Pass rate
86.1%
Above average — 4.0 pts ahead of the 82.1% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 101 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £57–£202
2015 BMW M235I MOT pass rate
- 2015
- typical 58,352 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
27.0% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2022 92.3% pass
- Avoid 2016 83.0% pass
Across the 6 years on record, a spread of 9.3 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 84.4%
- Typical mileage
- 58k mi
The 2015 BMW M235I MOT pass rate is 86.1% of its MOT tests — 4.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 27.0% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Emissions & leaks: 3.9× the national share
Emissions & leaks make up 21.6% of everything recorded on the 2015 BMW M235i, against 5.5% nationally — 16.1 points above. Tyres are still the single largest share at 27.0%, 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 82.1% and this one manages 86.1% — 4.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 0% 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.
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 M235I? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2015 BMW M235I compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 82.1%, so this figure is 4.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 84.4%. The median 2015 BMW M235I in this dataset had covered 58,352 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 91.1% of the time, April–September 82.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds default limits", noted on 2.97% of tests.
- 101 recorded tests behind this page.
- 86.1% overall pass rate, 84.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW M235I, the average is 91.3% — best year 2022 (92.3%), worst 2016 (83.0%).
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
- 101
- Typical mileage (median)
- 58,352 mi
- Make and model
- BMW M235I
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Emissions Repair
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the M235I MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 72% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the BMW M235I is most common
Across all M235I model years on record (2014–2022): 4,121 BMW M235I cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 6,373 tests. Glasgow (G) has the most, with 157 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 | Glasgow (G) | 157 | 91.6% |
| 2 | Birmingham (B) | 119 | 95.0% |
| 3 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 109 | 92.9% |
| 4 | Sheffield (S) | 93 | 89.2% |
| 5 | Aberdeen (AB) | 84 | 87.3% |
| 6 | Reading (RG) | 79 | 88.6% |
| 7 | Leeds (LS) | 78 | 90.4% |
| 8 | Peterborough (PE) | 77 | 94.1% |
| 9 | Warrington (WA) | 75 | 90.0% |
| 10 | Derby (DE) | 75 | 96.2% |
| 11 | Manchester (M) | 72 | 93.5% |
| 12 | Hamilton (ML) | 69 | 87.1% |
| 13 | Nottingham (NG) | 66 | 90.7% |
| 14 | Bolton (BL) | 61 | 90.5% |
| 15 | Stockport (SK) | 59 | 90.7% |
| 16 | Brighton (BN) | 58 | 87.2% |
| 17 | Blackburn (BB) | 57 | 93.2% |
| 18 | Guildford (GU) | 56 | 89.9% |
| 19 | Bristol (BS) | 55 | 92.6% |
| 20 | Coventry (CV) | 55 | 89.4% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW M235I 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 M235I
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 34 | 79.4% |
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 2015 M235I
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 M235I
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 exhaust and emissions 3.0% of tests
“catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds default limits”
Listen for a blow at idle and have someone rev it gently. Then look at the tailpipe smoke: blue is oil, white when warm is coolant, black is over-fuelling. Any of those and the emissions test is the least of it.
-
Check the windscreen 3.0% 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 suspension joints 1.0% 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.
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 M235I through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £57–£202 — and 0% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £57–£202
- Cheapest common item: ball joint excessively worn
- £18–£45
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 30%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 0%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 101 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 M235I, side by side
6 model years on record, from 2014 to 2022. Across them the pass rate runs from 83.0% to 92.3% — a spread of 9.3 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2014 85.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2015 86.1%catalyst emissions carbon…
- 2016 83.0% tread depth below requirements of…
- 2020 91.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2021 92.1% has a bulge, caused by separation…
- 2022 92.3% tread depth below requirements of…
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 M235I 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
- Volkswagen Up 86.1%
- Volvo V70 86.1%
- Hyundai I20 86.0%
- Skoda Citigo 86.2%
- Land Rover Discovery 85.9%
- Toyota Verso 86.3%
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 M235I 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 74 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 | 20 | 27.00% | 19.76% | +7.24 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 16 | 21.60% | 5.52% | +16.08 |
| Brakes | 12 | 16.20% | 20.89% | −4.69 |
| Suspension | 8 | 10.80% | 20.98% | −10.18 |
| Non-component advisories | 6 | 8.10% | 4.18% | +3.92 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 4 | 5.40% | 12.21% | −6.81 |
| Visibility | 4 | 5.40% | 4.97% | +0.43 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 2 | 2.70% | 5.57% | −2.87 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1 | 1.40% | 1.76% | −0.36 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 1 | 1.40% | 0.82% | +0.58 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds default limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 3.0% | £60–250 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 3.0% | £80–200 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.0% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content at idle exceeds default limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.0% | £60–250 |
| Emissions not tested unable to be completed Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.0% | £60–250 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 2.0% | £45–95 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 0.99% | £18–45 |
| Brake pads missing Brakes | Major | 0.99% | £18–45 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content at idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.99% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions hydrocarbon content after 2nd fast idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.99% | £60–250 |
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 | 11.9% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 5.0% | £18–45 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 4.0% | £200–700 |
| Non-component advisories Play in steering rack inner joint(s) Non-component advisories | Advisory | 3.0% | £120–300 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 3.0% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 2.0% | £45–110 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 5 | 100.0% | 16,432 mi |
| 30-60k | 47 | 89.4% | 48,880 mi |
| 60-90k | 44 | 81.8% | 70,901 mi |
| 90-120k | 5 | 80.0% | 96,998 mi |
Source: 101 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 M235I MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2015 BMW M235I?
86.1% of the 101 2015 BMW M235I tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 82.1% for cars first used in 2015. First-attempt pass rate: 84.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2015 BMW M235I?
The three most recorded items are catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds default limits (2.97%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.97%), catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits (1.98%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2015 BMW M235I 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 2015 BMW M235I in this dataset had covered 58,352 mi.
Does the season affect the 2015 BMW M235I MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 91.1% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 82.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.