Pass rate
74.8%
Below average — 1.0 pts ahead of the 73.8% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 915 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £34–£92
2000 BMW 523 MOT pass rate
- 2000
- typical 126,231 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
21.6% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2013 96.0% pass
- Avoid 2000 74.8% pass · this year
Across the 10 years on record, a spread of 21.2 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 69.2%
- Typical mileage
- 126k mi
The 2000 BMW 523 MOT pass rate is 74.8% of its MOT tests — 1.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 21.6% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Emissions & leaks: 2.3× the national share
Emissions & leaks make up 12.7% of everything recorded on the 2000 BMW 523, against 5.5% nationally — 7.2 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 21.6%, but at 20.9% nationally that one is ordinary. A smoky diesel or a leaking joint fails on emissions more often than on wear, so ask for a recent emissions printout.
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 523? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2000 BMW 523 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.8%, so this figure is 1.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 69.2%. The median 2000 BMW 523 in this dataset had covered 126,231 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 76.7% of the time, April–September 72.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Headlamp lens slightly defective", noted on 4.81% of tests.
- 915 recorded tests behind this page.
- 74.8% overall pass rate, 69.2% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 523, the average is 79.6% — best year 2013 (96.0%), worst 2000 (74.8%).
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
- 915
- Typical mileage (median)
- 126,231 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 523
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Headlight Bulb
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the 523 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 65% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the BMW 523 is most common
Across all 523 model years on record (2000–2013): 2,533 BMW 523 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 5,529 tests. London (E) has the most, with 107 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 | London (E) | 107 | 89.6% |
| 2 | London (SE) | 73 | 82.2% |
| 3 | London (NW) | 73 | 86.0% |
| 4 | Wembley (HA) | 72 | 85.1% |
| 5 | London (N) | 67 | 87.1% |
| 6 | Birmingham (B) | 65 | 89.1% |
| 7 | High Wycombe (HP) | 65 | 82.6% |
| 8 | Hayes (UB) | 63 | 87.3% |
| 9 | Romford (RM) | 61 | 80.5% |
| 10 | Croydon (CR) | 57 | 80.5% |
| 11 | Hounslow (TW) | 56 | 85.6% |
| 12 | Reading (RG) | 52 | 78.3% |
| 13 | London (W) | 44 | 84.8% |
| 14 | Guildford (GU) | 41 | 74.5% |
| 15 | Slough (SL) | 39 | 90.1% |
| 16 | Enfield (EN) | 39 | 89.2% |
| 17 | London (SW) | 37 | 75.5% |
| 18 | Peterborough (PE) | 36 | 76.4% |
| 19 | Ilford (IG) | 36 | 86.4% |
| 20 | Crawley (RH) | 34 | 77.0% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 523 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 523
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 230 | 70.4% |
| East of England | 139 | 70.5% |
| South West | 92 | 71.7% |
| North West | 87 | 79.3% |
| Yorkshire | 73 | 78.1% |
| Scotland | 70 | 67.1% |
| West Midlands | 70 | 88.6% |
| London | 53 | 79.2% |
| Wales | 49 | 79.6% |
| East Midlands | 29 | 79.3% |
| North East | 23 | 82.6% |
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 2000 523
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 2000 523
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 lights 4.8% of tests
“headlamp lens slightly defective”
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 windscreen 4.6% 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 suspension joints 3.7% of tests
“ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated”
With the car parked on level ground, rock the top of each front wheel in and out while someone watches the suspension arm. Clunks, or rubber boots split and greasy, are what testers record here.
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 2000 523 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £34–£92 — and 42% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £34–£92
- Cheapest common item: srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: steering rack gaiter missing or no longer…
- £120–£300
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 42%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 915 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 523, side by side
10 model years on record, from 2000 to 2013. Across them the pass rate runs from 74.8% to 96.0% — a spread of 21.2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 74.8%headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2005 76.9% srs malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2006 79.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2007 78.1% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2008 81.0% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2009 80.9% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2010 82.2% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2011 83.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2012 95.4% brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick
- 2013 96.0% catch deteriorated so the door…
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 2000 BMW 523 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 2000 cars with a similar record
- Land Rover Defender 74.7%
- MG Mgf 75.0%
- Honda Civic 75.3%
- Land Rover Discovery 75.7%
- Audi A4 73.5%
- Audi A3 73.5%
Closest pass rates among 2000 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 2000 BMW 523 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 2,663 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | 590 | 21.60% | 20.89% | +0.71 |
| Suspension | 575 | 21.00% | 20.98% | +0.02 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 361 | 13.20% | 12.21% | +0.99 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 347 | 12.70% | 5.52% | +7.18 |
| Tyres | 311 | 11.40% | 19.76% | −8.36 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 120 | 4.40% | 5.57% | −1.17 |
| Visibility | 115 | 4.20% | 4.97% | −0.77 |
| Steering | 87 | 3.20% | 2.57% | +0.63 |
| Non-component advisories | 80 | 2.90% | 4.18% | −1.28 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 77 | 2.80% | 0.82% | +1.98 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.8% | £5–25 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 4.6% | £80–200 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.5% | £5–20 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 3.7% | £18–45 |
| Steering rack gaiter missing or no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Steering | Major | 3.2% | £120–300 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 3.1% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.7% | £40–150 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 2.7% | £45–110 |
| Anti-lock braking system warning lamp indicates an ABS fault Brakes | Major | 2.6% | £3–15 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 2.6% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 28.1% | £200–700 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 22.3% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 16.8% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 12.1% | £45–110 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 10.5% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 10.3% | £40–150 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 43 | 81.4% | 49,781 mi |
| 60-90k | 140 | 80.7% | 76,986 mi |
| 90-120k | 226 | 74.3% | 105,325 mi |
| 120k+ | 495 | 73.1% | 168,020 mi |
Source: 915 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.
2000 523 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2000 BMW 523?
74.8% of the 915 2000 BMW 523 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.8% for cars first used in 2000. First-attempt pass rate: 69.2%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2000 BMW 523?
The three most recorded items are headlamp lens slightly defective (4.81%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (4.59%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (4.48%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2000 BMW 523 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 81.4% of the time, falling to 73.1% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2000 BMW 523 in this dataset had covered 126,231 mi.
Does the season affect the 2000 BMW 523 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 76.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 72.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.