Hormazd

With the exception of a couple of software bugs like audio on and start up and no RDS, and ofcourse the cupholders, I am very statisfied with the fit finish and relability of my June 2004 build 545i after 9,000 miles.

Some of our frequent posters are early adopters. I want to see if it is indeed early production E60s that had more problems.

I chose April production because it is one month after the newer TCU was introduced and 7 months into the E60 production. Members with April production should vote as AFTER April. Thanks Alohalc for pointing that out.

alohalc

i'm happy with my car but not the dealer . btw, where should members vote if they have 4/04 production date ?

EBMCS03

After.

ISUK

Hormazd,

Sorry to be a pain the a$$ but maybe you should have split out the quality and reliability into two questions as I don't think they are necessarily related. Apart from an engine failure (isolated to my car AFAIK) I am happy with the reliability of my car but not so impressed with the quality of the materials used for parts of the interior which are cheap looking and flimsy. I'll be interested to see how far the interior changes from production in Wk 9 05 go towards rectifying this issue.

Just had to add that of the 6 BMW's I've owned thus far, my E60 feels the cheapest inside by far yet it was the most expensive of them all. My Z4 has an appreciably better quality interior and it is made in the US (no offence to our friends across the pond but you expect something that comes out of Germany to have the edge under normal circumstances). My US built X5 was also constructed using much better quality materials on the interior. And both cars had zero faults as well so it's a big thumbs up for Spartanburg's quality control team in my book.

I await my E90 with keen interest to see if that is better than the E60 in respect of interior finish and quality.

maylander739

But don't the people that have had there car before april 2004 be more likely to have problems due to the age and possibly more millage they have done. The answers to this question could be misleading.

browellm

And it will be far too small a sample to be significant.

ipp

My car is produced after april 2004. I love the car! But I had to vote dis-satisfied. To many probs. Already two software upgrades. The windows are creaking again, after they've fixed it once. The RPA gives false alarms. The iDrive takes more than one minute to boot. Mayby I'm too finicky, but it's an expensive car...

But the problems is nothing compared to all the trouble I had with my VW Touareg and eaven worse, my Volvo V70 T5 (they changed the gear box four times in one year..)

The most boring car I ever had was my 2001 Merc. E280 Estate. But in two years and over 12000km ther was nothing to complain about. But th E61 gives me much more back, once again it's wounderful. I will probably buy a new E61 in about a year from now. M-Pack and a lighter colour.

skaffa

Mine is build 2003 Nov. and no problems at all. First luxury car ever what I have owned so can't complane materials or anything else either.

One happy camper!

Skaffa

Hormazd

I have seen some loud complaints and then some new posters who think that based on what they have read on this forum the E60 is a lousy car. We also have Comsumer Reports that tested the early build car and trashed its reliability.

I am hoping that a sampling of atleast 100 users will show that there will be a smaller group of early adopters whos dis-satisfaction with the car is a considerably higher percentage than the post April 04 production owners, hence justifying my theory. I also feel that build quality and reliability can be lumped into one overall experience for the purpose of this poll although I concur with ISUK that these are two differnt things.

A quick tabulation after 20 votes show a 40% ownership of the early production of which one third are dissatisfied, whereas of the 60% ownership of later builds only 8% are dis-satisfied.

Please just keep posting.

marty530d

My car is a Sept 03 car - It has been in the dealers more than any car I have owned for warranty issues. For example, my last car was a 328, it had one warranty issue, a broken spring on one of the nice little spring loaded compartments (which to be honest I broke). Before that I had an Audi A4 for 3 years - no warranty issues.

My E60 has had 3 seperate SW upgrades for RFT/Engine Idle/Wipers/Nav giving wrong directions. The doors creak, the paintwork has picked up more stone chips than I've ever had all together in 19 years of driving. And don't get me started on the interior trim.

Since this was an early car there is some temptation to cut it some slack on quality - however I was one of the first UK drivers of the E46 328 and that had zero defects.

Am I sorry I bought the car - Hell No I love it! But I will certainly be getting rid of it when the warranty runs out.

Would I buy another one after that time - at this point I hope that BMW are reading this post - probably not unless I see a huge increase in quality.