Pass rate
83.8%
Around average — 7.4 pts behind the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 327 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £47–£110
2021 BMW 545E MOT pass rate
- 2021
- typical 34,482 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
59.7% 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 84.2% pass
- Avoid 2021 83.8% pass · this year
Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 0.4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 81.2%
- Typical mileage
- 34k mi
The 2021 BMW 545E MOT pass rate is 83.8% of its MOT tests — 7.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 59.7% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 3.0× the national share
Tyres make up 59.7% of everything recorded on the 2021 BMW 545e, against 19.8% nationally — 39.9 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 91.2%; this one manages 83.8% — 7.4 points below. Age is a fair excuse; this is not age.
- 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.
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 545E? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2021 BMW 545E compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 7.4 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 81.2%. The median 2021 BMW 545E in this dataset had covered 34,482 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 81.9% of the time, April–September 86.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure", noted on 4.28% of tests.
- 327 recorded tests behind this page.
- 83.8% overall pass rate, 81.2% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 545E, the average is 83.9% — best year 2022 (84.2%), worst 2021 (83.8%).
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
- 327
- Typical mileage (median)
- 34,482 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 545E
- 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 545E MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 73% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 545E
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 97 | 82.5% |
| North West | 38 | 76.3% |
| West Midlands | 34 | 85.3% |
| London | 34 | 88.2% |
| Yorkshire | 30 | 93.3% |
| East of England | 28 | 85.7% |
| South West | 26 | 84.6% |
| East Midlands | 18 | 88.9% |
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 545E
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 545E
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 3.4% 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 0.9% of tests
“headlamp aim too high”
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 tyre tread 0.9% 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.
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 545E through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £47–£110 — and 0% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £47–£110
- Cheapest common item: fractured
- £20–£55
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot split or…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 0%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 327 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 545E, side by side
2 model years on record, from 2021 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 83.8% to 84.2% — a spread of 0.4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2021 83.8%has a bulge, caused by separation…
- 2022 84.2% fractured
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 545E 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
- Vauxhall Combo 84.0%
- Ford Galaxy 84.1%
- Mercedes-Benz Citan 82.9%
- Citroen C4 Sense + 84.8%
- Mercedes-Benz Vito 85.2%
- Tesla Model 3 Performance 85.3%
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 545E 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 9 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 144 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 | 86 | 59.70% | 19.76% | +39.94 |
| Road Wheels | 15 | 10.40% | 0.75% | +9.65 |
| Visibility | 13 | 9.00% | 4.97% | +4.03 |
| Non-component advisories | 7 | 4.90% | 4.18% | +0.72 |
| Brakes | 6 | 4.20% | 20.89% | −16.69 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 6 | 4.20% | 12.21% | −8.01 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 5 | 3.50% | 5.57% | −2.07 |
| Suspension | 3 | 2.10% | 20.98% | −18.88 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 3 | 2.10% | 1.76% | +0.34 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 4.3% | £45–95 |
| Fractured Road Wheels | Major | 4.0% | £20–55 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.4% | £80–200 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 2.5% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 2.1% | £45–95 |
| Has a lump, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 1.8% | £45–95 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.92% | £30–80 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 0.92% | £80–250 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.92% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.61% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 6.1% | £45–95 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 3.1% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 1.5% | £45–110 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres | Advisory | 1.5% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 135 | 85.9% | 19,903 mi |
| 30-60k | 138 | 81.9% | 43,294 mi |
| 60-90k | 45 | 82.2% | 71,694 mi |
| 90-120k | 8 | 87.5% | 100,790 mi |
| 120k+ | 1 | 100.0% | 120,494 mi |
Source: 327 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 545E MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 BMW 545E?
83.8% of the 327 2021 BMW 545E tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 81.2%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 BMW 545E?
The three most recorded items are has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure (4.28%), fractured (3.98%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (3.36%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2021 BMW 545E MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 85.9% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 BMW 545E in this dataset had covered 34,482 mi.
Does the season affect the 2021 BMW 545E MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 81.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 86.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.