Pass rate
87.2%
Above average — 14.1 pts ahead of the 73.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 94 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £15–£39
2008 BMW 750 MOT pass rate
- 2008
- typical 91,704 mi
Only 94 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.
Most common fault
Tyres
24.1% 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 →
Which year to buy
- Best 2018 94.2% pass
- Avoid 2007 79.4% pass
Across the 10 years on record, a spread of 14.8 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 85.7%
- Typical mileage
- 92k mi
The 2008 BMW 750 MOT pass rate is 87.2% of its MOT tests — 14.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 24.1% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW 750 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Emissions & leaks: 3.1× the national share
Emissions & leaks make up 17.0% of everything recorded on the 2008 BMW 750, against 5.5% nationally — 11.5 points above. Tyres are still the single largest share at 24.1%, but at 19.8% 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 87.2% — 14.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- Based on a small sample. 94 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 750? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2008 BMW 750 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.1%, so this figure is 14.1 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 85.7%. The median 2008 BMW 750 in this dataset had covered 91,704 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 82.7% of the time, April–September 92.9%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Ball joint excessively worn", noted on 4.26% of tests.
- 94 recorded tests behind this page.
- 87.2% overall pass rate, 85.7% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW 750, the average is 85.9% — best year 2018 (94.2%), worst 2007 (79.4%).
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
- 94
- Typical mileage (median)
- 91,704 mi
- Make and model
- BMW 750
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Ball Joint
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the 750 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 72% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the 750
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 28 | 89.3% |
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 750
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 750
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 suspension joints 4.3% 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 wipers and washers 4.3% 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 lights 3.2% of tests
“mirrors slightly damaged”
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 2008 750 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £15–£39 — and 46% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £15–£39
- Cheapest common item: all direction indicators flashing more than…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm
- £45–£95
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 100%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 46%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 94 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 750, side by side
10 model years on record, from 2000 to 2018. Across them the pass rate runs from 79.4% to 94.2% — a spread of 14.8 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 88.9% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2005 79.5% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2006 82.3% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2007 79.4% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2008 87.2%ball joint excessively worn
- 2009 83.2% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2014 86.4% washers provides insufficient…
- 2016 92.6% pins and bushes pin or bush…
- 2017 91.8% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2018 94.2% windscreen damaged but not…
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 750 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 A8 87.0%
- Mercedes-Benz Sl 86.7%
- Porsche Boxster 89.4%
- Toyota Estima 84.8%
- Porsche Cayman 84.8%
- Toyota Alphard 83.8%
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 750 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 111 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 | 27 | 24.10% | 19.76% | +4.34 |
| Suspension | 21 | 18.80% | 20.98% | −2.18 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 19 | 17.00% | 5.52% | +11.48 |
| Brakes | 13 | 11.60% | 20.89% | −9.29 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 12 | 10.70% | 12.21% | −1.51 |
| Visibility | 8 | 7.10% | 4.97% | +2.13 |
| Non-component advisories | 5 | 4.50% | 4.18% | +0.32 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 3 | 2.70% | 0.82% | +1.88 |
| Road Wheels | 2 | 1.80% | 0.75% | +1.05 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 1 | 0.90% | 5.57% | −4.67 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 4.3% | £18–45 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 4.3% | £8–22 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 3.2% | £18–45 |
| Mirrors slightly damaged Visibility | Minor | 3.2% | £3–15 |
| All direction indicators flashing more than 120 times a minute Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.1% | £3–12 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 2.1% | £18–45 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.1% | £5–25 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 2.1% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 1.1% | £25–65 |
| Electronic parking brake control defective so that it cannot be satisfactorily operated Brakes | Major | 1.1% | £25–80 |
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 | 18.1% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 14.9% | £200–700 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 8.5% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 5.3% | £40–150 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 4.3% | £18–45 |
| Catalyst emissions emits excessive dense blue smoke during acceleration Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 3.2% | £60–250 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 9 | 100.0% | 20,381 mi |
| 30-60k | 8 | 87.5% | 46,404 mi |
| 60-90k | 28 | 92.9% | 76,918 mi |
| 90-120k | 24 | 83.3% | 103,178 mi |
| 120k+ | 25 | 80.0% | 141,922 mi |
Source: 94 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 750 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2008 BMW 750?
87.2% of the 94 2008 BMW 750 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.1% for cars first used in 2008. First-attempt pass rate: 85.7%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2008 BMW 750?
The three most recorded items are ball joint excessively worn (4.26%), wipers blade defective (4.26%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (3.19%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2008 BMW 750 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 80.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2008 BMW 750 in this dataset had covered 91,704 mi.
Does the season affect the 2008 BMW 750 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 82.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 92.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.