2012 BMW 6 Series: MOT pass rate and reliability

82.6% of 2012 BMW 6 Series pass the MOT first time, measured across 506 DVSA tests on that model year alone. The average one had covered 93,660 miles.

How the 2012 compares

  • Against all BMW 6 Series (86.3%, 5,124 tests): -3.7 points
  • Against all 2012 cars (70.8%): +11.8 points
  • National first-time pass rate, all cars and years: 77%

Every BMW 6 Series model year

Pass rates fall as cars age, so the only fair comparison for a 2012 car is other cars of the same age. The full run for the BMW 6 Series:

Year Pass rate Tests Avg mileage
2012 82.6% 506 93,660
2013 81.2% 712 91,849
2017 81.3% 256 64,170
2018 89.7% 1,643 56,443
2019 90.3% 1,067 51,217
2020 90.7% 248 38,581

What this means if you are buying a 2012 6 Series

The 2012 is a weaker year for this model, passing 3.7 points less often than the BMW 6 Series average. Some of that is simply age, so compare it against the 2012 figure for all cars above rather than against newer examples. 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 a 14-year-old car fails on

A 2012 car is 14 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 above average, the point where suspension bushes, drop links and exhaust corrosion start showing up as advisories before they become failures. On a 2012 BMW 6 Series the average at test was 93,660 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 90.7%, and the weakest in our data is 2013 at 81.2%. That 9.5 point spread across the model's life is why comparing a 2012 car against a newer one tells you very little.

Nearby model years

All BMW 6 Series MOT data · Every model