BMW 8 Series MOT pass rates & common failures

Every completed first-attempt MOT on a BMW 8 Series in Great Britain in 2025 — 6,794 tests. Figures cover every 8 Series first-tested in 2025, all trims grouped. How the 8 Series ages, what it fails on, and what mileage is normal, computed directly from the official DVSA record of every test.

Pass rate 2025
84.7%
12.4 points above the class-4 average (72.3%); unadjusted for age — the age-matched comparison is below
Tests analysed
6,794
first tests, 2025
Arrived with a dangerous fault
8.3%
of 8 Series first tests; national 7.3%

How many BMW 8 Series cars are still on the road?

At the end of 2025, DVLA's register held 7,944 BMW 8 Series cars that were taxed or on SORN: 6,674 taxed and 1,270 on SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification — kept, but declared off the road by the keeper). The MOT figures above count tests; these count cars, across the whole United Kingdom, cars only. BMW 8 Series vans, where they exist, are counted by DVLA as goods vehicles and are not in these figures.

Still taxed, end of 2025
6,674
84.0% of the 7,944 8 Series cars taxed or on SORN; 13 model variants grouped
On SORN, end of 2025
1,270
declared off the road by their keepers — 16.0% of that total

How the numbers are moving

The number of taxed 8 Series cars is still rising: 6,674 at the end of 2025, up 162 (2.5%) on the end of 2024, and the highest in the years shown. Cars on SORN went from 650 at the end of 2014 to 1,270 at the end of 2025, up 95.4%. A car leaves the taxed count when it is scrapped, exported or declared off the road; the year-end counts do not say which.

Taxed 8 Series cars, year by year

Cars of this model taxed and on the road at the end of each year, 2014–2025.

02k4k6k8k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Taxed 8 Series cars, year 2014: 919Taxed 8 Series cars, year 2015: 858Taxed 8 Series cars, year 2016: 792Taxed 8 Series cars, year 2017: 754Taxed 8 Series cars, year 2018: 940Taxed 8 Series cars, year 2019: 2kTaxed 8 Series cars, year 2020: 3kTaxed 8 Series cars, year 2021: 5kTaxed 8 Series cars, year 2022: 6kTaxed 8 Series cars, year 2023: 6kTaxed 8 Series cars, year 2024: 7kTaxed 8 Series cars, year 2025: 7k7k
View this chart as a table
YearTaxed 8 Series cars
2014919
2015858
2016792
2017754
2018940
20191,680
20203,376
20214,770
20225,672
20236,316
20246,512
20256,674

8 Series cars on SORN, year by year

Cars of this model declared off the road at the end of each year, 2014–2025. Its own scale — SORN counts are a fraction of the taxed count.

05001k2k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)8 Series cars on SORN, year 2014: 6508 Series cars on SORN, year 2015: 7118 Series cars on SORN, year 2016: 7758 Series cars on SORN, year 2017: 8268 Series cars on SORN, year 2018: 8538 Series cars on SORN, year 2019: 9598 Series cars on SORN, year 2020: 1k8 Series cars on SORN, year 2021: 1k8 Series cars on SORN, year 2022: 1k8 Series cars on SORN, year 2023: 1k8 Series cars on SORN, year 2024: 1k8 Series cars on SORN, year 2025: 1k1k
View this chart as a table
Year8 Series cars on SORN
2014650
2015711
2016775
2017826
2018853
2019959
20201,026
20211,040
20221,117
20231,203
20241,229
20251,270

Which model years survive

Taxed 8 Series cars at the end of 2025 by year of manufacture, and each year's share of the 6,674 taxed in all. Every build year holding at least 1% has its own row; the rest share one. A build year's count depends on how many were sold that year as well as how many have lasted.

Year of manufacture Taxed, end of 2025Share of taxed 8 Series cars
20252433.6%
20243585.4%
202378111.7%
20221,03515.5%
20211,37820.6%
20201,48422.2%
201980512.1%
20181792.7%
1999711.1%
1995911.4%
All other build years (nine years, each under 1%)2493.7%

Population source: Department for Transport / DVLA vehicle licensing statistics, table VEH0124, updated 15 July 2026; counts of the cars on DVLA's register that were taxed or on SORN at the end of each year shown, United Kingdom, cars only, excluding cars recorded with no model name. SortedCars groups DVLA's model name 8 SERIES under this model. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. SortedCars is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, DVLA or the Department for Transport.

How the 8 Series ages

First-time pass rate by vehicle age, 8 Series vs all cars, 2025.

BMW 8 SeriesAll cars
50%60%70%80%90%100%3579111315171920Vehicle age (years)BMW 8 Series, vehicle age 3: 84%BMW 8 Series, vehicle age 4: 87.5%BMW 8 Series, vehicle age 5: 85.7%BMW 8 Series, vehicle age 6: 83.8%All cars, vehicle age 3: 88.5%All cars, vehicle age 4: 87.2%All cars, vehicle age 5: 86%All cars, vehicle age 6: 83.5%All cars, vehicle age 7: 80.9%All cars, vehicle age 8: 78.2%All cars, vehicle age 9: 74.9%All cars, vehicle age 10: 71.9%All cars, vehicle age 11: 68.6%All cars, vehicle age 12: 65.8%All cars, vehicle age 13: 63.5%All cars, vehicle age 14: 61.2%All cars, vehicle age 15: 59.3%All cars, vehicle age 16: 58.3%All cars, vehicle age 17: 57.2%All cars, vehicle age 18: 57.4%All cars, vehicle age 19: 57%All cars, vehicle age 20: 57.6%BMW 8 Series 83.8%All cars 57.6%
View this chart as a table
Age (years)8 Series tests8 Series pass rateAll cars
31,21084.0%88.5%
41,55387.5%87.2%
51,71185.7%86.0%
61,23783.8%83.5%

Better or worse than the average car?

The 8 Series's pass rate minus the all-cars pass rate at each age, in percentage points. Bars above zero: the 8 Series beats the average car of that age. Below zero: it trails.

8 Series ahead8 Series behind
-6-3+0+3+6Age 3: -4.5 points vs the average car3Age 4: +0.3 points vs the average carAge 5: -0.3 points vs the average car5Age 6: +0.3 points vs the average carVehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)Gap (points)
3-4.5
4+0.3
5-0.3
6+0.3

The 8 Series fleet on the road, by age

How many took a first MOT in 2025 at each age — the shape of the 8 Series fleet still in use.

05001k1k2kAge 3: 1k3Age 4: 1kAge 5: 1k5Age 6: 1k6Vehicle age (years)
View this chart as a table
Age (years)First tests
31,210
41,553
51,711
61,237

What an 8 Series fails on

Where the failure items land when an 8 Series fails or needs a fix at test, 2025. Use it as a pre-purchase checklist: these are the areas to look at first.

Tyres47.7%
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment12.0%
Suspension8.0%
Brakes6.4%
Road Wheels6.1%
Visibility5.2%
Noise, emissions and leaks4.5%
Identification of the vehicle4.0%

Share of all failure items, 2025 — the 8 biggest categories shown (93.9% of the items); smaller categories are not listed.

The advisories to watch

Where testers most often write "keep an eye on this" for a 8 Series, 2025 — the faults in the post.

Tyres: 49.9% of advisories49.9%Brakes: 17.5% of advisories17.5%Suspension: 11.0% of advisories11.0%Non-component advisories: 7.1% of advisories7.1%Body, chassis, structure: 5.8% of advisoriesNoise, emissions and leaks: 5.2% of advisories
TyresBrakesSuspensionNon-component advisoriesBody, chassis, structureNoise, emissions and leaks
View this chart as a table
CategoryShare of advisories
Tyres49.9%
Brakes17.5%
Suspension11.0%
Non-component advisories7.1%
Body, chassis, structure5.8%
Noise, emissions and leaks5.2%

Petrol, diesel or hybrid 8 Series?

First-time pass rate for the two most-tested 8 Series fuel types, 2025, against the all-cars average. Fleet ages differ by fuel — newer fleets help the electrified bars.

50%60%70%80%90%100%all cars 72.3%Petrol: 84.8% of 5,468 tests84.8%Petrol5,468 testsDiesel: 84.5% of 1,068 tests84.5%Diesel1,068 tests
View this chart as a table
FuelTestsPass rate
Petrol5,46884.8%
Diesel1,06884.5%

What mileage is normal for an 8 Series?

Mileage recorded at test by vehicle age, 2025. The line is the typical (median) 8 Series; the shaded band holds the middle half. A car far outside the band, in either direction, is worth questions the recorded history can answer.

Typical 8 Series (median)
0k25k50k75k356Vehicle age (years)Age 3: typical 23,750 miles (middle half 16,250–31,250)Age 4: typical 33,750 miles (middle half 23,750–43,750)Age 5: typical 36,250 miles (middle half 26,250–46,250)Age 6: typical 41,250 miles (middle half 28,750–53,750)41k mi

Mileage values are midpoints of 2,500-mile bands.

View this chart as a table
Age (years)Lower quarterTypical (median)Upper quarter
316,25023,75031,250
423,75033,75043,750
526,25036,25046,250
628,75041,25053,750

What fails at each age

The 8 Series's failure mix by age band, 2025 — each band's top categories at their true share of that band's failure items; the pale remainder is everything else. How the mix shifts with age is the point of the chart.

TyresRoad WheelsVisibilityIdentification of the vehicleLamps, reflectors and electrical equipmentBody, chassis, structureNoise, emissions and leaksBrakesSuspensionEverything else
View this chart as a table
Age bandCategoryShare of the band's failure items
3-5 yrsTyres68.8%
3-5 yrsRoad Wheels10.3%
3-5 yrsVisibility4.9%
3-5 yrsIdentification of the vehicle4.6%
3-5 yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment4.1%
3-5 yrsEverything else7.3%
6-9 yrsTyres66.5%
6-9 yrsBody, chassis, structure6.0%
6-9 yrsNoise, emissions and leaks5.7%
6-9 yrsIdentification of the vehicle5.4%
6-9 yrsBrakes5.2%
6-9 yrsEverything else11.2%
14+ yrsSuspension29.9%
14+ yrsLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment18.3%
14+ yrsBrakes16.2%
14+ yrsNoise, emissions and leaks11.0%
14+ yrsBody, chassis, structure6.8%
14+ yrsEverything else17.8%

More vehicles we've checked

How these figures are computed. Every number on this page is calculated by SortedCars from the DVSA anonymised MOT results dataset (every MOT test in Great Britain — 2025 for single-year figures; trend figures state their span, currently 2023–2025). Where a figure comes from a sample or uses banded values (mileage is banded to 2,500 miles), the page says so beside the figure. Test class 4 only, first tests only — retests are excluded. Class 4 is the car MOT class and also covers car-derived vans, pickups and motorhomes tested to the same standard; where this page says "cars" it means class 4. Pass rate = passes ÷ (passes + failures + pass-after-rectification): a vehicle that failed and was fixed during the visit counts as a fail. Pass rates describe fleets, not individual machines: they reflect how cars were driven, maintained and used as well as how they were built, and beyond recorded mileage none of that is in the data. A well-kept example of a model with a weak average can still pass; a neglected example of a strong one can still fail. No figure is shown for any group with fewer than 500 tests. Alias spellings of a make in the DVSA file are counted under one make name, and all trims and variants of a model are grouped under one model name, using SortedCars' grouping tables. The taxed and SORN counts on this page are the one exception: they are not computed from MOT records but taken from the Department for Transport's vehicle licensing statistics (DfT/DVLA table VEH0124, updated 15 July 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0), which count the cars on DVLA's register that were taxed or on SORN at the end of each year shown, UK-wide, cars only. They describe a model as a whole, grouped under SortedCars' model names, and say nothing about any one car. “Dangerous” is DVSA's statutory defect category (in force since May 2018): a defect posing an immediate risk to road safety — driving the vehicle before repair is an offence. What these figures are for. These statistics are general information about groups of vehicles. They are not advice, a valuation or a recommendation to buy, avoid or price any particular vehicle, and no decision about one car should rest on them alone — check the car itself and its own records. We take care over the calculations, but we cannot guarantee they are complete, current or free of error, and we accept no liability for loss arising from reliance on them. This does not limit any liability that cannot lawfully be limited — see our Terms & Conditions. If you believe any figure on this page is inaccurate, contact us. SortedCars is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the DVSA or DVLA. DVSA publishes the raw test records; the statistics on this page are SortedCars' own calculations from them. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.