BMW 316 MOT reliability

BMW 316s passed their MOT first time 72% of the time across 9,532 tests in 2025.

Example photo of a BMW 316 — Photo: Jeroen Coebergh · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

First-time pass rate

72%

MOTs analysed

9,532

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

2017 diesel

748 MOTs

Passed first time 81%. Typical mileage 87,369 (most between 70,665 and 109,195).

2018: 100% → 2019: 94% → 2020: 90% → 2021: 87% → 2022: 84% → 2023: 85% → 2024: 85% → 2025: 81%

Most common failures

Shock absorbers: has a serious fluid leak (3.2%)
Brake pads: less than 1.5 mm thick (2.9%)
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (2.4%)
Headlamp aim: projected beam image is obviously incorrect (1.9%)
Headlamp: not working on dipped beam (1.6%)

2017 petrol

1 MOT

These figures come from only 1 MOT test. 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 28,751 (most between 28,751 and 28,751).

2020: 100% → 2021: 67% → 2022: 100% → 2023: 100% → 2024: 100% → 2025: 100%

Where 2017 316s fail

Lights & electrics

6.4%

Wheels & tyres

6.3%

Brakes

4.4%

Suspension & axles

3.7%

Visibility & wipers

2.8%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

0.8%

Steering

0.3%

Body, structure & corrosion

0.1%

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.