AUSaxon00

Interestingly, BMW just ranked #5 in a Yahoo Autos quality survey.

http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoram...175024776.html

My favorite quote from the article is "BMW also tends to get wildly different scores depending on who's asking."

I haven't had any major issues with my '06 525xi, but reading this forum certainly can make one paranoid about every little noise or vibration, wondering when the next $2,000 repair is about to hit. I've owned many cars outside of either the manufacturers or third party warranty, but with BMW it seems very risky.

sotek

FYI: Rafi. It is on its second owner, me. The first owner was a little old lady.
It had no issues to date. I have its maintenance records.
I haven't had to fix anything either besides a bad thermostat gasket, control arm, a bushing and now the AC compressor.
The "little nagging" issues are what add up to be tantamount to a bad car. Transmission is horrible, but its behaviour is by design? ..Why can't they just admit that they put a piece crap transmission in the car. They're putting ZF's in the new bimmers too... scary. The suspension is awful.. but that's by design... my old Dodge rode better. This is a 5-series... it's supposed to glide.. it does not. There's umpteen other little issues but it's a waste of time to list them all. This car was poorly built and the engineering is piss poor. Which kinda makes me wonder if it was built here in or Germany. Not to knock our local autoworkers... but this just isn't right for a BMW.. I'd expect this from a Chrysler.

AchtungE60

Yea they need to tone it down a bit. They oversell their cars. They are great cars when they don't break down or have issues. They should simply put a 6 yr/100K warranty on them if they want to keep their prices. I will not own a modern BMW. Forget it. I swear I'll go to acura/honda infiniti/nissan or lexus/toyota first if going modern.

sotek

ha! ...ask me.

sotek

You're exactly right. But the brilliant minds at BMW corporate don't get service, it's pure numbers. They give a 50k/4 year warranty. Why? So they don't have to pay for their p.o.s. product after it gets broken (no pun intended) in and starts breaking down. Their quality has tanked horribly. I'm sure the math of selling more cars vs. keeping loyal customers weighs against us. I love the bimmer styling but nothing but poor experience with the 5'er. Even the 3 had it's share of issues... I had forgot about it's plaguing AC issue that never did get fixed.

sotek

... that 350z out front of the nissan dealer is looking awfully tempting.

AchtungE60

I agree. Handling and styling is it. As far as power? Any import in its class will whip it (again in its class) and will not have the quality issues. As far as handling goes....I drive fast. And by fast I don't mean just a little over and they do indeed handle unlike any other cars but at the expense of maintaining the suspension and bushings and if I did not know how to do that myself it could get quite expensive because i put a lot of force on the suspension components with my driving habits.

You sound like you have energy... start up the ranting and raving and me and my three bimmers will follow you all the way up to the top of the BMWNA chain. AND if you're still up for that bon fire it would be much better in a corporate lobby than in a deserted alley or an old abandoned warehouse district. lol

rafichicago

I also own 1987 Honda accord. You get inside turn the key the car starts and goes. I know what you all are coming from. I Do not work for BMW or in the BMW dealer. Do not get me wrong. Newer cars are getting worse ever since the car makers have realized that the car that does not brake is not profitable for them. If you think you will buy a Honda Toyota etc today and expect the same reliability as you are all used to you might be highly disappointed. 20 years ago accountants became more important in the industry than engineers. Now we have the result. I will bet that Mercedes benzes from the 80s will be on the road in 10 years. I doubt about 2000 and so on. It is the profit that matters. They worked on it's name for a 100 years. Modern accountants will destroy it all in 20. The product does not have to be good or well made. It has to be profitable. If it is profitable than it is good

Kaizen

Sorry to hear about the maintenance problems. It helps a bit to vent, doesn't it?

wtlb

Sorry guy. I feel your pain.