Pass rate
87.8%
Above average — 0.1 pts behind the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 181 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £44–£104
2018 BMW Alpina MOT pass rate
- 2018
- typical 38,010 mi
Most common fault
Tyres
42.4% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 98.2% pass
- Avoid 2009 81.6% pass
Across the 23 years on record, a spread of 16.6 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 87.0%
- Typical mileage
- 38k mi
The 2018 BMW Alpina MOT pass rate is 87.8% of its MOT tests — about what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 42.4% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW Alpina does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.1× the national share
Tyres make up 42.4% of everything recorded on the 2018 BMW Alpina, against 19.8% nationally — 22.6 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 18% 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.
- Based on a small sample. 181 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 Alpina? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2018 BMW Alpina compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, so this figure is 0.1 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 87.0%. The median 2018 BMW Alpina in this dataset had covered 38,010 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Petrol — 52% of tests, with a 85.3% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 95.9% of the time, April–September 82.4%.
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 4.97% of tests.
- 181 recorded tests behind this page.
- 87.8% overall pass rate, 87.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW Alpina, the average is 87.2% — best year 2022 (98.2%), worst 2009 (81.6%).
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
- 181
- Typical mileage (median)
- 38,010 mi
- Make and model
- BMW Alpina
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
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 Alpina MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 73% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Petrol is the most common here (52% of tests).
Regional pass rates for the Alpina
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 59 | 89.8% |
| East Midlands | 28 | 85.7% |
| West Midlands | 23 | 87.0% |
| Yorkshire | 19 | 84.2% |
| Scotland | 16 | 75.0% |
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 2018 Alpina
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 2018 Alpina
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 3.3% 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 lights 0.6% of tests
“headlamp aim too far to the right”
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 2018 Alpina through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £44–£104 — and 18% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £44–£104
- Cheapest common item: wipers blade defective
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 18%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 181 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 Alpina, side by side
23 model years on record, from 2000 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 81.6% to 98.2% — a spread of 16.6 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 85.1% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2001 83.5% anti-lock braking system warning…
- 2002 86.8% washers not working
- 2003 87.9% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2004 87.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2005 87.9% rbt (sp) efficiency below…
- 2006 87.5% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 83.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2008 87.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2009 81.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2010 87.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2011 87.3% shock absorbers has a serious…
- 2012 89.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2013 81.9% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2014 84.8% tread depth below requirements of…
- 2015 89.2% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 88.9% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2017 89.4% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2018 87.8%has a cut in excess of the…
- 2019 93.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2020 90.9% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 91.4% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2022 98.2% 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 2018 BMW Alpina 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 2018 cars with a similar record
- Mitsubishi L200 87.8%
- SEAT Alhambra 87.8%
- Kia Sportage 87.7%
- Skoda Superb 87.7%
- Audi Q7 87.7%
- Volvo V90 87.7%
Closest pass rates among 2018 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 2018 BMW Alpina 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 8 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 92 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 | 39 | 42.40% | 19.76% | +22.64 |
| Brakes | 18 | 19.60% | 20.89% | −1.29 |
| Visibility | 10 | 10.90% | 4.97% | +5.93 |
| Non-component advisories | 8 | 8.70% | 4.18% | +4.52 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 6 | 6.50% | 12.21% | −5.71 |
| Suspension | 5 | 5.40% | 20.98% | −15.58 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 5 | 5.40% | 5.57% | −0.17 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 1 | 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 | 5.0% | £45–95 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.3% | £80–200 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 1.7% | £45–95 |
| Side repeaters not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.1% | £5–25 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.1% | £8–22 |
| Headlamp aim too far to the right Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.55% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.55% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp cleaning device for LED or HID headlamp inoperative Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.55% | £5–25 |
| Pedal has insufficient reserve travel Brakes | Major | 0.55% | £45–110 |
| Shock absorbers has a serious fluid leak Suspension | Major | 0.55% | £30–75 |
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 | 6.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 3.9% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 3.9% | £18–45 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Advisory | 3.9% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 3.3% | £45–95 |
| Flexible couplings excessively deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Advisory | 2.8% | £80–250 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 54 | 90.7% | 22,557 mi |
| 30-60k | 98 | 87.8% | 42,988 mi |
| 60-90k | 27 | 81.5% | 70,828 mi |
| 90-120k | 1 | 100.0% | 95,373 mi |
Source: 181 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.
2018 Alpina MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 BMW Alpina?
87.8% of the 181 2018 BMW Alpina tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 87.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 BMW Alpina?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (4.97%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (3.31%), has ply or cords exposed (1.66%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 BMW Alpina MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 90.7% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 BMW Alpina in this dataset had covered 38,010 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2018 BMW Alpina?
Petrol: 85.3% pass rate across 95 tests. Diesel: 90.7% pass rate across 86 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2018 BMW Alpina MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 95.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 82.4%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.