BMW 520 MOT reliability

BMW 520s passed their MOT first time 77% of the time across 71,788 tests in 2025.

Example photo of a BMW 520 — Photo: Chanokchon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

First-time pass rate

77%

MOTs analysed

71,788

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

2020 diesel

24 MOTs

These figures come from 24 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 50,891 (most between 40,071 and 65,460).

2021: 78% → 2022: 83% → 2023: 83% → 2024: 75% → 2025: 88%

Most common failures

Headlamp aim: too high (4.2%)
Malfunction indicator lamp: inoperative or indicates a malfunction (4.2%)
Washers: provides insufficient washer liquid (4.2%)

2020 petrol

21 MOTs

These figures come from 21 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 27,653 (most between 25,315 and 40,062).

2021: 80% → 2022: 100% → 2023: 92% → 2024: 94% → 2025: 95%

Most common failures

Condition: has ply or cords exposed (4.8%)

2020 ed

9 MOTs

These figures come from only 9 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 78%. Typical mileage 50,125 (most between 45,185 and 66,150).

2022: 100% → 2023: 100% → 2024: 100% → 2025: 78%

Most common failures

Condition: has ply or cords exposed (22.2%)

Where 2020 520s fail

Lights & electrics

4.2%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

4.2%

Visibility & wipers

4.2%

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.