Pass rate
79.5%
Around average — 7.0 pts ahead of the 72.5% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 10,941 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £28–£76
2006 BMW Z4 MOT pass rate
- 2006
- typical 88,364 mi
Most common fault
Brakes
30.5% 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 →
8.2 pts down across model years — 8.8% in 2003, 0.6% in 2015.
Which year to buy
- Best 2023 100.0% pass
- Avoid 2005 75.5% pass
Across the 20 years on record, a spread of 24.5 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 75.4%
- Typical mileage
- 88k mi
The 2006 BMW Z4 MOT pass rate is 79.5% of its MOT tests — 7.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Brakes is the biggest single reason it fails, at 30.5% of what testers record.
Check your postcode
MOT pass rates are national — type your postcode to see how BMW Z4 does in your corner of the country.
Expert verdict
Brakes: 1.5× the national share
Brakes make up 30.5% of everything recorded on the 2006 BMW Z4, against 20.9% nationally — 9.6 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 79.5% — 7.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict.
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 Z4? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2006 BMW Z4 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 72.5%, so this figure is 7.0 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 75.4%. The median 2006 BMW Z4 in this dataset had covered 88,364 mi.
Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 78.7% of the time, April–September 80.1%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources", noted on 4.41% of tests.
- 10,941 recorded tests behind this page.
- 79.5% overall pass rate, 75.4% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the BMW Z4, the average is 83.2% — best year 2023 (100.0%), worst 2005 (75.5%).
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
- 10,941
- Typical mileage (median)
- 88,364 mi
- Make and model
- BMW Z4
- Updated
- 2026-11-05
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Number Plate Lamp
Usually a DIY or independent-garage job.
Does mileage affect the Z4 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 65% so small gaps stay visible.
Regional pass rates for the Z4
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 2,526 | 80.4% |
| South West | 1,433 | 76.1% |
| East of England | 1,286 | 79.6% |
| West Midlands | 1,175 | 80.6% |
| North West | 1,036 | 81.1% |
| Yorkshire | 822 | 78.8% |
| East Midlands | 815 | 79.9% |
| Scotland | 716 | 77.2% |
| Wales | 453 | 77.5% |
| London | 372 | 82.5% |
| North East | 303 | 82.5% |
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 Z4
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 Z4
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 lights 4.4% of tests
“registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources”
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 brake pipes 3.3% 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 windscreen 2.7% 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.
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 Z4 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £28–£76 — and 52% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £28–£76
- 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
- 52%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 10,941 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 Z4, side by side
20 model years on record, from 2003 to 2023. Across them the pass rate runs from 75.5% to 100.0% — a spread of 24.5 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2003 77.5% srs malfunction indicator lamp…
- 2004 78.3% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2005 75.5% headlamp lens slightly defective
- 2006 79.5%registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2007 80.7% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2008 79.4% registration plate lamp(s)…
- 2009 85.3% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2010 84.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2011 85.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2012 85.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2013 85.1% coil spring fractured or broken
- 2014 87.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2015 87.4% has ply or cords exposed
- 2016 86.7% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2017 86.8% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 91.3% has ply or cords exposed
- 2020 92.7% has ply or cords exposed
- 2021 92.5% has ply or cords exposed
- 2022 93.8% has a cut in excess of the…
- 2023 100.0% no single leading item
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 Z4 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
- Jaguar Xj 79.2%
- Lexus IS220 79.2%
- Toyota MR2 79.2%
- Subaru Impreza 80.2%
- Lexus RX400H 80.3%
- Mercedes-Benz Cls 78.6%
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 Z4 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 22,029 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 | 6,795 | 30.50% | 20.89% | +9.61 |
| Suspension | 4,892 | 22.00% | 20.98% | +1.02 |
| Tyres | 2,919 | 13.10% | 19.76% | −6.66 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 2,664 | 12.00% | 12.21% | −0.21 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 2,235 | 10.00% | 5.52% | +4.48 |
| Visibility | 1,010 | 4.50% | 4.97% | −0.47 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 760 | 3.40% | 5.57% | −2.17 |
| Non-component advisories | 379 | 1.70% | 4.18% | −2.48 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 211 | 0.90% | 1.76% | −0.86 |
| Road Wheels | 164 | 0.70% | 0.75% | −0.05 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 4.4% | £5–20 |
| Rigid brake pipes excessively corroded Brakes | Major | 3.3% | £80–180 |
| Headlamp lens slightly defective Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Minor | 2.8% | £5–25 |
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.7% | £80–200 |
| Malfunction indicator lamp inoperative or indicates a malfunction Noise, emissions and leaks | Major | 2.4% | £3–12 |
| Ball joint excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.0% | £18–45 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Major | 2.0% | £40–150 |
| Linkage ball joint dust cover ball joint dust cover no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Suspension | Major | 1.7% | £18–45 |
| Wipers does not clear the windscreen effectively Visibility | Major | 1.5% | £8–22 |
| Position lamp not working Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | Major | 1.4% | £5–25 |
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 | 23.0% | £80–180 |
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 13.1% | £45–95 |
| Engine oil leaks leaking excessively from engine Noise, emissions and leaks | Advisory | 12.3% | £200–700 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 10.4% | £45–110 |
| Pins and bushes pin or bush excessively worn Suspension | Advisory | 7.7% | £40–150 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 6.6% | £45–95 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 301 | 90.4% | 22,181 mi |
| 30-60k | 1,730 | 88.3% | 47,801 mi |
| 60-90k | 3,672 | 80.7% | 76,129 mi |
| 90-120k | 3,399 | 76.2% | 103,952 mi |
| 120k+ | 1,827 | 73.0% | 140,437 mi |
Source: 10,941 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 Z4 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2006 BMW Z4?
79.5% of the 10,941 2006 BMW Z4 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 72.5% for cars first used in 2006. First-attempt pass rate: 75.4%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2006 BMW Z4?
The three most recorded items are registration plate lamp(s) inoperative in the case of multiple lamps or light sources (4.41%), rigid brake pipes excessively corroded (3.25%), headlamp lens slightly defective (2.82%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2006 BMW Z4 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 90.4% of the time, falling to 73.0% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2006 BMW Z4 in this dataset had covered 88,364 mi.
Does the season affect the 2006 BMW Z4 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 78.7% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 80.1%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.