Pass rate
90.8%
Above average — 13.6 pts ahead of the 77.2% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 923 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £43–£143
2012 BMW M5 MOT pass rate
- 2012
- typical 71,314 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
28.4% 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
- 90.1%
- Typical mileage
- 71k mi
The 2012 BMW M5 MOT pass rate is 90.8% of its MOT tests — 13.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 28.4% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Emissions & leaks: 2.7× the national share
Emissions & leaks make up 14.9% of everything recorded on the 2012 BMW M5, against 5.5% nationally — 9.4 points above. Brakes are still the single largest share at 28.4%, 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 77.2% and this one manages 90.8% — 13.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 13% 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 2012 BMW M5 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 77.2%, so this figure is 13.6 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 90.1%. The median 2012 BMW M5 in this dataset had covered 71,314 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 89.9% of the time, April–September 91.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Coil spring fractured or broken", noted on 2.49% of tests.
- 923 recorded tests behind this page.
- 90.8% overall pass rate, 90.1% 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
- 923
- Typical mileage (median)
- 71,314 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
Coil Spring
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the M5 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 80% 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 | 263 | 92.4% |
| East of England | 135 | 91.1% |
| South West | 92 | 83.7% |
| North West | 85 | 90.6% |
| West Midlands | 85 | 94.1% |
| East Midlands | 60 | 91.7% |
| London | 58 | 94.8% |
| Yorkshire | 58 | 93.1% |
| Wales | 34 | 79.4% |
| Scotland | 28 | 85.7% |
| North East | 24 | 91.7% |
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 2012 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 2012 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 coil springs 2.5% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
-
Check the exhaust and emissions 1.3% of tests
“catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified 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 1.1% 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.
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 2012 M5 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £43–£143 — and 13% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £43–£143
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd…
- £60–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 40%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 13%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 923 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 2012 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 2012 cars with a similar record
- Audi A8 90.2%
- Porsche Boxster 91.6%
- Honda Fit 89.3%
- Toyota Estima 88.3%
- Lexus Rx 88.3%
- Porsche 911 93.4%
Closest pass rates among 2012 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 2012 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 608 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 | 175 | 28.40% | 20.89% | +7.51 |
| Tyres | 169 | 27.40% | 19.76% | +7.64 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 92 | 14.90% | 5.52% | +9.38 |
| Suspension | 67 | 10.90% | 20.98% | −10.08 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 33 | 5.40% | 12.21% | −6.81 |
| Non-component advisories | 26 | 4.20% | 4.18% | +0.02 |
| Visibility | 22 | 3.60% | 4.97% | −1.37 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 9 | 1.50% | 5.57% | −4.07 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 9 | 1.50% | 1.76% | −0.26 |
| Road Wheels | 6 | 1.00% | 0.75% | +0.25 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 2.5% | £25–65 |
| Catalyst emissions Lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.3% | £60–250 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.1% | £80–200 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.98% | £45–95 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content at idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.87% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions carbon monoxide content after 2nd fast idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.76% | £60–250 |
| Catalyst emissions hydrocarbon content after 2nd fast idle exceeds manufacturer's specified limits Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.65% | £60–250 |
| Headlamp aim too high Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 0.65% | £30–80 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 0.65% | £5–25 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 0.65% | £3–12 |
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 | 9.4% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 7.5% | £45–110 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 5.7% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 3.0% | £45–95 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 2.2% | £18–45 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 2.2% | £200–700 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 31 | 93.5% | 23,674 mi |
| 30-60k | 269 | 88.8% | 49,041 mi |
| 60-90k | 412 | 92.0% | 74,601 mi |
| 90-120k | 191 | 89.5% | 100,624 mi |
| 120k+ | 19 | 100.0% | 140,766 mi |
Source: 923 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.
2012 M5 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2012 BMW M5?
90.8% of the 923 2012 BMW M5 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 77.2% for cars first used in 2012. First-attempt pass rate: 90.1%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2012 BMW M5?
The three most recorded items are coil spring fractured or broken (2.49%), catalyst emissions lambda reading after 2nd fast idle outside specified limits (1.30%), windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (1.08%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2012 BMW M5 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.5% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2012 BMW M5 in this dataset had covered 71,314 mi.
Does the season affect the 2012 BMW M5 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 89.9% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 91.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.