2021 BMW IX3 Premier MOT pass rate

Pass rate

89.9%

Above average — 1.3 pts behind the 91.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.

Across 5,218 recorded tests.

Typical repair bill £38–£88

Which year to buy

  • Best 2021 89.9% pass · this year
  • Avoid 2022 88.7% pass

Across the 2 years on record, a spread of 1.2 points. See every year →

First-attempt pass
88.8%
Typical mileage
34k mi

The 2021 BMW IX3 Premier MOT pass rate is 89.9% of its MOT tests — 1.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 60.3% of what testers record.

MOT PASS RATES

The 2021 BMW IX3 Premier on the real record

89.9% of 2021 BMW IX3 Premier MOTs passed — 5,218 tests, 2023–2025

Pass rate

The answer from the DVSA's class-4 MOT records.

Check your postcode

MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW IX3 Premier does in your corner of the country.

How one model's pass rate varies by postcode →

Expert verdict

Tyres: 3.1× the national share

Tyres make up 60.3% of everything recorded on the 2021 BMW Ix3 Premier, against 19.8% nationally — 40.5 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.

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 IX3 Premier? Get an email when these numbers change .

How does the 2021 BMW IX3 Premier compare?

Cars of this age and mileage average 91.2%, so this figure is 1.3 points behind what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 88.8%. The median 2021 BMW IX3 Premier in this dataset had covered 33,784 mi.

Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 89.8% of the time, April–September 89.9%.

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 3.43% of tests.

  • 5,218 recorded tests behind this page.
  • 89.9% overall pass rate, 88.8% on a first attempt.
  • Across every year of the BMW IX3 Premier, the average is 89.8% — best year 2021 (89.9%), worst 2022 (88.7%).

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
5,218
Typical mileage (median)
33,784 mi
Make and model
BMW IX3 Premier
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 IX3 Premier MOT pass rate?

0-30k 91.6%
30-60k 89.5%
60-90k 84.7%
90-120k 81.6%
120k+ 100.0%

Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 73% so small gaps stay visible.

Regional pass rates for the IX3 Premier

Region Tests Pass rate
South East 1,331 89.9%
North West 700 89.7%
West Midlands 516 88.8%
East of England 505 87.5%
Yorkshire 478 91.4%
South West 466 91.4%
East Midlands 381 88.7%
Scotland 274 91.2%
London 261 92.0%
North East 174 91.4%
Wales 132 86.4%

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 2021 IX3 Premier

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.

Tyres 60.3%
+40.5 pts vs national national 19.8% Compare tyre prices
Advisories 13.0%
+8.8 pts vs national national 4.2% Price advisories parts
Visibility 11.9%
+6.9 pts vs national national 5.0% Order bulbs & wipers
Suspension 5.4%
−15.6 pts vs national national 21.0% Price suspension parts
Show the other 6 fault categories
  • Lamps & electrics 4.8%
  • Brakes 1.5%
  • Identification 1.3%
  • Road wheels 1.3%
  • Seat belts 0.3%
  • Body & chassis 0.2%

Shares are of every item recorded on 2021 BMW IX3 Premier tests — a composition, so they add to 100% across all sections, not per test.

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 2021 IX3 Premier

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.

  1. Check the windscreen 2.2% 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.

  2. Check the tyre tread 1.4% of tests

    “tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm”

    Check all four tyres cold, including the inner shoulder where wear hides — 1.6mm across the central three-quarters is the legal limit, and most testers fail at 1.6mm without argument.

  3. Check the wipers and washers 1.4% 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 2021 IX3 Premier through its MOT

Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £38–£88 — and 31% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.

Average repair across the 10 common items
£38–£88
Cheapest common item: washers provides insufficient washer liquid
£5–£15
Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
£80–£200
Common items a careful owner can do at home
80%
Repairs that still cost under £30
31%

Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 5,218 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 IX3 Premier, side by side

2 model years on record, from 2021 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 88.7% to 89.9% — a spread of 1.2 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.

  1. 2021 89.9%
    has a cut in excess of the…
  2. 2022 88.7% 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 2021 BMW IX3 Premier 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.

Compare 2021 with another year →

Compare two different cars instead →

Other 2021 cars with a similar record

Closest pass rates among 2021 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 2021 BMW IX3 Premier 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 2,876 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 1,734 60.30% 19.76% +40.54
Non-component advisories 375 13.00% 4.18% +8.82
Visibility 343 11.90% 4.97% +6.93
Suspension 156 5.40% 20.98% −15.58
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment 138 4.80% 12.21% −7.41
Brakes 42 1.50% 20.89% −19.39
Identification of the vehicle 38 1.30% 1.76% −0.46
Road Wheels 36 1.30% 0.75% +0.55
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems 8 0.30% 0.82% −0.52
Body, chassis, structure 6 0.20% 5.57% −5.37

The exact failure items, in the tester's words

Share of the 5,218 tests on this vehicle that recorded each item
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost Part
Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres Major 3.4% £45–95 Tyres →
Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility Minor 2.2% £80–200 Windscreen →
Has ply or cords exposed Tyres Major 1.7% £45–95 Tyres →
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres Major 1.4% £45–95 Tyres →
Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility Major 1.4% £8–22 Wiper Blade →
Wipers blade defective Visibility Minor 0.96% £8–22 Wiper Blade →
Side repeaters not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Major 0.65% £5–25 Headlight Bulb →
Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment Rectified 0.63% £30–80 Headlight Alignment →
Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility Major 0.63% £5–15 Windscreen Washer →
Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility Rectified 0.61% £8–22 Wiper Blade →

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.

Items recorded as advisory on this vehicle
Recorded item Severity Tests Est. cost
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres Advisory 15.8% £45–95
Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres Advisory 3.7% £45–95
Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories Advisory 3.5% £45–95
Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories Advisory 3.1% £20–80
Tread depth tread pattern not visible over the whole tread area when minimum depth required is 1.0mm Tyres Advisory 2.7% £45–95
Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres Advisory 2.6% £45–95

Pass rate by mileage

Mileage Tests Pass rate Median odometer
0-30k 2,107 91.6% 21,206 mi
30-60k 2,595 89.5% 41,550 mi
60-90k 464 84.7% 70,229 mi
90-120k 49 81.6% 100,398 mi
120k+ 2 100.0% 129,409 mi

Source: 5,218 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.

2021 IX3 Premier MOT questions

What is the MOT pass rate for a 2021 BMW IX3 Premier?

89.9% of the 5,218 2021 BMW IX3 Premier tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 91.2% for cars first used in 2021. First-attempt pass rate: 88.8%.

What are the most common MOT failures on a 2021 BMW IX3 Premier?

The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (3.43%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.18%), has ply or cords exposed (1.72%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.

Does mileage affect the 2021 BMW IX3 Premier MOT pass rate?

Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 91.6% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2021 BMW IX3 Premier in this dataset had covered 33,784 mi.

Does the season affect the 2021 BMW IX3 Premier MOT pass rate?

Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 89.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 89.9%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.