Back when I bought my old 2001 E38 740i (used), I joined the 7 series E38 Forum on BimmerBoard to learn more about the car. That was (and still is) a great Forum with wonderful, decent, and very helpful members - mostly do-it-yourselfers.

But while the E38 was still a 'young' car as it had only just been replaced by the E65, even then the topics there centered around how to fix all the things that typically went wrong on the E38: exploding radiators, melted plastic coolant pumps, catalytic converter failures, leaky power steering hoses, faulty bolts on the oil pump, warn thrush arms and bushings, clanky center tie rods, clunky rear ball joints, dead pixels in the electronic displays, and on and on. Whew. Did I really own such a clap-trap?

And now, here we are at nearly the end of the run for the E60, and ... nothing. Nothing broken. Sure, the E60 has had some issues (tranny slam, slow iDrive, bad cup holders, brake dust, etc...), but really, where's the laundry list of common things-that-go-wrong on the E60 where we have to spend our weekends getting dirty so we can drive the thing to work on Monday morning? There aren't any.

Instead, we still get to spend our time talking about how to make these machines look cooler and go faster!

Well done BMW. And thanks.

 

Well, I would agree that the reliability has gone up. But there is just SOO much ''stuff'' in these cars that can go South.

I had coolant hose leak, faulty window actuator, leaking diff, leaking VANOS, leaking crank case cover, busted tranny at 29K, new steering column, replaced interior trim pieces (not really reliability issue ) thermostat replaced, battery, faulty fog light.

Keep in mind my car only has 35k miles

 

Your post brought back memories of my e32 and e38 7 series ...

 

Wow I guess I lucked out with my 2004 530 (built 2003). I got 57,000 miles on it, yet still feels great to drive. Nothing really major except restraint malfunction, which was recalled.

 

+1. My car has around 50,600 miles on it, bought it used in 2007 with around 34,000 miles and no major problems since. Just a window thing (kept going down when I automatically put it up), recalls, the TCU went out (BMW replaced free of charge), and replacing a tire after hitting a pot hole (I swear that pot hole was unavoidable! lol).

This is our 3rd BMW in 7 years, and the other 2 we bought new, and neither of them have had any major problems either. Then again they are low mileage cars for their age. X5- 68,000 miles while the 325Ci- 13,000. Very reliable and very enjoyable!

P.S. The X5 is a great road trip car. Almost home from a 1000 mile trip to Oregon and back.

 

Mine has had precious little go wrong in 4 years of ownership and I'll tell you what, time has shown that the E60 was Bangle's most successful design effort which is standing the test of time well.

 

Conversely:-

I paid ?600.00 for a XR4x4 2.9i Ford Sierra, had it 4 years and all it had in that time was brake pads and tyres, oil and filters.........when you buy a car for ?47k you dont expect to be fixing or repairing things for at least the first 5 years, or am I just expecting too much ??

My E34 525i Sport still runs and works perfect, thats 18 years old and in my ownership (6 years) only needed general running repairs, nothing major EVER, 156k on the clock, the most expensive being Lambda Sensor and MAF and Clutch.

Seems to me car makers get away with too much these days, and because we let them.

 

wow.. that's a big list of repairs for 35k miles car. Thanks god you probably have warranty.

anyway i agree that bmw's are not the best cars as far as reliability. if you amintain the car right it will make it run longer but still, they are not even close to toyota reliability