History and experience tends to show that the the early model years are typically some of the least reliable and that the last model year of a particular vehicle is about as good as it gets. You'll almost certainly find fewer manufacturing defects in a final year E39s than a first model year E60. Manufacturers do indeed test extensively before release, but in cars as complex as the E60, it's almost inevitable that early adopters are, to some degree, likely to experience more issues as some of the problems won't come to light until the cars are out in the wild.

 

The 83 though was arguably one of the best years in the 80's for Corvette. Sitting right between new model anomalies and the wondrous cross-fire injection who could argue

On a thread relevant note, my .02 on this is that first year models tend to be less reliable in the electronics department more than anything. I've had 3 first year models now 93 Passat GLX VR6, great engine but holy Shitzu batman that electrical system was a nightmare. For example and I'm not exaggerating here, if you were opening the electric moonroof and pressing the horn at the same time it blew fuses and relays all over the place and the car would basically shut off. My 04 530i is my 3rd first year line but aside from some minor items seems good so far. Mind you there are somethings I don't think anyone will argue with: bluetooth issue, mp3 CD player and a list of small non critical things that seems to have been worked out later on. I'm not arguing though, at least the sunroof and horn like each other enough.

Steve

 

An interesting post. I see it both ways.

If you look at the E65 7 series cars, one would tend to think you might be mistaken. Those cars were a disaster, which is why BMW went ahead and certified all '02 cars to give the added warranty due to their profound troubles.

However, you are correct in one respect. I play golf with a guy who was an engineer for Ford. He said that when Ford releases a new vehicle, after year two, they spend their time trying to figure out how to get the costs out of the car - meaning, a year or two after its released, they then try to start chintzing on the build quality to increase their profit margin after the reviews are in. To that extent, you might be correct.

I think there are good cars and crap cars in most model years. Scary, eh?

 

Having a car "tested" by the end-user/consumer almost always results in the manufacturer learning about things they didn't foresee or discover in initial (pre-release) testing. That said, mechanically speaking, first-year cars are much more reliable these days than they were in the past since the advent of computer modeling and testing.

That said, I think the key ingredient that's not being addressed specifically is that of software. Today's cars (not just our E60s) are much more reliant on software and programmable electronic modules. As we all know (especially those of us that use Microsoft products ), early software versions almost always contain bugs and/or inefficiencies in the code. Again, these bugs can often only be discovered through real-world testing by a large sample of end-users so it's tough to get things right with the initial release.

I've had two E60s now, one was a first-year car (with an SMG transmission produced during the first week of availability) and one is an LCI car (with a SAT produced during the first week of availability) and mechanically, both cars were solid. The main issues I had were always addressed through a software update or an electronic part swap that was usually an updated component...