Pass rate
82.3%
Around average — 8.4 pts behind the 90.7% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 113 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £39–£94
2020 BMW 540I MOT pass rate
- 2020
- typical 36,275 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
47.0% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 85.7% pass
- Avoid 2021 82.2% pass
Across the 3 years on record, a spread of 3.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 78.7%
- Typical mileage
- 36k mi
The 2020 BMW 540I MOT pass rate is 82.3% of its MOT tests — 8.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 47.0% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW 540I does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.4× the national share
Tyres make up 47.0% of everything recorded on the 2020 BMW 540i, against 19.8% nationally — 27.2 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.
- Falls short of its own age and mileage. Like-for-like, cars this age and mileage expect about 90.7%; this one manages 82.3% — 8.4 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 17% 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 540I? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2020 BMW 540I compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 90.7%, so this figure is 8.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 78.7%. The median 2020 BMW 540I in this dataset had covered 36,275 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 78.5% of the time, April–September 87.5%.
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 5.31% of tests.
- 113 recorded tests behind this page.
- 82.3% overall pass rate, 78.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 540I, the average is 83.1% — best year 2022 (85.7%), worst 2021 (82.2%).
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
- 113
- Typical mileage (median)
- 36,275 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 540I
- 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 540I MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 67% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 540I
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 37 | 75.7% |
| South West | 22 | 86.4% |
| East of England | 22 | 86.4% |
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 2020 540I
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 2020 540I
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 2.6% 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 1.8% 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.
-
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 2020 540I through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £39–£94 — and 17% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £39–£94
- Cheapest common item: wipers blade defective
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: flexible couplings excessively deteriorated
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 17%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 113 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 540I, side by side
3 model years on record, from 2020 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 82.2% to 85.7% — a spread of 3.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2020 82.3%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 82.2% fractured
- 2022 85.7% has a bulge, caused by separation…
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 2020 BMW 540I 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 2020 cars with a similar record
- Mercedes-Benz Citan 81.6%
- Toyota Estima 81.6%
- Vauxhall Combo 83.1%
- Tesla Model 3 Performance 83.2%
- Mercedes-Benz Vito 83.3%
- Tesla Model X 84.6%
Closest pass rates among 2020 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 2020 BMW 540I 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 7 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 83 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 | 39 | 47.00% | 19.76% | +27.24 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 15 | 18.10% | 5.57% | +12.53 |
| Brakes | 9 | 10.80% | 20.89% | −10.09 |
| Road Wheels | 7 | 8.40% | 0.75% | +7.65 |
| Visibility | 5 | 6.00% | 4.97% | +1.03 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 4 | 4.80% | 12.21% | −7.41 |
| Non-component advisories | 4 | 4.80% | 4.18% | +0.62 |
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 | 5.3% | £45–95 |
| Fractured Road Wheels | Major | 2.6% | £20–55 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 2.6% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.6% | £80–200 |
| Side repeaters not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.8% | £5–25 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.8% | £8–22 |
| Badly distorted Road Wheels | Major | 0.88% | £20–55 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 0.88% | £18–45 |
| Flexible couplings excessively deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Major | 0.88% | £80–250 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Rectified | 0.88% | £45–95 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flexible couplings excessively deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 12.4% | £80–250 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 6.2% | £45–95 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.3% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 5.3% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.3% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 3.5% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 41 | 95.1% | 21,821 mi |
| 30-60k | 56 | 75.0% | 42,260 mi |
| 60-90k | 16 | 75.0% | 73,688 mi |
Source: 113 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.
2020 540I MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2020 BMW 540I?
82.3% of the 113 2020 BMW 540I tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 90.7% for cars first used in 2020. First-attempt pass rate: 78.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2020 BMW 540I?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (5.31%), fractured (2.65%), has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure (2.65%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2020 BMW 540I MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 95.1% of the time, falling to 75.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2020 BMW 540I in this dataset had covered 36,275 mi.
Does the season affect the 2020 BMW 540I MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 78.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 87.5%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.