Pass rate
88.9%
Above average — 1.0 pts ahead of the 87.9% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 72 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £44–£105
2018 BMW M5 MOT pass rate
- 2018
- typical 47,027 mi
Only 72 tests of this exact model and year are in the DVSA data, below the 100 we ask for before a page goes in the index. The figures are still shown, because they are the only ones there are.
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
41.9% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
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
- 87.5%
- Typical mileage
- 47k mi
The 2018 BMW M5 MOT pass rate is 88.9% of its MOT tests — 1.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 41.9% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 2.1× the national share
Tyres make up 41.9% of everything recorded on the 2018 BMW M5, against 19.8% nationally — 22.1 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.
- 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.
- Based on a small sample. 72 tests back this page. That is enough to publish and to index, not enough to treat the decimal places as precise — read the pattern, not the second digit.
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 2018 BMW M5 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 87.9%, so this figure is 1.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 87.5%. The median 2018 BMW M5 in this dataset had covered 47,027 mi.
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 4.17% of tests.
- 72 recorded tests behind this page.
- 88.9% overall pass rate, 87.5% 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
- 72
- Typical mileage (median)
- 47,027 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
Tyres
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the M5 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 78% 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 | 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 2018 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 2018 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 1.4% 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 lights 1.4% 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.
-
Check the number plates 1.4% of tests
“registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements”
Check both plates are present, legible and correctly spaced, with the postcode of the supplier and the BS AU 145e mark. A private plate in the wrong style is a fail before the car is even looked at.
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 2018 M5 through its MOT
Across the 7 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £44–£105 — and 0% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 7 common items
- £44–£105
- Cheapest common item: coil spring fractured or broken
- £25–£65
- Dearest common item: windscreen damaged
- £80–£200
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 57%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 0%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 72 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 2018 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 2018 cars with a similar record
- Mercedes-Benz Glc 88.9%
- MINI John COOPER Works 88.9%
- Alfa Romeo Giulia 88.9%
- MINI Clubman 89.0%
- Hyundai I10 88.8%
- Mercedes-Benz Gla 88.8%
Closest pass rates among 2018 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 2018 BMW M5 7 failure items · 6 advisories · 7 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 31 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 | 13 | 41.90% | 19.76% | +22.14 |
| Brakes | 8 | 25.80% | 20.89% | +4.91 |
| Non-component advisories | 6 | 19.40% | 4.18% | +15.22 |
| Suspension | 1 | 3.20% | 20.98% | −17.78 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 1 | 3.20% | 12.21% | −9.01 |
| Visibility | 1 | 3.20% | 4.97% | −1.77 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 1 | 3.20% | 1.76% | +1.44 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 4.2% | £45–95 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 2.8% | £45–95 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 1.4% | £25–65 |
| Headlamp aim too low Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Rectified | 1.4% | £30–80 |
| Registration plates does not conform to the specified requirements Identification of the vehicle | Rectified | 1.4% | £20–80 |
| Service brake performance excessively fluctuating Brakes | Major | 1.4% | £60–150 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 1.4% | £80–200 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 5.6% | £45–110 |
| Non-component advisories Nail in tyre Non-component advisories | Advisory | 5.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 4.2% | £18–45 |
| Has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.8% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 2.8% | £45–95 |
| Non-component advisories Child Seat fitted not allowing full inspection of adult belt Non-component advisories | Advisory | 2.8% | £20–80 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 17 | 88.2% | 21,359 mi |
| 30-60k | 36 | 86.1% | 45,348 mi |
| 60-90k | 14 | 92.9% | 73,888 mi |
| 90-120k | 4 | 100.0% | 108,052 mi |
Source: 72 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.
2018 M5 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2018 BMW M5?
88.9% of the 72 2018 BMW M5 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 87.9% for cars first used in 2018. First-attempt pass rate: 87.5%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2018 BMW M5?
The three most recorded items are has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (4.17%), has ply or cords exposed (2.78%), coil spring fractured or broken (1.39%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2018 BMW M5 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 88.2% of the time, falling to 100.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2018 BMW M5 in this dataset had covered 47,027 mi.