Pass rate
87.2%
Above average — 14.7 pts ahead of the 72.5% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 328 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £31–£78
2006 BMW M6 MOT pass rate
- 2006
- typical 75,985 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Brakes
29.7% of faults · 20.9% nationally
mostly worn pads and discs, corroded pipes and a handbrake that will not hold.
Part only £25–£55 for Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded. What fitting it takes →
Which year to buy
- Best 2017 93.5% pass
- Avoid 2012 86.8% pass
Across the 12 years on record, a spread of 6.7 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 85.6%
- Typical mileage
- 76k mi
The 2006 BMW M6 MOT pass rate is 87.2% of its MOT tests — 14.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 29.7% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Brakes: 1.4× the national share
Brakes make up 29.7% of everything recorded on the 2006 BMW M6, against 20.9% nationally — 8.8 points above. Have the discs and pads measured rather than glanced at, and ask whether the handbrake holds on a slope.
- 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 72.5% and this one manages 87.2% — 14.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 34% 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 M6? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2006 BMW M6 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.5%, so this figure is 14.7 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 85.6%. The median 2006 BMW M6 in this dataset had covered 75,985 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 85.3% of the time, April–September 88.8%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded", noted on 1.83% of tests.
- 328 recorded tests behind this page.
- 87.2% overall pass rate, 85.6% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW M6, the average is 89.9% — best year 2017 (93.5%), worst 2012 (86.8%).
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
- 328
- Typical mileage (median)
- 75,985 mi
- Make and model
- BMW M6
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Brake Pipe
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the M6 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 72% so small gaps stay visible.
Where the BMW M6 is most common
Across all M6 model years on record (2005–2018): 2,264 BMW M6 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 4,150 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 71 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) | 71 | 92.9% |
| 2 | Slough (SL) | 58 | 93.2% |
| 3 | Reading (RG) | 56 | 81.5% |
| 4 | Guildford (GU) | 55 | 85.3% |
| 5 | Peterborough (PE) | 50 | 90.3% |
| 6 | High Wycombe (HP) | 47 | 92.3% |
| 7 | London (NW) | 46 | 98.8% |
| 8 | Ashford (TN) | 45 | 91.7% |
| 9 | Coventry (CV) | 44 | 91.0% |
| 10 | Romford (RM) | 43 | 88.4% |
| 11 | London (N) | 41 | 95.5% |
| 12 | London (E) | 38 | 96.5% |
| 13 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 38 | 96.5% |
| 14 | Hayes (UB) | 38 | 98.2% |
| 15 | Crawley (RH) | 37 | 79.7% |
| 16 | Hounslow (TW) | 37 | 96.9% |
| 17 | Sheffield (S) | 35 | 95.2% |
| 18 | Cardiff (CF) | 32 | 87.1% |
| 19 | Dartford (DA) | 32 | 93.1% |
| 20 | Leicester (LE) | 32 | 92.7% |
The twenty areas with the most BMW M6 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 M6
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 107 | 83.2% |
| West Midlands | 37 | 91.9% |
| East of England | 36 | 91.7% |
| North West | 31 | 87.1% |
| Yorkshire | 27 | 85.2% |
| South West | 26 | 84.6% |
| East Midlands | 23 | 87.0% |
| London | 23 | 95.7% |
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 2006 M6
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 2006 M6
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 brake pipes 1.8% of tests
“rigid brake pipes excessively corroded”
Brake pipes run under the car, usually in front of the rear wheels. Flaking or crusty metal is what fails; a light dusting of surface rust does not. Worth asking a garage to look while it is on a ramp.
-
Check the wipers and washers 1.5% 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.
-
Check the suspension joints 1.2% of tests
“ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt”
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 2006 M6 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £31–£78 — and 34% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £31–£78
- Cheapest common item: malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or…
- £3–£12
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot severely…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 80%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 34%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 328 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 M6, side by side
12 model years on record, from 2005 to 2018. Across them the pass rate runs from 86.8% to 93.5% — a spread of 6.7 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2005 88.3% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2006 87.2%rigid brake pipes excessively…
- 2007 90.9% malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2008 91.9% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2009 90.5% ball joint dust cover no longer…
- 2012 86.8% catalyst emissions carbon…
- 2013 87.6% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 91.0% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2015 90.0% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2016 89.2% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2017 93.5% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2018 92.9% 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 2006 BMW M6 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 2006 cars with a similar record
- Porsche 911 88.6%
- Porsche Boxster 85.8%
- Mercedes-Benz Sl 85.4%
- Bentley Continental 90.1%
- Porsche Cayman 83.8%
- Mercedes-Benz S-Class 83.6%
Closest pass rates among 2006 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 2006 BMW M6 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 340 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 | 102 | 29.70% | 20.89% | +8.81 |
| Tyres | 85 | 24.70% | 19.76% | +4.94 |
| Suspension | 58 | 16.90% | 20.98% | −4.08 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 26 | 7.60% | 12.21% | −4.61 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 26 | 7.60% | 5.52% | +2.08 |
| Visibility | 17 | 4.90% | 4.97% | −0.07 |
| Non-component advisories | 9 | 2.60% | 4.18% | −1.58 |
| Steering | 8 | 2.30% | 2.57% | −0.27 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 5 | 1.50% | 1.76% | −0.26 |
| Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems | 4 | 1.20% | 0.82% | +0.38 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 1.8% | £80–180 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.5% | £8–22 |
| Ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.2% | £18–45 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 1.2% | £3–12 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.2% | £5–25 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 0.91% | £18–45 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 0.91% | £18–45 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 0.91% | £45–95 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 0.91% | £80–250 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 0.91% | £18–45 |
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 | 14.0% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 10.4% | £45–95 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 9.2% | £45–95 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 7.6% | £40–150 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 7.0% | £45–110 |
| Transmission oil leaks leaking excessively from transmission Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 3.4% | £200–700 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 5 | 100.0% | 27,710 mi |
| 30-60k | 74 | 91.9% | 49,775 mi |
| 60-90k | 145 | 88.3% | 73,706 mi |
| 90-120k | 75 | 80.0% | 100,373 mi |
| 120k+ | 29 | 86.2% | 135,062 mi |
Source: 328 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.
2006 M6 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2006 BMW M6?
87.2% of the 328 2006 BMW M6 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.5% for cars first used in 2006. First-attempt pass rate: 85.6%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2006 BMW M6?
The three most recorded items are rigid brake pipes excessively corroded (1.83%), wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively (1.52%), ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (1.22%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2006 BMW M6 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 100.0% of the time, falling to 86.2% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2006 BMW M6 in this dataset had covered 75,985 mi.
Does the season affect the 2006 BMW M6 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 85.3% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 88.8%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.