BMW 6 Series MOT reliability

BMW 6 Seriess passed their MOT first time 84% of the time across 4,985 tests in 2025. 18,684 are still licensed in Great Britain.

Example photo of a BMW 6 Series — Photo: Dinkun Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

First-time pass rate

84%

MOTs analysed

4,985

Still licensed (GB)

18,684

Body type

Coupe

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

2018 diesel

1,069 MOTs

Passed first time 87%. Typical mileage 66,584 (most between 51,035 and 82,192).

2018: 100% → 2019: 67% → 2020: 91% → 2021: 88% → 2022: 89% → 2023: 88% → 2024: 89% → 2025: 87%

Most common failures

Joints: constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (2.2%)
Malfunction indicator lamp: inoperative or indicates a malfunction (2.2%)
Condition: has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.6%)
Condition: has ply or cords exposed (1.3%)
Side repeaters: not working (0.9%)

2018 petrol

551 MOTs

Passed first time 90%. Typical mileage 54,951 (most between 44,105 and 65,906).

2020: 96% → 2021: 91% → 2022: 90% → 2023: 92% → 2024: 88% → 2025: 90%

Most common failures

Condition: has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (1.8%)
Joints: constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt (1.3%)
Brake pads: less than 1.5 mm thick (0.9%)
Attachment: fixing missing (0.7%)
Side repeaters: not working (0.7%)

2018 hybrid

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 71,258 (most between 71,258 and 71,258).

2024: 100% → 2025: 100%

Where 2018 6 Seriess fail

Wheels & tyres

6.1%

Body, structure & corrosion

2.6%

Exhaust, emissions & leaks

2.2%

Lights & electrics

1.9%

Visibility & wipers

1.3%

Brakes

1.1%

Suspension & axles

0.5%

Seat belts & other equipment

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.