BMW Z3 MOT pass rates & common failures

Every completed first-attempt MOT on a BMW Z3 in Great Britain in 2025 — 11,195 tests. Figures cover every Z3 first-tested in 2025, all trims grouped. How the Z3 ages, what it fails on, and what mileage is normal, computed directly from the official DVSA record of every test.

Pass rate 2025
70.3%
2.0 points below the class-4 average (72.3%); unadjusted for age — the age-matched comparison is below
Tests analysed
11,195
first tests, 2025
Arrived with a dangerous fault
5.0%
of Z3 first tests; national 7.3%

How many BMW Z3 cars are still on the road?

At the end of 2025, DVLA's register held 15,900 BMW Z3 cars that were taxed or on SORN: 6,700 taxed and 9,200 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 Z3 vans, where they exist, are counted by DVLA as goods vehicles and are not in these figures.

Still taxed, end of 2025
6,700
42.1% of the 15,900 Z3 cars taxed or on SORN; 8 model variants grouped
On SORN, end of 2025
9,200
declared off the road by their keepers — 57.9% of that total

How the numbers are moving

The number of taxed Z3 cars peaked at 15,680 at the end of 2014 and has since fallen by 8,980 (57.3%) to 6,700 at the end of 2025. Cars on SORN went from 4,195 at the end of 2014 to 9,200 at the end of 2025, up 119.3%. 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 Z3 cars, year by year

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

05k10k15k20k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Taxed Z3 cars, year 2014: 16kTaxed Z3 cars, year 2015: 15kTaxed Z3 cars, year 2016: 14kTaxed Z3 cars, year 2017: 13kTaxed Z3 cars, year 2018: 12kTaxed Z3 cars, year 2019: 11kTaxed Z3 cars, year 2020: 10kTaxed Z3 cars, year 2021: 9kTaxed Z3 cars, year 2022: 9kTaxed Z3 cars, year 2023: 8kTaxed Z3 cars, year 2024: 7kTaxed Z3 cars, year 2025: 7k7k
View this chart as a table
YearTaxed Z3 cars
201415,680
201514,802
201613,990
201712,833
201811,970
201910,832
20209,834
20219,389
20228,712
20237,789
20247,119
20256,700

Z3 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 — for this model, cars on SORN outnumber taxed ones.

02k4k6k8k10k2014201620182020202220242025Year (count at the end of the year)Z3 cars on SORN, year 2014: 4kZ3 cars on SORN, year 2015: 5kZ3 cars on SORN, year 2016: 5kZ3 cars on SORN, year 2017: 6kZ3 cars on SORN, year 2018: 7kZ3 cars on SORN, year 2019: 7kZ3 cars on SORN, year 2020: 8kZ3 cars on SORN, year 2021: 8kZ3 cars on SORN, year 2022: 9kZ3 cars on SORN, year 2023: 9kZ3 cars on SORN, year 2024: 9kZ3 cars on SORN, year 2025: 9k9k
View this chart as a table
YearZ3 cars on SORN
20144,195
20154,743
20165,318
20176,143
20186,766
20197,420
20208,201
20218,297
20228,557
20239,021
20249,034
20259,200

Which model years survive

Taxed Z3 cars at the end of 2025 by year of manufacture, and each year's share of the 6,700 taxed in all. Every build year holding at least 1% has its own row; the rest share one. 3 taxed Z3 cars have no recorded year of manufacture and are not in the table, so the rows add up to 6,697. 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 Z3 cars
20026189.2%
20011,05315.7%
20001,10916.6%
19991,56123.3%
19981,34320.0%
199796614.4%
All other build years (five years, each under 1%)470.7%

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 Z3 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.

What a Z3 fails on

Where the failure items land when a Z3 fails or needs a fix at test, 2025. Use it as a pre-purchase checklist: these are the areas to look at first.

Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment22.3%
Brakes20.6%
Suspension17.5%
Noise, emissions and leaks12.8%
Visibility8.9%
Body, chassis, structure5.3%
Tyres5.2%
Seat belts and supplementary restraint systems4.6%

Share of all failure items, 2025 — the 8 biggest categories shown (97.2% of the items); smaller categories are not listed.

The advisories to watch

Where testers most often write "keep an eye on this" for a Z3, 2025 — the faults in the post.

Brakes: 30.7% of advisories30.7%Suspension: 30.0% of advisories30.0%Tyres: 14.8% of advisories14.8%Body, chassis, structure: 7.0% of advisories7.0%Noise, emissions and leaks: 6.6% of advisoriesLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment: 3.4% of advisories
BrakesSuspensionTyresBody, chassis, structureNoise, emissions and leaksLamps, reflectors and electrical equipment
View this chart as a table
CategoryShare of advisories
Brakes30.7%
Suspension30.0%
Tyres14.8%
Body, chassis, structure7.0%
Noise, emissions and leaks6.6%
Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment3.4%

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.