Pass rate
83.5%
Around average — 11.1 pts ahead of the 72.4% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 243 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £22–£62
2005 BMW 6 Series MOT pass rate
- 2005
- typical 118,873 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
25.5% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Part only £25–£55 for Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 91.2% pass
- Avoid 2006 80.0% pass
Across the 14 years on record, a spread of 11.2 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 81.4%
- Typical mileage
- 119k mi
The 2005 BMW 6 Series MOT pass rate is 83.5% of its MOT tests — 11.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 25.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW 6 Series does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Emissions & leaks: 2.7× the national share
Emissions & leaks make up 14.7% of everything recorded on the 2005 BMW 6 Series, against 5.5% nationally — 9.2 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 25.5%, 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.
- Beats its own age and mileage. Once you allow for how old and how far these cars have been driven, the expected pass rate is 72.4% and this one manages 83.5% — 11.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Based on a small sample. 243 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 6 Series? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2005 BMW 6 Series compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.4%, so this figure is 11.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 81.4%. The median 2005 BMW 6 Series in this dataset had covered 118,873 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 81.8% of the time, April–September 85.6%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Position lamp not working", noted on 4.53% of tests.
- 243 recorded tests behind this page.
- 83.5% overall pass rate, 81.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 6 Series, the average is 87.8% — best year 2019 (91.2%), worst 2006 (80.0%).
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
- 243
- Typical mileage (median)
- 118,873 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 6 Series
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
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 6 Series MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 73% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 6 Series
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 60 | 80.0% |
| East of England | 41 | 78.0% |
| London | 31 | 90.3% |
| East Midlands | 27 | 81.5% |
| Yorkshire | 22 | 90.9% |
| North West | 17 | 82.4% |
| South West | 16 | 68.8% |
| West Midlands | 15 | 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 2005 6 Series
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 2005 6 Series
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 4.5% of tests
“position lamp not working”
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 coil springs 2.9% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
-
Check the brake pipes 2.5% of tests
“rigid brake pipes excessively corroded”
Brake pipes run under the car, usually in front of the rear wheels. Flaking or crusty metal is what fails; a light dusting of surface rust does not. Worth asking a garage to look while it is on a ramp.
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 2005 6 Series through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £22–£62 — and 53% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £22–£62
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: rigid brake pipes excessively corroded
- £80–£180
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 53%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 243 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 6 Series, side by side
14 model years on record, from 2005 to 2020. Across them the pass rate runs from 80.0% to 91.2% — a spread of 11.2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2005 83.5%position lamp not working
- 2006 80.0% position lamp not working
- 2007 81.6% position lamp not working
- 2008 80.8% ball joint excessively worn
- 2009 84.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2010 83.1% track rod end ball joint has…
- 2011 83.0% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2012 84.9% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 83.2% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 85.1% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2017 87.5% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2018 90.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 91.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 90.7% 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 2005 BMW 6 Series 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 2005 cars with a similar record
- Porsche Boxster 84.6%
- Jaguar XK8 82.0%
- Porsche Cayenne 81.9%
- Mercedes-Benz Sl 86.1%
- Subaru Impreza 80.8%
- Toyota Alphard 80.4%
Closest pass rates among 2005 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 2005 BMW 6 Series 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 473 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 | 123 | 25.50% | 20.89% | +4.61 |
| Suspension | 81 | 16.80% | 20.98% | −4.18 |
| Tyres | 78 | 16.10% | 19.76% | −3.66 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 71 | 14.70% | 5.52% | +9.18 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 56 | 11.60% | 12.21% | −0.61 |
| Visibility | 24 | 5.00% | 4.97% | +0.03 |
| Non-component advisories | 14 | 2.90% | 4.18% | −1.28 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 11 | 2.30% | 5.57% | −3.27 |
| Steering | 8 | 1.70% | 2.57% | −0.87 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 7 | 1.40% | 0.82% | +0.58 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 4.5% | £5–25 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.3% | £3–12 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 3.3% | £45–110 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 2.9% | £25–65 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.9% | £5–20 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 2.5% | £80–180 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 2.1% | £18–45 |
| Mirrors slightly damaged Visibility | Minor | 2.1% | £3–15 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.1% | £40–150 |
| Headlamp not working on dipped beam Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.6% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 19.3% | £80–180 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 17.7% | £200–700 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 16.1% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 11.5% | £40–150 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 7.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 6.6% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 1 | 100.0% | 29,529 mi |
| 30-60k | 20 | 90.0% | 50,098 mi |
| 60-90k | 31 | 87.1% | 76,902 mi |
| 90-120k | 75 | 81.3% | 105,315 mi |
| 120k+ | 116 | 82.8% | 145,219 mi |
Source: 243 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.
2005 6 Series MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2005 BMW 6 Series?
83.5% of the 243 2005 BMW 6 Series tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.4% for cars first used in 2005. First-attempt pass rate: 81.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2005 BMW 6 Series?
The three most recorded items are position lamp not working (4.53%), malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (3.29%), rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements (3.29%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2005 BMW 6 Series MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 82.8% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2005 BMW 6 Series in this dataset had covered 118,873 mi.
Does the season affect the 2005 BMW 6 Series MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 81.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 85.6%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.