I've had absolutely no problems with my 09/2005 545. It's really two great cars for me on my commute. I've got about 12 miles of generally open twisties (sporty) followed by about 15 miles of SoCal freeway crawl (luxury). It's great for both. The only I problem I have is calming myslef down after flying through the twisties so I don't drive like a jackass on the freeway. Get a BMW and drive it like a luxury car when you can't drive it like a sports car. You can't go wrong.

 

My 545 is almost here and I'm looking forward to it. I didn't realize that the Idrive runs on a windows CE platform. I dumped all my home PC's and software last year and replaced with Apple OSX. If I had known BMW is using windows, I might have gone a different route instead of a BMW. Yes, I hope BMW reads this forum and will make an effort in the future to not use windows as the OS for the Idrive. Too many businesses are going what they view as the easier/softer way - Windows.

I work for a Fed agency and can't tell you how many times we've had network problems due to faulty OS and poorly written code for Microsoft software.

People who are using OSX will know what I'm talking about when I talk about a better platform.

 

I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. Helmut Panke (BMW chairman) is on Microsoft's board.

 

Just a slight correction from the first post: we BMW owners don't admit we're addicted....we admit we are powerless over our addiction. That's step one of the 12 steps.

OK, now return to what you were all doing.

 

Not really when you look at leasing...you could have a 545 for the same price if you do euro delivery and get a reasonable discount off MSRP.

 

Sounds like you want a "divorce" from BMW.... If you want a good "dealer" experience, you should definitely buy Japanese (Lexus, Acura or Infiniti) as all three of these premium Japanese brands have adopted service policies of "doing whatever it takes" to make the customer feel "wanted" and "loved" for buying their cars. As you may know, these policies were absolutely necessary for the Japanese to adopt to "win" business from the European makes (BMW, MB, Jaguar, etc.) when they introduced their premium brands to the US market in the late 1980s, so be aware that the policies are not in place because of any "altruism" that these dealers have for car buyers (i.e., you don't get the same "love" if you buy a Toyota, Honda or Nissan).

Further, there is no doubt that Japanese auto quality is demonstrably superior to any European makes (Lexus is a perennial JD Powers quality winner). However, the top two European auto manufacturers in quality are Porsche & BMW, who are in the top 10 (sorry, MB is not even in the top 25 now).

With this understanding, every auto manufacturer has "failed" if you must take their vehicle in for any kind of warranty service. Having both a Lexus and BMW, I have had to take both of them in for recalls and warranty service -- sure, I get a better service experience from Lexus, but I was still inconvenienced from having to take it in in the first place. If you think that you will avoid having any kind of warranty service by buying a new model of a Japanese car, you are disillusioned because no one is perfect (so, alas you will "suffer" through some problems with every car).

Of course, your 7 ownership experience was painful, but you leased a cutting edge car with lots of innovations that no one offered at the time. If you compare all of the features of your 7 series to what is being offered in the market by other manufacturers you are now considering, you should not be surprised to find a lot of imitation in their vehicles. The e60 also blazed its own trail with various innovations that Lexus, Infiniti and others are now copying (one or two years down the road).

I have a 2004 545i and have not experienced any problems with the car other than the two recalls that have been issued (I had one recall on my 2004 Lexus). You are definitely getting a very biased view of the e60 by reading this forum (or any other forums) since the owners who post have a very high standard of perfection and therefore tend to write postings about every kind of difficulty they are having, no matter how trivial it may be. Having a high standard of perfection is not a bad thing because it forces BMW to continue innovating and improving its vehicles -- however, you may want to consider whether some of the "problems" you have read about on this board (or others) are the kind of things you would lose sleep over if you bought an e60.

Bottom line -- no car is perfect. You may have less problems or issues buying a Japanese car (Lexus, Acura or Infiniti), but your "suffering" will not end because you will invariably have a few problems. The real question is how you will feel driving a Japanese car, even if your average speed is 25mph, now that you know what it feels like to drive a BMW car. At some point, you will no doubt assess the value of the "compromise" you have made by purchasing an automobile made by another manufacturer -- when that point comes, will you have any regrets that you are not driving a BMW?? Only you can answer that question....

 

welcome aboard, ih82go ! just to be fair, add e class, a6, s-type to your list as well. but test drive all other cars before you head down to bmw dealer. just because you need extra time there to sign all the papers .

 

Not really when you look at leasing...you could have a 545 for the same price if you do euro delivery and get a reasonable discount off MSRP.
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The Acura dealer I talked to in Los Gatos tried to quote me quite a bit more than the lease I took on my 545. They were predicting much lower residuals than BMW and were using a much higher money factor. To be fair these were straight off the Acura system and may have come down if we had gotten into proper negotations but the real clincher was the fact that when I drove the RL and 4.2 A6 I came away thinking they were good but I was kind of take it or leave it. When I test drove the 545 I knew I was going to be signing papers that night before we had even gotten back to the dealership.

 

first, GO TO A DIFFERENT DEALER... if you feel your dealer is arrogant and not giving you the service you expect from a BMW dealership, take your money elsewhere, there are great dealers out there who go above and beyond... im getting either the 5 or the 6 this fall, but look at my sig, i currently have a nearly 5 year old 3.. and you know what my dealer does for me? they take me to the train station when i drop my car off for service, and then pick me up at nite from the station to pick up my car... if im home the day i take it in, they drive me from the dealer back home and will pick me up when my car is ready... when my 4 year warranty was up last year, they have picked up the last 2 service calls as good will, they have always gone the extra mile...

yes there were some issues with the 7, and i guess you got a whole lot of them, but as to the bugs being overblown in the 5... just think about this, BMW sold over 200,000 last year, about half as much as the 3, now thats amazing for this car, they cant be having too many reliability issues with sales figures like that

is it worth it?? well only you can say, but if you love to drive and that is the main purpose of your decision, i wouldnt give up on BMW yet, not for any of the cars you are looking at instead of the E60, and remember. No other car co. gives you a full maintenace warranty so whats to worry about, everythings covered

... unless you can go for a Quattroporte, Now thats HOT

 

I am fairly new to this board but not new to BMW. This is my 5th BMW and I can say that it is the best "driving" car I have ever owned. I need to update my profile but I just traded in my 2004 530i for a 2005 545i just about fully loaded. I hated the 530. It was a rolling computer disaster. I think Gates and BMW did not talk before sticking this i-drive thing in the car. My opinion of the 2005 545i is that they must have made some HUGE changes to the 2005 models. I will admit it is a little slow to boot up and change screens but it is not unstable. I think BMW is working on the slow screen thing and this is a fairly easy fix. The ONLY issue I have had is gettiing my Blutooth cradle to charge my phone...but I installed it myself and there was coding required. That said, the dealer was very nice and fixed the issue. They also adjusted some steering angle sensor thing when they had the car. I can tell you first hand that the changes made between 04 and 05 have made a profound impact on the stability of this car's operating system. Having had SOOOOO many issues with the 04 I can certainly feel your pain. I felt like an idiot when I signed my contract for a 66K car having had so many previous issues. I gathered from this board that most of the issues were resolved and.....they are. The 545i is by far, the most wonderful car in its class and in many other areas where it does not even compete.