BMW 740 MOT reliability

BMW 740s passed their MOT first time 86% of the time across 3,023 tests in 2025.

First-time pass rate

86%

MOTs analysed

3,023

Still licensed (GB)

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Body type

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Pass rate by year of first registration

Older cars fail more often, so compare a car with others of the same age. Years with very few MOTs can show extreme pass rates, even 0% or 100%, so give more weight to years with more tests.

In detail:

First registered

2021 petrol

38 MOTs

These figures come from 38 MOT tests. That's a fairly small number of cars, so they may not be typical of these cars as a whole.

Passed first time 95%. Typical mileage 50,805 (most between 28,809 and 72,668).

2021: 100% → 2022: 100% → 2023: 100% → 2024: 97% → 2025: 95%

Most common failures

Condition: has ply or cords exposed (2.6%)
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (2.6%)

2021 diesel

25 MOTs

These figures come from 25 MOT tests. That's a fairly small number of cars, so they may not be typical of these cars as a whole.

Passed first time 88%. Typical mileage 38,273 (most between 31,904 and 52,984).

2022: 100% → 2023: 67% → 2024: 96% → 2025: 88%

Most common failures

Condition: has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure (4.0%)
Washers: provides insufficient washer liquid (4.0%)
Headlamp aim: too low (4.0%)
Malfunction indicator lamp: inoperative or indicates a malfunction (4.0%)

Where 2021 740s fail

Wheels & tyres

5.3%

Looking at a particular car?

See its own MOT history, mileage and red flags, compared with these figures. Free.

Based on 2025 initial MOT tests in DVSA's anonymised MOT dataset (cars and light vans). Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Model details: Vehicle data by VehiclesDB.