Sorry but i'd rather be driving my Lexus than waiting for the BMW service tech/tow truck to come pick me up on the side of the road even if its under warranty... but thats just me.

 

BMWs may have problems but they rarely leave you stranded on the side of the road. Most fuel pump issues will leave you in limp mode, not stuck on the side of the road.

 

While I'm not familiar with the new E90/E92, I can say my E36 and my curreny E46 has never left me stranded or failed to start. I think with BMW is is the opposite. The engine and for the most part the trans (That is debateable depending on which trans you have) are rock solid and it is the little annoying things that get you. From what I have learned from my BMW ownership, some of the parts themselves are not made to last very long, but once you know which parts they are, a little preventative maintenence and it will be good as new and run just as long as other Japanese cars.

That said, some of the wear and tear things that I thought were outrageous that they only lasted about 60-80K miles on my E36 are the same things going out on my Lexus cars as well. Like the Control arm bushings, steering rack bushings, engine and tranny mount, control arm ball joints.

 

I agree. BMW hardware is pretty much rock solid. At the Ultimate Drive event, participants basically beat the ***** out of the $70k X5 4.8i fleet.........the same fleet they use around the country. It was all on the gas, all on the brakes, all on the suspension. And they held up just fine. I was expecting big warning notices on iDrive saying "Dynamic Drive failure" or "DBC inoperative". Never happened.

Same goes for our X3 which is almost 3 years old and has 46k miles. There was some stupid stuff like the auto-tilt down mirror and the belt tensioner that made a noisy cold idle, but never once has the engine, transmission, or suspension let me down. Thus, I don't feel all that bad driving it hard once in a while since I know it can easily take it.

 

How many BMWs honestly have you ever seen on the side of the road? In SoCal it's like every 3rd or 4th car is BMW, never had I have any chance in 15 years here to see a BMW on a side waiting for tow truck. I'm sure there are some waiting, but you really have to search hard. BMWs have issues but those hardly leave them on a side of the road.

 

Stuck on the side of the road is usually a domestic. I don't have any scientific evidence to back that up either.

 

If u go down to Lexus Dealership service department, u'll see a bunch of pissed off customers complaining about their Lexus.
All cars fail.....they are machines!!! BMW cars might have some little this & that issues, but nothing major though.

BTW......the BMW F1 cars are more reliable than the Toyota F1 cars.....also alot faster

 

Indeed, all cars have problems. For myself, reliability is a salient factor when purchasing a car, so I will not put up with a car that drives great but suffers some major issue on a periodic basis. I genuinely hope that the issues with my gf's car are simply teething problems associated with a new design because her car has spent as much time at the dealer in the first 4 months as my car has in the last 8 years.

Don't get me wrong, the 335i is a great car and I love driving it when there's an open road and I don't have to use i-drive.

 

At least you have a choice whether or not to use iDrive while driving. The Lexus nav locks you out due to safety issues.

 

Ouch, that hurts

 

BMW engines dont come with dipsticks =(

 

Yeah I don't understand their logic. This is a major issue waiting to happen.

 

If the Electronic Sensor fails since you can still check it electronically. I don't understand why they are not there any longer either though.

 

and no temperature gauge on our X5 4.8i either. I am still not use to not having the temperature gauge. I could careless about the dipstick since I never check the dipstick anyway on my Lexus. But temperature gauge is quite useful for me because I don't like to floor the car when it's cold in the morning.

 

I agree. All car fails.

My IS350 came with dash rattles, but the X5 has no rattles so far. Just other annoying build quality issues.