BMW 116 MOT reliability

BMW 116s passed their MOT first time 72% of the time across 100,579 tests in 2025.

Example photo of a BMW 116 — Photo: nakhon100 · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

First-time pass rate

72%

MOTs analysed

100,579

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

2022 diesel

687 MOTs

Passed first time 86%. Typical mileage 35,187 (most between 24,914 and 47,740).

2023: 100% → 2024: 89% → 2025: 86%

Most common failures

Condition: has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (5.5%)
Wipers: does not clear the windscreen effectively (1.5%)
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (1.3%)
Condition: has a bulge, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure (1.0%)
Malfunction indicator lamp: inoperative or indicates a malfunction (1.0%)

2022 petrol

2 MOTs

These figures come from only 2 MOT tests. With so few cars, a single pass or fail changes the percentages a lot, so treat them as a rough guide rather than a true average.

Passed first time 100%. Typical mileage 9,092 (most between 9,003 and 9,182).

2023: 100% → 2024: 100% → 2025: 100%

Where 2022 116s fail

Wheels & tyres

9.0%

Visibility & wipers

2.0%

Lights & electrics

1.6%

Brakes

1.0%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

1.0%

Suspension & axles

1.0%

Seat belts & other equipment

0.4%

Body, structure & corrosion

0.3%

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.