Does the BMW i3 fail the MOT on seat belts and airbags more than it should?

The BMW i3 records 0.44 seat belts and airbags failure items per 100 initial MOT tests (2019–2024), against 0.32 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) (+0.12, 95% interval +0.08 to +0.16). It ranks 222 of 627 models on seat belts and airbags (1 = most failures above expected).

Data release dvsa-2024-v2 (24 Sep 2026) · page updated 30 Sep 2026 · all models on seat belts and airbags · check a BMW i3 by registration

What exactly fails on seat belts and airbags?

The most frequent DVSA defect wording in this group on the BMW i3 is “An SRS malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) indicates a system malfunction”, recorded 272 times in 2019–2024.

BMW i3: most frequent seat belts and airbags defect wordings, 2019–2024 (30+ items each)
DVSA defect wording	Items	Per 100 tests
An SRS malfunction indicator lamp (MIL) indicates a system malfunction	272	0.31
Seat belt buckle missing, damaged or not functioning as intended	52	0.06

Source: DVSA MOT bulk data (OGL v3.0) · Window: 2019–2024 · n = 87,422 (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

Does the BMW i3 fail the MOT on seat belts and airbags more than it should?

What exactly fails on seat belts and airbags?

Related pages

Other pages for this model