Pass rate
81.3%
Around average — 8.2 pts ahead of the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 193 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £16–£47
2008 BMW 7 Series MOT pass rate
- 2008
- typical 141,578 mi
Most common fault
Suspension
23.9% 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 2022 95.5% pass
- Avoid 2005 80.6% pass
Across the 18 years on record, a spread of 14.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 77.9%
- Typical mileage
- 142k mi
The 2008 BMW 7 Series MOT pass rate is 81.3% of its MOT tests — 8.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Suspension is the biggest single reason it fails, at 23.9% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW 7 Series does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Emissions & leaks: 2.6× the national share
Emissions & leaks make up 14.4% of everything recorded on the 2008 BMW 7 Series, against 5.5% nationally — 8.9 points above. Suspension is still the single largest share at 23.9%, 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 73.1% and this one manages 81.3% — 8.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Based on a small sample. 193 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 7 Series? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2008 BMW 7 Series compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, so this figure is 8.2 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 77.9%. The median 2008 BMW 7 Series in this dataset had covered 141,578 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 82.1% of the time, April–September 80.0%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Position lamp not working", noted on 4.15% of tests.
- 193 recorded tests behind this page.
- 81.3% overall pass rate, 77.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 7 Series, the average is 90.4% — best year 2022 (95.5%), worst 2005 (80.6%).
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
- 193
- Typical mileage (median)
- 141,578 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 7 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 7 Series MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 65% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 7 Series
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| Yorkshire | 37 | 89.2% |
| North West | 35 | 80.0% |
| South East | 28 | 82.1% |
| West Midlands | 21 | 85.7% |
| Scotland | 15 | 73.3% |
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 2008 7 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 2008 7 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 4.2% 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 suspension joints 2.6% of tests
“ball joint excessively worn”
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 battery 1.0% of tests
“battery(ies) insecure”
Check the battery is secure and its terminals are clean and tight — a loose battery is a fail on its own, and a weak one shows up as slow cranking on a cold morning.
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 2008 7 Series through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £16–£47 — and 51% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £16–£47
- Cheapest common item: srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: pins
- £40–£150
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 51%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 193 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 7 Series, side by side
18 model years on record, from 2005 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 80.6% to 95.5% — a spread of 14.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2005 80.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2006 85.0% joints constant velocity boot…
- 2007 86.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2008 81.3%position lamp not working
- 2009 83.5% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2010 87.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2011 83.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2012 85.9% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 84.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2014 87.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 81.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 91.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 91.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 92.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 93.4% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 93.6% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 93.5% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 95.5% 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 2008 BMW 7 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 2008 cars with a similar record
- Audi Q7 81.2%
- Jaguar Xkr 81.4%
- Mercedes-Benz S-Class 81.5%
- Jaguar Xj 81.0%
- Volvo S80 80.7%
- Jaguar Xk 82.0%
Closest pass rates among 2008 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 2008 BMW 7 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 340 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 | 83 | 23.90% | 20.98% | +2.92 |
| Tyres | 75 | 21.60% | 19.76% | +1.84 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 50 | 14.40% | 5.52% | +8.88 |
| Brakes | 46 | 13.30% | 20.89% | −7.59 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 36 | 10.40% | 12.21% | −1.81 |
| Visibility | 13 | 3.70% | 4.97% | −1.27 |
| Non-component advisories | 13 | 3.70% | 4.18% | −0.48 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 11 | 3.20% | 0.82% | +2.38 |
| Steering | 8 | 2.30% | 2.57% | −0.27 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 5 | 1.40% | 5.57% | −4.17 |
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 | 4.2% | £5–25 |
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 3.6% | £5–20 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.6% | £18–45 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 2.6% | £18–45 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 2.6% | £3–12 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.6% | £45–95 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.6% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 1.6% | £40–150 |
| Battery(ies) insecure but not likely to fall from carrier Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 1.0% | £60–140 |
| Brake fluid warning lamp illuminated Brakes | Minor | 1.0% | £3–15 |
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 | 25.4% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 23.8% | £200–700 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 16.1% | £40–150 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 7.3% | £18–45 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 6.7% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 4.7% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 10 | 100.0% | 52,286 mi |
| 60-90k | 15 | 73.3% | 77,081 mi |
| 90-120k | 28 | 75.0% | 110,914 mi |
| 120k+ | 140 | 82.1% | 170,017 mi |
Source: 193 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.
2008 7 Series MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2008 BMW 7 Series?
81.3% of the 193 2008 BMW 7 Series tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 77.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2008 BMW 7 Series?
The three most recorded items are position lamp not working (4.15%), registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (3.63%), ball joint excessively worn (2.59%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2008 BMW 7 Series MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 82.1% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2008 BMW 7 Series in this dataset had covered 141,578 mi.
Does the season affect the 2008 BMW 7 Series MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 82.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 80.0%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.