Pass rate
86.6%
Above average — 0.6 pts ahead of the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 3,469 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £40–£92
2017 BMW 640 MOT pass rate
- 2017
- typical 54,699 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
44.6% 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 →
1.9 pts up across model years — 3.9% in 2011, 5.8% in 2018.
Which year to buy
- Best 2016 87.8% pass
- Avoid 2012 83.7% pass
Across the 8 years on record, a spread of 4.1 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 84.7%
- Typical mileage
- 55k mi
The 2017 BMW 640 MOT pass rate is 86.6% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 44.6% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.3× the national share
Tyres make up 44.6% of everything recorded on the 2017 BMW 640, against 19.8% nationally — 24.8 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.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 19% 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 640? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2017 BMW 640 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 0.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 84.7%. The median 2017 BMW 640 in this dataset had covered 54,699 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 87% of tests, with a 86.2% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 87.2% of the time, April–September 85.9%.
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 2.02% of tests.
- 3,469 recorded tests behind this page.
- 86.6% overall pass rate, 84.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 640, the average is 85.7% — best year 2016 (87.8%), worst 2012 (83.7%).
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
- 3,469
- Typical mileage (median)
- 54,699 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 640
- 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 640 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 75% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (87% of tests).
Where the BMW 640 is most common
Across all 640 model years on record (2011–2018): 16,385 BMW 640 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 33,750 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 597 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) | 597 | 89.0% |
| 2 | Leicester (LE) | 406 | 87.6% |
| 3 | Peterborough (PE) | 366 | 87.5% |
| 4 | Coventry (CV) | 353 | 88.9% |
| 5 | Manchester (M) | 342 | 89.4% |
| 6 | Nottingham (NG) | 323 | 82.3% |
| 7 | Reading (RG) | 319 | 81.6% |
| 8 | Sheffield (S) | 293 | 87.5% |
| 9 | Guildford (GU) | 289 | 83.4% |
| 10 | Northampton (NN) | 262 | 85.0% |
| 11 | Derby (DE) | 252 | 85.5% |
| 12 | Doncaster (DN) | 249 | 86.7% |
| 13 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 247 | 85.0% |
| 14 | High Wycombe (HP) | 242 | 87.9% |
| 15 | Slough (SL) | 238 | 88.0% |
| 16 | Glasgow (G) | 235 | 86.9% |
| 17 | Romford (RM) | 231 | 86.6% |
| 18 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 227 | 84.5% |
| 19 | Warrington (WA) | 215 | 82.8% |
| 20 | Southampton (SO) | 214 | 83.5% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 640 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 640
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 886 | 86.7% |
| North West | 414 | 87.0% |
| East of England | 405 | 86.4% |
| West Midlands | 292 | 87.7% |
| London | 285 | 88.1% |
| East Midlands | 275 | 86.2% |
| Yorkshire | 262 | 85.9% |
| South West | 245 | 87.8% |
| Scotland | 216 | 80.6% |
| Wales | 103 | 89.3% |
| North East | 86 | 87.2% |
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 2017 640
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 2017 640
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 1.7% 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 1.1% 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 coil springs 0.6% 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.
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 2017 640 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £40–£92 — and 19% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £40–£92
- Cheapest common item: wipers blade defective
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 19%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 3,469 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 640, side by side
8 model years on record, from 2011 to 2018. Across them the pass rate runs from 83.7% to 87.8% — a spread of 4.1 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2011 84.5% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2012 83.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 84.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 84.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2015 86.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2016 87.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 86.6%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2018 85.0% 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 2017 BMW 640 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 2017 cars with a similar record
- Suzuki Jimny 86.6%
- Renault Captur 86.5%
- Ford Galaxy 86.5%
- Volvo XC60 86.7%
- Skoda Superb 86.7%
- Vauxhall Astra 86.4%
Closest pass rates among 2017 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 2017 BMW 640 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 2,009 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 | 903 | 44.60% | 19.76% | +24.84 |
| Brakes | 384 | 19.00% | 20.89% | −1.89 |
| Visibility | 187 | 9.20% | 4.97% | +4.23 |
| Suspension | 140 | 6.90% | 20.98% | −14.08 |
| Non-component advisories | 127 | 6.30% | 4.18% | +2.12 |
| Road Wheels | 81 | 4.00% | 0.75% | +3.25 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 70 | 3.50% | 12.21% | −8.71 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 62 | 3.10% | 5.57% | −2.47 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 33 | 1.60% | 1.76% | −0.16 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 22 | 1.10% | 5.52% | −4.42 |
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 | 2.0% | £45–95 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 1.7% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.7% | £80–200 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.5% | £45–95 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.1% | £8–22 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.0% | £8–22 |
| Fractured Road Wheels | Major | 0.84% | £20–55 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 0.61% | £25–65 |
| Has a lump, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Major | 0.58% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 0.52% | £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 | 10.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 5.0% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 2.5% | £45–110 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 2.5% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.2% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.0% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 389 | 87.4% | 22,350 mi |
| 30-60k | 1,631 | 87.4% | 45,666 mi |
| 60-90k | 1,085 | 86.2% | 72,325 mi |
| 90-120k | 295 | 84.1% | 100,916 mi |
| 120k+ | 65 | 83.1% | 133,744 mi |
Source: 3,469 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.
2017 640 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2017 BMW 640?
86.6% of the 3,469 2017 BMW 640 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 84.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2017 BMW 640?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (2.02%), has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure (1.67%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.67%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2017 BMW 640 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 87.4% of the time, falling to 83.1% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 BMW 640 in this dataset had covered 54,699 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2017 BMW 640?
Diesel: 86.2% pass rate across 3,014 tests. Petrol: 88.8% pass rate across 455 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2017 BMW 640 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 87.2% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 85.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.