Pass rate
83.8%
Around average — 9.8 pts ahead of the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 377 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £29–£82
2009 BMW 630 MOT pass rate
- 2009
- typical 103,938 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
26.8% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Which year to buy
- Best 2010 87.1% pass
- Avoid 2011 77.4% pass
Across the 7 years on record, a spread of 9.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 81.3%
- Typical mileage
- 104k mi
The 2009 BMW 630 MOT pass rate is 83.8% of its MOT tests — 9.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 26.8% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Suspension: 1.3× the national share
Suspension accounts for 26.8% of everything recorded on the 2009 BMW 630, against 21.0% nationally — 5.8 points above. Ask for the front and rear suspension to be checked on a ramp before you buy — worn bushes and broken springs are cheap to look at and expensive to discover at test time.
- 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 74.0% and this one manages 83.8% — 9.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Based on a small sample. 377 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 630? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2009 BMW 630 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 74.0%, so this figure is 9.8 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 81.3%. The median 2009 BMW 630 in this dataset had covered 103,938 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 85.6% of the time, April–September 81.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 4.24% of tests.
- 377 recorded tests behind this page.
- 83.8% overall pass rate, 81.3% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 630, the average is 80.2% — best year 2010 (87.1%), worst 2011 (77.4%).
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
- 377
- Typical mileage (median)
- 103,938 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 630
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the 630 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 69% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the BMW 630 is most common
Across all 630 model years on record (2005–2011): 4,621 BMW 630 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 9,910 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 165 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) | 165 | 87.7% |
| 2 | London (SE) | 133 | 84.0% |
| 3 | London (N) | 131 | 86.1% |
| 4 | London (E) | 124 | 89.8% |
| 5 | Romford (RM) | 113 | 90.5% |
| 6 | London (NW) | 101 | 79.4% |
| 7 | Hayes (UB) | 93 | 88.7% |
| 8 | Ashford (TN) | 85 | 81.0% |
| 9 | Slough (SL) | 84 | 83.1% |
| 10 | Bristol (BS) | 82 | 71.6% |
| 11 | Wembley (HA) | 82 | 84.6% |
| 12 | Croydon (CR) | 81 | 88.5% |
| 13 | Coventry (CV) | 74 | 84.1% |
| 14 | Reading (RG) | 73 | 84.4% |
| 15 | Kingston upon Thames (KT) | 69 | 88.1% |
| 16 | Hounslow (TW) | 69 | 83.2% |
| 17 | Enfield (EN) | 66 | 84.7% |
| 18 | Glasgow (G) | 65 | 81.3% |
| 19 | Northampton (NN) | 64 | 77.7% |
| 20 | Peterborough (PE) | 64 | 81.2% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 630 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 630
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 79 | 93.7% |
| East of England | 69 | 71.0% |
| Scotland | 42 | 71.4% |
| West Midlands | 40 | 87.5% |
| London | 39 | 92.3% |
| North West | 36 | 83.3% |
| South West | 28 | 89.3% |
| East Midlands | 21 | 81.0% |
| Yorkshire | 15 | 86.7% |
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 2009 630
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 2009 630
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 4.2% of tests
“registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”
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 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 exhaust and emissions 1.6% of tests
“catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits”
Listen for a blow at idle and have someone rev it gently. Then look at the tailpipe smoke: blue is oil, white when warm is coolant, black is over-fuelling. Any of those and the emissions test is the least of it.
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 2009 630 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £29–£82 — and 40% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £29–£82
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 40%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 377 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 630, side by side
7 model years on record, from 2005 to 2011. Across them the pass rate runs from 77.4% to 87.1% — a spread of 9.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2005 77.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2006 80.1% position lamp not working
- 2007 80.5% position lamp not working
- 2008 81.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2009 83.8%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2010 87.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2011 77.4% coil spring fractured or broken
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 2009 BMW 630 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 2009 cars with a similar record
- Jaguar Xk 83.8%
- Lexus IS250 83.7%
- Lexus RX450H 83.6%
- Jaguar Xkr 83.2%
- Toyota Iq 82.9%
- Lexus RX400H 82.9%
Closest pass rates among 2009 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 2009 BMW 630 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 540 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suspension | 145 | 26.80% | 20.98% | +5.82 |
| Tyres | 110 | 20.30% | 19.76% | +0.54 |
| Brakes | 104 | 19.20% | 20.89% | −1.69 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 56 | 10.30% | 5.52% | +4.78 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 44 | 8.10% | 12.21% | −4.11 |
| Visibility | 33 | 6.10% | 4.97% | +1.13 |
| Non-component advisories | 24 | 4.40% | 4.18% | +0.22 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 9 | 1.70% | 1.76% | −0.06 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 8 | 1.50% | 5.57% | −4.07 |
| Steering | 7 | 1.30% | 2.57% | −1.27 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.2% | £5–20 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.6% | £80–200 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.4% | £3–12 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.9% | £45–95 |
| Rbt (sp) efficiency below requirements Brakes | Major | 1.9% | £45–110 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.6% | £60–250 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 1.6% | £25–65 |
| Washers not working Visibility | Major | 1.6% | £5–15 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £18–45 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.3% | £18–45 |
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 | 15.9% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 11.7% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 10.6% | £45–110 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 8.5% | £200–700 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 6.6% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 6.4% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2 | 100.0% | 26,448 mi |
| 30-60k | 37 | 86.5% | 48,035 mi |
| 60-90k | 91 | 85.7% | 76,753 mi |
| 90-120k | 141 | 86.5% | 105,206 mi |
| 120k+ | 106 | 77.4% | 140,987 mi |
Source: 377 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.
2009 630 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2009 BMW 630?
83.8% of the 377 2009 BMW 630 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.0% for cars first used in 2009. First-attempt pass rate: 81.3%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2009 BMW 630?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (4.24%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.65%), malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction (2.39%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2009 BMW 630 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 77.4% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2009 BMW 630 in this dataset had covered 103,938 mi.
Does the season affect the 2009 BMW 630 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 85.6% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 81.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.