2018 BMW 218i Se: MOT pass rate and reliability
90.4% of 2018 BMW 218i Ses pass the MOT first time, measured across 490 DVSA tests on that model year alone. The average one had covered 41,632 miles.
How the 2018 compares
- Against all BMW 218i Ses (89.3%, 2,012 tests): +1.1 points
- Against all 2018 cars (85.9%): +4.5 points
- National first-time pass rate, all cars and years: 77%
Every BMW 218i Se model year
Pass rates fall as cars age, so the only fair comparison for a 2018 car is other cars of the same age. The full run for the BMW 218i Se:
| Year | Pass rate | Tests | Avg mileage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 90.4% | 490 | 41,632 |
| 2019 | 88.1% | 1,180 | 40,051 |
| 2020 | 92.1% | 304 | 30,410 |
What this means if you are buying a 2018 218i Se
The 2018 sits close to the BMW 218i Se average, so there is no strong model-year signal either way. Judge the individual car on its own history. Check the exact car with the free MOT history checker before you buy, and run its VIN and mileage through our free VIN decoder and clocking check.
What an 8-year-old car fails on
A 2018 car is 8 years old now, and age drives the failure mix more than the badge does. Across all cars tested, these are the categories that actually cause failures:
- Lights and electrical: 10.36% of all cars tested
- Suspension: 8.65% of all cars tested
- Tyres: 6.23% of all cars tested
- Brakes: 6.1% of all cars tested
- Visibility: wipers, washers, glass: 4.65% of all cars tested
- Body, chassis and structure: 3.18% of all cars tested
That is below average for a car this age, worth a mileage-consistency check since an unusually low reading is sometimes clocking rather than luck. On a 2018 BMW 218i Se the average at test was 41,632 miles, so treat anything far above that as a car that has worked harder than its peers, and anything far below as one worth checking for the faults that come from standing still.
The strongest year for this model is 2020 at 92.1%, and the weakest in our data is 2019 at 88.1%. That 4.0 point spread across the model's life is why comparing a 2018 car against a newer one tells you very little.
Nearby model years
- 2019 BMW 218i Se - 88.1%
- 2020 BMW 218i Se - 92.1%