Pass rate
87.8%
Above average — 5.7 pts ahead of the 82.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 6,328 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £28–£69
2015 BMW I3 MOT pass rate
- 2015
- typical 56,255 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
41.2% 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 →
4.1 pts down across model years — 8.4% in 2014, 4.3% in 2022.
Which year to buy
- Best 2021 93.1% pass
- Avoid 2013 85.2% pass
Across the 10 years on record, a spread of 7.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 86.4%
- Typical mileage
- 56k mi
The 2015 BMW I3 MOT pass rate is 87.8% of its MOT tests — 5.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 41.2% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.1× the national share
Tyres make up 41.2% of everything recorded on the 2015 BMW I3, against 19.8% nationally — 21.4 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.
- 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 82.1% and this one manages 87.8% — 5.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
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 I3? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2015 BMW I3 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 82.1%, so this figure is 5.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 86.4%. The median 2015 BMW I3 in this dataset had covered 56,255 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Hybrid — 74% of tests, with a 87.9% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 88.4% of the time, April–September 87.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 1.88% of tests.
- 6,328 recorded tests behind this page.
- 87.8% overall pass rate, 86.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW I3, the average is 90.9% — best year 2021 (93.1%), worst 2013 (85.2%).
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
- 6,328
- Typical mileage (median)
- 56,255 mi
- Make and model
- BMW I3
- 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 I3 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. Hybrid is the most common here (74% of tests).
Where the BMW I3 is most common
Across all I3 model years on record (2013–2022): 39,583 BMW I3 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 73,947 tests. London (NW) has the most, with 1,916 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 | London (NW) | 1,916 | 92.4% |
| 2 | Guildford (GU) | 1,250 | 89.9% |
| 3 | Kingston upon Thames (KT) | 921 | 93.6% |
| 4 | Reading (RG) | 888 | 89.8% |
| 5 | Bristol (BS) | 797 | 90.7% |
| 6 | High Wycombe (HP) | 791 | 91.1% |
| 7 | London (SW) | 791 | 91.0% |
| 8 | Oxford (OX) | 734 | 89.8% |
| 9 | London (SE) | 711 | 93.8% |
| 10 | Birmingham (B) | 707 | 89.3% |
| 11 | Watford (WD) | 673 | 89.8% |
| 12 | Brighton (BN) | 665 | 89.0% |
| 13 | Coventry (CV) | 650 | 93.8% |
| 14 | Ashford (TN) | 643 | 89.5% |
| 15 | Hounslow (TW) | 629 | 93.1% |
| 16 | Crawley (RH) | 595 | 90.3% |
| 17 | Gloucester (GL) | 590 | 90.3% |
| 18 | Peterborough (PE) | 580 | 92.1% |
| 19 | Slough (SL) | 562 | 92.6% |
| 20 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 554 | 90.8% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW I3 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 I3
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 2,041 | 87.8% |
| London | 839 | 89.3% |
| South West | 812 | 84.0% |
| East of England | 650 | 89.1% |
| West Midlands | 465 | 86.5% |
| North West | 397 | 90.2% |
| East Midlands | 356 | 90.7% |
| Yorkshire | 266 | 91.4% |
| Scotland | 242 | 85.5% |
| Wales | 135 | 85.9% |
| North East | 120 | 85.0% |
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 2015 I3
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 2015 I3
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 1.9% 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 lights 1.5% of tests
“srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault”
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 wipers and washers 1.3% of tests
“wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively”
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.
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 2015 I3 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £28–£69 — and 54% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £28–£69
- Cheapest common item: srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 90%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 54%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 6,328 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 I3, side by side
10 model years on record, from 2013 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 85.2% to 93.1% — a spread of 7.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2013 85.2% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2014 86.5% wipers does not clear the…
- 2015 87.8%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 88.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 89.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 91.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 92.2% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2020 92.5% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 93.1% headlamp aim too high
- 2022 93.0% headlamp aim too high
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 2015 BMW I3 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 2015 cars with a similar record
- Suzuki Vitara 87.9%
- Toyota RAV4 87.9%
- Volkswagen Golf 87.6%
- Jaguar Xj 87.6%
- Toyota YARIS 88.1%
- Audi A6 87.5%
Closest pass rates among 2015 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 2015 BMW I3 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 5,674 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 | 2,370 | 41.20% | 19.76% | +21.44 |
| Brakes | 1,391 | 24.20% | 20.89% | +3.31 |
| Visibility | 473 | 8.20% | 4.97% | +3.23 |
| Suspension | 418 | 7.30% | 20.98% | −13.68 |
| Road Wheels | 252 | 4.40% | 0.75% | +3.65 |
| Non-component advisories | 248 | 4.30% | 4.18% | +0.12 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 237 | 4.10% | 12.21% | −8.11 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 135 | 2.30% | 0.82% | +1.48 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 94 | 1.60% | 1.76% | −0.16 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 56 | 1.00% | 5.52% | −4.52 |
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 | 1.9% | £80–200 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 1.5% | £3–12 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.4% | £45–95 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.3% | £8–22 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Major | 1.3% | £45–95 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 1.2% | £8–22 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 1.0% | £5–15 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 0.84% | £25–65 |
| Side repeaters not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 0.68% | £5–25 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Rectified | 0.58% | £5–15 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 14.8% | £45–95 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 14.2% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 11.2% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 6.3% | £18–45 |
| Badly distorted Road Wheels | Advisory | 3.4% | £20–55 |
| Coil spring corroded so that its cross sectional area is reduced and seriously weakened Suspension | Advisory | 2.2% | £25–65 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 852 | 91.8% | 21,892 mi |
| 30-60k | 2,656 | 89.4% | 45,637 mi |
| 60-90k | 1,943 | 86.4% | 73,013 mi |
| 90-120k | 669 | 81.9% | 102,216 mi |
| 120k+ | 203 | 85.2% | 135,589 mi |
Source: 6,328 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.
2015 I3 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2015 BMW I3?
87.8% of the 6,328 2015 BMW I3 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 82.1% for cars first used in 2015. First-attempt pass rate: 86.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2015 BMW I3?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.88%), srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault (1.47%), has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.39%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2015 BMW I3 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.8% of the time, falling to 85.2% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2015 BMW I3 in this dataset had covered 56,255 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2015 BMW I3?
Hybrid: 87.9% pass rate across 4,701 tests. Electric: 87.8% pass rate across 1,627 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2015 BMW I3 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 88.4% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 87.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.