
| 11 | Nottingham (NG) | 209 | 90.3% |
| 12 | Stockport (SK) | 209 | 90.4% |
| 13 | Northampton (NN) | 203 | 90.8% |
| 14 | Guildford (GU) | 201 | 87.2% |
| 15 | Edinburgh (EH) | 200 | 87.6% |
| 16 | Liverpool (L) | 200 | 91.5% |
| 17 | Chester (CH) | 189 | 88.2% |
| 18 | Leeds (LS) | 186 | 87.1% |
| 19 | Bristol (BS) | 180 | 87.0% |
| 20 | Bolton (BL) | 179 | 93.0% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 520D 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 520D
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South West | 22 | 90.9% |
| West Midlands | 18 | 100.0% |
| South East | 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 2023 520D
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 2023 520D
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 1.0% 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.
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 2023 520D through its MOT
Across the 6 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £58–£157 — and 0% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 6 common items
- £58–£157
- Cheapest common item: fractured
- £20–£55
- Dearest common item: flexible couplings excessively deteriorated
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 50%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 0%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 102 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 520D, side by side
5 model years on record, from 2019 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 89.1% to 97.1% — a spread of 8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2019 91.0% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2020 90.2% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 89.1% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 89.4% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 97.1%flexible couplings excessively…
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 2023 BMW 520D 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 2023 cars with a similar record
- Levc Tx 97.0%
- Mercedes-Benz Eqe 96.5%
- Ford Puma 96.5%
- Toyota Corolla 95.7%
- Kia Niro 95.5%
- Polestar Polestar 94.6%
Closest pass rates among 2023 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 2023 BMW 520D 6 failure items · 4 advisories · 4 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 13 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 | 5 | 38.50% | 19.76% | +18.74 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 4 | 30.80% | 5.57% | +25.23 |
| Road Wheels | 3 | 23.10% | 0.75% | +22.35 |
| Visibility | 1 | 7.70% | 4.97% | +2.73 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flexible couplings excessively deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Major | 0.98% | £80–250 |
| Flexible couplings so deteriorated it is likely to fail Body, chassis, structure | Major | 0.98% | £80–250 |
| Fractured Road Wheels | Major | 0.98% | £20–55 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.98% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.98% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 0.98% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Badly distorted Road Wheels | Advisory | 2.0% | £20–55 |
| Flexible couplings excessively deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 2.0% | £80–250 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 2.0% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 0.98% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 64 | 100.0% | 17,137 mi |
| 30-60k | 32 | 93.8% | 42,448 mi |
| 60-90k | 6 | 83.3% | 68,171 mi |
Source: 102 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.
2023 520D MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2023 BMW 520D?
97.1% of the 102 2023 BMW 520D tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 94.8% for cars first used in 2023. First-attempt pass rate: 97.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2023 BMW 520D?
The three most recorded items are flexible couplings excessively deteriorated (0.98%), flexible couplings so deteriorated it is likely to fail (0.98%), fractured (0.98%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2023 BMW 520D MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 83.3% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2023 BMW 520D in this dataset had covered 25,811 mi.
Does the season affect the 2023 BMW 520D MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 98.4% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 95.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.