Brilliant post, brilliant!!

Easily the worst car I've ever owned so far... I've had every E61 issue known to man - the final issue raised itself at the weekend (rear window microswitch) - now tell me something I havent replaced that will break soon - seriously considering a move back to Audi....

Best of luck with it fella

 

For the record my E60 is the ultimate driving machine for me. Maybe I'm easy to please. Even though the naturally aspirated inline 6 doesn't produce the stats of their competitors, I think it's a torquey thing of beauty. The manual transmission is an absolute joy to drive and pretty much everything about the car exudes engineering dexterity. I'd say the car, outside of the cup holders, is as perfect a machine as I've ever piloted.

I can't believe they discontinued this package.

 

The issues seem to be mainly (not excluding other e60's) with the v8, 545's or 550's.
Also, we're talking about tranny problems - manual transmissions are great.. but for those clutch challenged folk like myself.. auto tranny in these cars is garbage. ZF AutoTransmission in e60 = repairs. I bet the suspension is the same in the 545 as the 525... wonder how much heavier the v8 is over the i6... I bet that could cause the suspension issues.

 

Agree...ZF sucks balls - lazy crap box that has all the characteristics of a lame 3 legged donkey.

 

My 545i was perfect, as was my M3 and 5390.....and my current 550i has been flawless. Go buy another numb pos Mercedes I guess.

 

I have had many (some would say too many) cars, 37 in total. I have actually had 4 Jeep Grand Cherokees, despite each one of them having issues - up to and including the supposed "King" of the JGC, the SRT-8. Within a month trim was loose and falling off, had to silicone some of it in place. My point? EVERY car, no matter the make, will have issues. Sometimes you get a lemon, sometimes you get a good one. For me my 530 has had a few issues (replaced CCC, TCU, etc), but I still love driving it enough that I can't see myself driving anything else but another 5er when it's time to move on.

 

That's good to hear sy. What year was your 545? '05?? I have an early 2004 model (not sure the build date, probably mid-2003.
My 3 was great except for an AC issue.. but I blame that on 'silly' mechanics at my dealer not fixing it properly (i wasn't paying so wasn't about to bring it elsewhere and I kept finding things for them to 'fix up').
Bringing the 5'er in tomorrow to my indy guys to get the AC compressor fixed (already bought the part before this SES light... what's another $200 bucks...). Will post the code tomorrow for the SES light and hopefully any remedy. Thinking I'm going to put on some stiff struts and see what that does for the crap braking and stopping.
Sy, I don't think I could drive a Merc again.. they feel like you're floating on the road.. BMW's feel like the tires are an extension of your hands.. I'm sure you can relate a similar experience. Bimmers are great handling cars but the enormous issues that some of us experience, sully the experience greatly. Mercs are ok.. my first car was a 1992 190E, it was a great first car... but BMW has the road feel..and I doubt I'll ever go back.. nor am I close enough to 60 or retirement.. less than half that age...so Merc is out, no offense to anyone who is of the latter mentioned age group or who drives a Merc ;-)
If anything I'll check out a 750i or a Range Rover with the 4.2 Supercharged engine... though I have a funny feeling our beloved 6HP26 ZF Tranny is stuffed under the Rover too.. hopefully not the 750's..
I'm certain I got a grapefruit (drivable but sour)...my next will probably be a great experience.. what the point of my rant and I'm sure the intent of others.. is that BMW should step up to the plate.. they know this car was rushed and had many improvements made throughout production that were implemented mid-production. But, suffice to say - it's great to hear your ride is holding up.

 

Maybe we'll luck out and BMW will see our complaints about these components and make changes. They probably already have..
I can't see myself driving something other than a bimmer either.. nothing else compares... it's just these 'bitter' issues that seem to plague certain builds.. such as mine. The tranny and AC compressor are poor components and I haven't yet had the joy of electrical issues but I'm sure there was some lacking there too. I looked closely at the nissan today... no comparison.. don't even want to test drive it. then headed to my indy shop and am dropping the 5'er off tomorrow morning. I'll post in the morning on the SES code.

 

I can agree with that, however, since BMW tends to try to cram as much of the latest electronics into their cars I can't see reliability being perfect ever. That said, I agree there is nothing like driving our cars hard. Also, there's the little things, like the fact that I have not had a car without leather interior since I was 16 years old, and yet I have never had a car with the warm wonderful leather smell my car has.

 

I just got the transmission replaced on my 08' 528i with 20k miles... Good thing it's still under factory warranty. I think I will look into getting the extended warranty..