skaffa

That's the spirit!



These two guys show why this is so good place to chat and gather information!

Skaffa

Lucky

Well, I'd like to add my 2 cent opinion to the discussion. Before buying (renting, to be correct) my first ever BMW in 2004, an E60 530d, I owned a long series of Audi, from 80 1.8E of late 80s up to the A6 2.5 Tdi of year 2000. I had always been happy with the built quality and materials of all of them, but defenitively not with the mechanical reliability. I had a long series of problems, some of them very serious: an engine (2,5 V6 Tdi 180 Ps) blown up at 54.000 km, clutch release spring broken at 60.000 km (80E 2.0 16V), loosened turbo pipes (2,5 V6 tdi 150 Ps), broken high-pressure fuel tubes of injection system (2,5 V6 Tdi 180 Ps). So, in twelve years on board 6 different Audi, I was left on the side of the road, waiting for a recovery truck, four times! But the interiors were superb on all of them!

With my first E60, it was a nightmare since the beginning: after ten months of loud complains to BMW about all the quality issues (my car had ALL the problems reported on this forum and a few new ones, too) I obtained from BMW to swithch to a new car without any extra cost. This has been kind of BMW, but I confirm that the E60 is a really great car mechanically and with regards to driving aspects but a markedly inferior car, in materials and general built quality, to her forerunner E39. The E39 has been evaluated the highest quality car in the world in its segment, not so the E60!

But again, when you test the driving pleasure of BMW it's hard to come back, especially if you like to drive fast and hard.

maninblack

Like many of you my wife and I have owned a fair number of cars since we started driving. Renault, Peugeot, Citroen, Volvo, Audi, Mini, BMW. I am happy to say that none of these cars had any significant problem EVER. I mean it The worst thing that went wrong with the Audi was a jammed CD stacker and with the Volvo, a faulty software issue which affected the electric windows. The 5 series touring is our newest and so far...so good. I hope that the good run continues. I have heard many bad stories over the years but never experienced them myself. Lucky, well maybe.

KAF

Those who think BMW are worse than MB might care to look at this from one of Britains Leading national newspapers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.j...4/01/ixmot.html

Simple1

all this talk scares me now as I'm getting ready to order my car in the next coming summer months.

EBMCS03

You going to order a 550?

Simple1

ohh Hell no!! lol not while I work in the city of manhattan, I've narrowed it down to definately getting a monaco blue/beige 530i options, nav & sport are definate and I'll figure the rest out with which dealer gives me the best deal, I sent my info to get quotes this weekend but I figure that it will be better for me to go in so as to match a face to the person I'm talking with. I just don't have the time to do that yet as I just started my new job while trying to launch my own business @ the same time! I no longer sleep, lol but hopfully it will all be worth it in the long run.

EBMCS03

Wooo sounds like a M5 is comming soon at this rate. Whats the business if you dont mind sharing... you can PM also.

Simple1

Well even if we made loads this year, I'll probably wait a year or two to make sure it's sustainable. It's a search/information database sort of like webMD and the likes.

cobradav

I have both a recent Audi (2003 purchased 11/2002) A4 Cabrio and the 6er (all dates in sig). I am fast catching the A4 in miles (20,000 to 28,000). The A4 is driven by my very fastidious wife (wash your hands u touched something). The steering wheel leather started bunching up over 10,000 miles ago (about 18 months ago), several button coatings are peeling including the ESP button which has never been touched by her and only 2/3 times by me. I've had to invest in steering wheel cover to hide this ugly sight. Dealer scoffed at it being an Audi quality problem. Garaged an average of 140 hours a week, meaning it sees either sun, rain or in-between at most about 28 hours a week with 95% of that with top up (only on clear cool days is the top down when she is not in car). I have to say the interior finish of this Audi is inferior to the 6er so far in every way.

Other than that comparo I believe many on this board have had some real major problems, some extending into the lemon law domain. Are they more or less than other brands, hard for me to compare. I actually expected a few more little problems than I do have based on the high level of electronics and computer hardware/software involved. The fact that it has not been worse has been a pleasent surprise. I also like the fact that occasionally I can actually get an upgrade on something I was not expecting, MP3 for example.