BMW Active MOT reliability

BMW Actives passed their MOT first time 83% of the time across 29 tests in 2025.

Example photo of a BMW Active — Photo: Matti Blume · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

These figures come from 29 MOT tests. That's a fairly small number of cars, so they may not be typical of these cars as a whole.

First-time pass rate

83%

MOTs analysed

29

Still licensed (GB)

–

Body type

Sedan

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

2012 hybrid electric (clean)

27 MOTs

Passed first time 82%. Typical mileage 90,514 (most between 69,354 and 116,471).

2024: 79% → 2025: 82%

Most common failures

Side repeaters: not working (7.4%)
Attachment: fixing missing (3.7%)
Ball joint excessively worn (3.7%)
Brake pads: less than 1.5 mm thick (3.7%)
Condition: has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords (3.7%)

Where 2012 Actives fail

Lights & electrics

11.1%

Wheels & tyres

7.4%

Brakes

3.7%

Suspension & axles

3.7%

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.