I don't think we necessarily disagree...that's why I said " some " M3s with engine problems. I didn't remember the exact number involved. This was not true of more recent ones.....as you point out.

I also agree with the possibility of the lease ends......something I forgot to bring up in my post. Many of the owners simply could not afford to buy these cars at their as-new selling prices so they leased them instead to keep the payments manageable.
Thank you and Penforhire for pointing that out.

 

Or because after a couple of dates in an M3 they HAD to get married.

 

hey, i dont bash M3's... In fact, for these kind of pricing, I would love to own one :-). In Europe, prices are double that, so it is not that simple.

Nevertheless, it is not as if many M3's are there and they have cult following. Thing is that in used car market, people take a look at reliability more than anything else and m3's have bad rep by now.

In fact, I think BMW's free maintainance scheme is hurting their resale values, because everyone assumes that after the servicing and warranty is out, they better sell the car right away since it will fall apart. Even BMW lovers post how they will sell the car by the time warranty is out...

It is really not true though - in general, BMW has been the most reliable European brand in Europe, in past 4-5 years at least, according to respectable ADAC and TUV surveys. Of course, not close to Toyota but a lot better than most.

Another problem, which is more realistic, is that when something breaks in BMW, you gonna pay a lot of money to fix it.