[tvo9]

I was in a barbershop last weekend getting a haircut. 3 chairs away, there were 2 customers talking about car.

- Female A has a Miata, and she praised how much better it is comparing to her previously owned Z3. She said the Z3 cost so much money for repairing and maintaining, and mockingly said BMW stands for Break My Wallet.

- Female B added to the conversation by saying how many more broken down BMW she saw on the side of the road vs other brands.

I did not say anything and just smiled, but it gets me thinking.

When I decided to get the BMW 1, and my bother-in-law asking why I get such an unreliable and high maintenance vehicle. I told him I like the car, and that's all matter. I have CPO on the vehicle until December 2017. If it's that bad, I'll trade it in.

I am a big fan of couple with usable back seats. I had a Scion tC, and MINI Cooper, but the BMW give me a lot more power than both, and I like the style of BMW 1 a lot more. I think I have found the perfect couple with the BMW 1. I plan to keep the 1 for a very long time.

My question to the community is: Is BMW that bad of a brand, for the first thing I hear from many people is how unreliably it is, and how expensive it is to maintain?

I obviously haven't owned BMW for that long. For those of you having multiple BMW, and different generations, what are you inputs?

[bmwperson]

Personal opinion but all my BMWs have been very reliable when maintained properly but I do agree that the newer cars have more parts and thus break more often. My old M5 was quite pricey and I did all the work. My all my E36es were bulletproof and dirt cheap to maintain I still hold my E36M3 as the gold standard when it comes to performance,handling,price...

[gthal]

If you look at reliability stats, BMW is never at the top... other than Porsche, German cars generally aren't. More focus on performance than reliability which is different than Toyota, Honda, Nissan, etc.

However, ALL cars today are pretty reliable so I wouldn't worry about it. Personally, I haven't had any reliability issues (knock on wood) in any of the 5 BMW's I have owned.

Repair bills out of warranty may be more but I can't speak to that as I've never owned a car outside of warranty

[Petros]

No smoke without fire. Yes, BMW does have a legitimate reputation for unreliability. obviously it depends on the model, and some models are more reliable than other. But on average a BMW will have more issues than a Toyota or honda. But it's not just that. Failures are also more expensive on a premium german brand. Labor costs more. And parts are insanely overpriced as well. YOu would expect to pay much more for a spare part on a BMW than a Nissan or Chevy, just because of the brand name.

[BMW269]

LOL

And then the BMW guys trash Alfa Romeo for being unreliable, but I didn't have any problems with my two Alfas. Just got some rattles now at 30K km.

[Supra2k6]

Originally Posted by Petros

No smoke without fire. Yes, BMW does have a legitimate reputation for unreliability. obviously it depends on the model, and some models are more reliable than other. But on average a BMW will have more issues than a Toyota or honda. But it's not just that. Failures are also more expensive on a premium german brand. Labor costs more. And parts are insanely overpriced as well. YOu would expect to pay much more for a spare part on a BMW than a Nissan or Chevy, just because of the brand name.

agreed they did cut corners in a lot of things and are late to the party technology wise (bluetooth streaming) until 2011-2012 come BMW.

Reason why i see bmw's broken down on the side of the road specially when it's snows because of the Run flats. Only reason i picked a 335i is because of the engine, car looks good and it's newer and didn't find anything else under that price range appealing. i would pick a gtr in a heartbeat if i could afford it.

[csu87]

its the same situation to how some people view fords or chevys or jeeps. There have been periods in time where a certain brand has terrible reliability and gets that reputation. Fords now a days have pretty good reliability, but in the 90s, all you ever heard was how much they break down and now some people, thats all the associate Ford with.

I think the reliability issues are associated with most German cars, BMW, Audi, Mercedes..., but, at least in my area, you see more BMWs on the road, so naturally you will see more with issues.

As far as costing a lot to maintain, well duh. This isnt a Miata where the car brand new is half the price of a new 3 series. If something breaks, it is going to cost more. You can get a Water Pump for a 2010 Miata for ~ $50. A water pump for a 2010 335 is ~ $350.

[M3Bimmer77]

More expensive than a Prius? Of course. Than an Altima? Yes. Than a Ford Explorer, yes. Than a MB, about the same. When you compare " how expensive a car is over a year" there are many things to take into consideration. If you go with an X5 your tires, oil changes, alignment, etc are going to be more or less the same price as for a Ford Explorer or a Nissan Parhfinder. But if you go into an M3 or M5 probably the yearly maintanance will be a little more. BMW are consider "luxury" cars, some more than others. At the end the car will be more expensive than a regular car and less expensive than a high end luxury car. Also, I have heard than hourly rates at German and Italian dealerships are higher than American and Japaneese cars. One thing is that spare parts are more expensive than American or Japaneese cars. Do you want to drive just a car or an ultimate driving machine?

[tjlees]

BMW have average reliability according various UK surveys I've seen - not really in the same league as some Japanese brands. The two Mitsubishi evos I had never missed a beat regardless of how much abuse and tuning I threw at them.

Porsche maybe reliable in the US but have had IMS, RMS and bore scoring problems as well as catching fire (991 GT3) in the UK.

Personally I've had rear springs break, smg problems and big end bearing replaced on E46 m3, water pump and timing chain on my r56 mini but nothing on my e46 330i, other e46 m3 nor my e63 m6. So far the f30 is ok (touch wood) but it's early days.

Most unreliable cars I've had are either French (Citroen XM, Renault Clio, peugoet) or Italian based (fiat uno, Alpha sud)

[Killramos]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

....females shouldn't be allowed to drive at all

I was wondering why they were in a barbershop

I have never had a problem with my nor have i ever known anyone who's BMW has broken down or required serious out of warranty repairs.

Maybe I am lucky but i see a ton of old (20+ years) BMW's on the road on a daily basis as well so how much of time bombs can these cars be?

[fecurtis]

Originally Posted by Levi

LOL

And then the BMW guys trash Alfa Romeo for being unreliable, but I didn't have any problems with my two Alfas. Just got some rattles now at 30K km.

False. Everyone on the planet bashes Alfa Romeo.

[Ali Shiralian]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

....females shouldn't be allowed to drive at all

Or at least comment on them

[Peter_R]

Originally Posted by fecurtis

False. Everyone on the planet bashes Alfa Romeo.

Agreed. It is Italian and the electrics are really cr@p.

[gap]

Originally Posted by bmwperson

Personal opinion but all my BMWs have been very reliable when maintained properly but I do agree that the newer cars have more parts and thus break more often. My old M5 was quite pricey and I did all the work. My all my E36es were bulletproof and dirt cheap to maintain I still hold my E36M3 as the gold standard when it comes to performance,handling,price...

My indy mechanic tells me stories about customers bringing their BMW in complaining about how unreliable it is but no scheduled maintenance was being done. Higher performance cars are more complicated and need regular maintenance.

[BMW269]

Originally Posted by fecurtis

False. Everyone on the planet bashes Alfa Romeo.

And yet Ferrari and Range Rover are just as bad if not worse.

[John_01]

BMW cars have water pumps made completely of plastic and powered by electric motor. They will fail within 100,000km of use and leave the driver totally stranded.

If you ask me, the cars should all be recalled and fitted with better quality metal-bladed water pumps all-metal radiators as well.
There are probably other examples but that I think the water pump is the most shameful one because it is really fundamental to the cars reliability.

[PopsnBurbles]

Although we don't have them here in the States, I don't think BMW owners/drivers should complain about people bashing BMW's reliability when compared to an Alfa Romeo or TVRs. But really, I would kill to have a TVR Tuscan Speed Six or a Cerbera 4.5 LW.

[FlowState]

I'll venture to guess the people who claim the BMWs aren't reliable - don't maintain their cars lol.

[Jamesons Viggen]

Anyone can have a bad experience with a brand. I can give examples of my sister's terrible Sienna or a terrible Accord.

To counter, my Z3M has been ridiculously reliable and at 86k still has its original clutch, pads and rotors. The stock headgasket even held 13psi without going pop.

[Vitalität]

Even on the best car brand, there is always a hater. And all makes are not perfect. It has its own weaknesses too. You like it and that's what matters like you said.

[Meeni]

Even when they don't break they cost more to maintain. I was in shock when I helped a friend change all his coils and plugs on a Mazda: the parts where 45$, total. That;s not enough money to buy ONE of the SIX coils on a BMW.

[Cattivo]

I've owned over 30 BMW's and out of those 30, 2 were pieces of shit, the rest have all been very reliable besides your normal wear and tear. I currently own 2- X5/M that have been trouble free and I drive ALL my cars like I stole them! As long as you don't follow BMW's silly maintenance schedule and do your own preventive maintenance such as changing your oil every 5k miles, your Bimmer will run for ever!