Does the BMW 7 Series fail the MOT on vehicle identification more than it should?

The BMW 7 Series records 0.70 vehicle identification failure items per 100 initial MOT tests (2019–2024), against 0.45 expected for a car of the same age mix: about as expected for its class and age (the difference is within its interval or under 0.5 items per 100 tests) (+0.25, 95% interval +0.20 to +0.29). It ranks 119 of 636 models on vehicle identification (1 = most failures above expected).

Data release dvsa-2024-v2 (24 Sep 2026) · page updated 30 Sep 2026 · all models on vehicle identification · check a BMW 7 Series by registration

What exactly fails on vehicle identification?

The most frequent DVSA defect wording in this group on the BMW 7 Series is “Number plate does not conform to the specified requirements”, recorded 612 times in 2019–2024.

BMW 7 Series: most frequent vehicle identification defect wordings, 2019–2024 (30+ items each)
DVSA defect wording	Items	Per 100 tests
Number plate does not conform to the specified requirements	612	0.54
Number plate inscription missing or illegible	80	0.07
Number plate missing or so insecure that it is likely to fall off	53	0.05
Number plate showing an incorrect registration	47	0.04

Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 114,240 (initial tests) · Method: failure items (major and minor) grouped by DVSA's defect tree; wordings with 30+ items · Updated: 30 Sep 2026 · Release: dvsa-2024-v2 · CSV

If a BMW 7 Series gets a vehicle identification advisory, how often does it fail next time?

2.2% of BMW 7 Series MOTs with a vehicle identification advisory were followed by a fail in the same group at the next MOT, typically 12.5 months and 5,518 miles later (1,129 advisories followed).

Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 1,129 (advisories followed) · Method: the same vehicles followed to their next ordinary MOT · Updated: 30 Sep 2026 · Release: dvsa-2024-v2 · CSV

Other pages for this model

Does the BMW 7 Series fail the MOT on vehicle identification more than it should?

What exactly fails on vehicle identification?

If a BMW 7 Series gets a vehicle identification advisory, how often does it fail next time?

Related pages

Other pages for this model