Pass rate
82.6%
Around average — 8.6 pts ahead of the 74.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 86 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £37–£100
2009 BMW 650 MOT pass rate
- 2009
- typical 78,214 mi
Only 86 tests of this exact model and year are in the DVSA data, below the 100 we ask for before a page goes in the index. The figures are still shown, because they are the only ones there are.
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Suspension
23.7% of faults · 21.0% nationally
mostly worn arm bushes, split ball-joint boots and broken coil springs.
Part only £35–£75 for Suspension pin or bush excessively worn. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2014 90.1% pass
- Avoid 2005 79.2% pass
Across the 12 years on record, a spread of 10.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 79.2%
- Typical mileage
- 78k mi
The 2009 BMW 650 MOT pass rate is 82.6% of its MOT tests — 8.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 23.7% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Emissions & leaks: 3.7× the national share
Emissions & leaks make up 20.4% of everything recorded on the 2009 BMW 650, against 5.5% nationally — 14.9 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 23.7%, but at 21.0% 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 74.0% and this one manages 82.6% — 8.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 24% 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 650? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2009 BMW 650 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 74.0%, so this figure is 8.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 79.2%. The median 2009 BMW 650 in this dataset had covered 78,214 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 87.8% of the time, April–September 77.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 5.81% of tests.
- 86 recorded tests behind this page.
- 82.6% overall pass rate, 79.2% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 650, the average is 82.0% — best year 2014 (90.1%), worst 2005 (79.2%).
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
- 86
- Typical mileage (median)
- 78,214 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 650
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Windscreen
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the 650 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 68% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the BMW 650 is most common
Across all 650 model years on record (2005–2017): 1,918 BMW 650 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 4,105 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 53 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) | 53 | 88.1% |
| 2 | Reading (RG) | 51 | 82.6% |
| 3 | Guildford (GU) | 47 | 81.5% |
| 4 | High Wycombe (HP) | 39 | 86.6% |
| 5 | Peterborough (PE) | 38 | 80.8% |
| 6 | London (SW) | 37 | 87.2% |
| 7 | Kingston upon Thames (KT) | 35 | 88.3% |
| 8 | Hounslow (TW) | 34 | 84.7% |
| 9 | Chelmsford (CM) | 33 | 81.3% |
| 10 | Crawley (RH) | 33 | 81.6% |
| 11 | Derby (DE) | 33 | 81.4% |
| 12 | Southampton (SO) | 33 | 77.9% |
| 13 | Hayes (UB) | 33 | 89.4% |
| 14 | Brighton (BN) | 32 | 80.2% |
| 15 | London (NW) | 32 | 77.3% |
| 16 | Ashford (TN) | 32 | 81.7% |
| 17 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 32 | 80.3% |
| 18 | Slough (SL) | 32 | 86.3% |
| 19 | London (E) | 31 | 87.5% |
| 20 | Nottingham (NG) | 30 | 80.0% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW 650 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 650
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 45 | 75.6% |
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 650
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 650
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 5.8% 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 suspension joints 3.5% of tests
“linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt”
With the car parked on level ground, rock the top of each front wheel in and out while someone watches the suspension arm. Clunks, or rubber boots split and greasy, are what testers record here.
-
Check the lights 3.5% 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.
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 650 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £37–£100 — and 24% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £37–£100
- Cheapest common item: washers not working
- £5–£15
- Dearest common item: door condition cannot be opened from outside…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 24%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 86 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 650, side by side
12 model years on record, from 2005 to 2017. Across them the pass rate runs from 79.2% to 90.1% — a spread of 10.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2005 79.2% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2006 80.0% position lamp not working
- 2007 82.2% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2008 83.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2009 82.6%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2011 81.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2012 85.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 89.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2014 90.1% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2015 88.2% has a bulge, caused by separation…
- 2016 82.9% has a bulge, caused by separation…
- 2017 86.3% 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 2009 BMW 650 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
- Audi Q7 82.6%
- Toyota Iq 82.9%
- Lexus RX400H 82.9%
- Porsche Cayenne 82.0%
- Jaguar Xkr 83.2%
- Lexus RX450H 83.6%
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 650 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 151 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 | 36 | 23.70% | 20.98% | +2.72 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 31 | 20.40% | 5.52% | +14.88 |
| Tyres | 27 | 17.80% | 19.76% | −1.96 |
| Brakes | 20 | 13.20% | 20.89% | −7.69 |
| Visibility | 12 | 7.90% | 4.97% | +2.93 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 7 | 4.60% | 12.21% | −7.61 |
| Non-component advisories | 6 | 3.90% | 4.18% | −0.28 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 6 | 3.90% | 1.76% | +2.14 |
| Steering | 4 | 2.60% | 2.57% | +0.03 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 2 | 1.30% | 5.57% | −4.27 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 5.8% | £80–200 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 3.5% | £18–45 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.5% | £5–20 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 2.3% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.3% | £40–150 |
| Washers not working Visibility | Major | 2.3% | £5–15 |
| Ball joint likely to become detached Suspension | Major | 1.2% | £18–45 |
| Door condition cannot be opened from outside the vehicle Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.2% | £80–250 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.2% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.2% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 22.1% | £200–700 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 16.3% | £45–95 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 13.9% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 11.6% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 8.1% | £45–110 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 5.8% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 2 | 100.0% | 28,069 mi |
| 30-60k | 22 | 77.3% | 49,755 mi |
| 60-90k | 41 | 85.4% | 77,528 mi |
| 90-120k | 13 | 76.9% | 105,253 mi |
| 120k+ | 8 | 87.5% | 168,303 mi |
Source: 86 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 650 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2009 BMW 650?
82.6% of the 86 2009 BMW 650 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 74.0% for cars first used in 2009. First-attempt pass rate: 79.2%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2009 BMW 650?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (5.81%), linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (3.49%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (3.49%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2009 BMW 650 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 87.5% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2009 BMW 650 in this dataset had covered 78,214 mi.
Does the season affect the 2009 BMW 650 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 87.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 77.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.