Used car guide · 2019–2024

BMW 118 F40: best and worst years, and what goes wrong

How every year of the BMW 118 F40 did at its MOT in 2025 compared with other cars the same age, the weak spots that keep coming up, and what to check before you buy one. From 51,552 MOT tests.

2021best year: 91% pass first time, 4 points above all 2021 cars

2020weakest year: 88% pass first time, 2 points above all 2020 cars

Year by year

First-time MOT pass rate for each year of the BMW 118 F40, against all cars registered the same year. Older cars fail more, so the comparison with cars the same age is what matters.

This model, first-time pass rate All cars registered that year · * changeover year: some cars are the previous or next generation

Year	Pass first time	All cars that year	Stands out	MOT tests
2019*	85%	84% +1	Nothing unusual	10,275
2020	88%	86% +2	Nothing unusual	17,789
2021	91%	87% +4	Nothing unusual	12,727
2022	91%	89% +2	Nothing unusual	9,926
2023	94%	92% +2	Nothing unusual	835

Where this comes from: the DVSA's anonymised results for every MOT test in Great Britain in 2025, counting each car's main test of the year (not retests). A weak spot needs at least 30 cars flagged and must stay 1.5× the usual rate even at the cautious end of a 95% confidence range. Generation years are approximate: cars registered in a changeover year (*) can be either generation. How we score

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