Pass rate
87.2%
Above average — 13.9 pts ahead of the 73.3% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 819 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £33–£85
2001 BMW M5 MOT pass rate
- 2001
- typical 118,805 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
25.4% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Which year to buy
- Best 2008 95.4% pass
- Avoid 2002 86.5% pass
Across the 17 years on record, a spread of 8.9 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 85.9%
- Typical mileage
- 119k mi
The 2001 BMW M5 MOT pass rate is 87.2% of its MOT tests — 13.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 25.4% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Emissions & leaks: 1.9× the national share
Emissions & leaks make up 10.6% of everything recorded on the 2001 BMW M5, against 5.5% nationally — 5.1 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 25.4%, but at 20.9% 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 73.3% and this one manages 87.2% — 13.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 32% 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 M5? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2001 BMW M5 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 73.3%, so this figure is 13.9 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 85.9%. The median 2001 BMW M5 in this dataset had covered 118,805 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 85.8% of the time, April–September 88.3%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 3.66% of tests.
- 819 recorded tests behind this page.
- 87.2% overall pass rate, 85.9% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW M5, the average is 89.8% — best year 2008 (95.4%), worst 2002 (86.5%).
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
- 819
- Typical mileage (median)
- 118,805 mi
- Make and model
- BMW M5
- 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 M5 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 74% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the BMW M5 is most common
Across all M5 model years on record (2000–2019): 6,220 BMW M5 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 11,647 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 232 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 | Birmingham (B) | 232 | 94.5% |
| 2 | Guildford (GU) | 166 | 92.1% |
| 3 | High Wycombe (HP) | 152 | 92.2% |
| 4 | Reading (RG) | 140 | 90.1% |
| 5 | Ashford (TN) | 134 | 88.6% |
| 6 | Slough (SL) | 133 | 94.8% |
| 7 | Crawley (RH) | 118 | 86.6% |
| 8 | London (E) | 114 | 98.3% |
| 9 | Romford (RM) | 106 | 93.2% |
| 10 | Peterborough (PE) | 104 | 87.6% |
| 11 | Leicester (LE) | 100 | 90.6% |
| 12 | Oxford (OX) | 98 | 92.2% |
| 13 | Chelmsford (CM) | 98 | 90.8% |
| 14 | Sheffield (S) | 88 | 88.0% |
| 15 | Kingston upon Thames (KT) | 87 | 92.6% |
| 16 | Bristol (BS) | 85 | 88.2% |
| 17 | Hayes (UB) | 82 | 95.6% |
| 18 | Ilford (IG) | 82 | 97.0% |
| 19 | Wembley (HA) | 82 | 93.0% |
| 20 | Southampton (SO) | 81 | 91.1% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW M5 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 M5
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 275 | 87.3% |
| East of England | 125 | 89.6% |
| West Midlands | 85 | 92.9% |
| South West | 64 | 81.3% |
| Yorkshire | 62 | 87.1% |
| North West | 59 | 81.4% |
| East Midlands | 50 | 86.0% |
| London | 43 | 90.7% |
| Scotland | 32 | 84.4% |
| North East | 19 | 78.9% |
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 2001 M5
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 2001 M5
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 3.7% 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 2.4% of tests
“ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated”
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 lights 2.2% of tests
“headlamp aim too low”
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 2001 M5 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £33–£85 — and 32% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £33–£85
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 32%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 819 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 M5, side by side
17 model years on record, from 2000 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 86.5% to 95.4% — a spread of 8.9 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2000 86.6% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2001 87.2%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2002 86.5% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2003 89.3% ball joint dust cover severely…
- 2005 90.0% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2006 88.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2007 92.3% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2008 95.4% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2009 94.4% linkage ball joint dust cover…
- 2011 89.5% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2012 90.8% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2013 88.7% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 91.0% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2015 90.7% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2016 91.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 88.9% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2019 89.4% 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 2001 BMW M5 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 2001 cars with a similar record
- Porsche 911 86.3%
- Jaguar XK8 80.6%
- Porsche Boxster 80.5%
- Mercedes-Benz Slk 80.3%
- Subaru Impreza 79.3%
- Jaguar Xkr 79.2%
Closest pass rates among 2001 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 2001 BMW M5 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 1,130 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brakes | 294 | 25.40% | 20.89% | +4.51 |
| Suspension | 220 | 19.00% | 20.98% | −1.98 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 122 | 10.60% | 5.52% | +5.08 |
| Tyres | 110 | 9.50% | 19.76% | −10.26 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 107 | 9.30% | 12.21% | −2.91 |
| Non-component advisories | 73 | 6.30% | 4.18% | +2.12 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 68 | 5.90% | 5.57% | +0.33 |
| Visibility | 67 | 5.80% | 4.97% | +0.83 |
| Steering | 44 | 3.80% | 2.57% | +1.23 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 25 | 2.20% | 0.82% | +1.38 |
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 | 3.7% | £80–200 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 2.4% | £18–45 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 2.2% | £30–80 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.1% | £18–45 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.1% | £3–12 |
| Srs malfunction indicator lamp warning lamp indicates a fault Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | Major | 0.98% | £3–12 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.98% | £8–22 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.85% | £5–25 |
| Service brake performance excessively binding Brakes | Major | 0.85% | £60–150 |
| Washers provides insufficient washer liquid Visibility | Major | 0.85% | £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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Advisory | 11.8% | £80–180 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 9.2% | £45–110 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 7.1% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Fuel Pipe/s corroded Non-component advisories | Advisory | 5.9% | £180–450 |
| Transmission oil leaks leaking excessively from transmission Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 5.4% | £200–700 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 5.1% | £200–700 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30-60k | 64 | 82.8% | 49,157 mi |
| 60-90k | 129 | 89.1% | 79,008 mi |
| 90-120k | 224 | 90.6% | 105,411 mi |
| 120k+ | 396 | 85.9% | 153,881 mi |
Source: 819 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.
2001 M5 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2001 BMW M5?
87.2% of the 819 2001 BMW M5 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 73.3% for cars first used in 2001. First-attempt pass rate: 85.9%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2001 BMW M5?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (3.66%), ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated (2.44%), headlamp aim too low (2.20%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2001 BMW M5 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 82.8% of the time, falling to 85.9% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2001 BMW M5 in this dataset had covered 118,805 mi.
Does the season affect the 2001 BMW M5 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 85.8% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 88.3%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.