BMW 518 MOT reliability

BMW 518s passed their MOT first time 79% of the time across 2,173 tests in 2025.

First-time pass rate

79%

MOTs analysed

2,173

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

2014 diesel

859 MOTs

Passed first time 77%. Typical mileage 128,075 (most between 99,209 and 159,901).

2014: 100% → 2015: 93% → 2016: 87% → 2017: 85% → 2018: 84% → 2019: 86% → 2020: 84% → 2021: 81% → 2022: 79% → 2023: 82% → 2024: 80% → 2025: 77%

Most common failures

Coil spring: fractured or broken (3.8%)
Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm (3.5%)
Attachment: fixing missing (2.2%)
Condition: has ply or cords exposed (2.2%)
Malfunction indicator lamp: inoperative or indicates a malfunction (2.0%)

Where 2014 518s fail

Wheels & tyres

9.2%

Suspension & axles

5.9%

Visibility & wipers

4.4%

Lights & electrics

3.8%

Brakes

3.0%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

2.4%

Steering

1.3%

Body, structure & corrosion

0.8%

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.