How Reliable Are Bmws?

[ChunJin]

I'm a little iffy; I'm planning to buy a new car on Monday. I was looking at getting a BMW 335i or 328i with all the features, or some other car this upcoming Monday.

Anyone have experiences with BMWs down the road like 3-4 years down the road. Any other luxury cars that are pretty good, but also reliable?

Thanks!

[Guest Chisuo]

I'm a little iffy; I'm planning to buy a new car on Monday. I was looking at getting a BMW 335i or 328i with all the features, or some other car this upcoming Monday.

Anyone have experiences with BMWs down the road like 3-4 years down the road. Any other luxury cars that are pretty good, but also reliable?

Thanks!

I don't know how much this will help but I just bought a BMW 328i sedan (2009 model. I'm getting it delivered today~) and I've done a lot of research. The only major thing you would have to watch out for when purchasing a BMW is the Run Flat Tires. I've heard they are super craptacular and don't last very long.(At least the 1st gens are. The newer ones are 3rd gen and I've heard they are much better) Around the 15 k miles mark. Many people have tried to replace the RFTs with another set of RFTs and pay around $900 to get them replaced just to have them blown out again. Others opt to replace their RFTs with regular tires and after they have made the switch there should no longer be any problems with the car (tire wise). As for reliability BMWs are good. I think the whole idea about BMWs breaking down all the time is the fact that most of their customers are usually male who like fast cars. Liking fast cars= usually driving fast =aggressive=car breaks down. Plus I've read that a lot of BMW owners tend to be very picky with their cars so if anything sounds slightly off then they go and fix it. Bmws are also built much more complex then a Toyota or Hondas are. Most repair shops can fix a Toyota but not all of them can fix a BMW you see? So of course the cost of maintenance will be a little more. If you decide to purchase have peace in mind that you DO get 4 years or 50,000 miles of free maintenance. Also the BMW 3 series has the best resale value in the US. It retains about 40% of it's value. Also! Put 91 gas in it. The manager at the BMW shop (who used to work for on maintenance) said it's OK to use 87 it won't do any damage to your car at all! The only downside is you might develop this weird clink clink noise in your engine but hey..if you can afford a bmw you can probably afford a few more dollars for gas. I hope this helps~^^

[Guest 90th.degree]

VERY reliable, but the older they get the more they get electrical gremlins.

[OMGHIyori2U]

a guy on one of the subaru forums I go to, got his wife a brand new 335i. 40 minutes after driving off the lot, they went to get a bite to eat, and the bimmer crapped out on them. It made some beeps, and then the engine overheated. Needless to say, they were pissed, and argued with the manager that he take back the car. They aren't considering a BMW anymore lol

http://www.i-club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=208001

I was considering an M3, but decided against it because if anything happened, I wouldn't be able to afford the repairs or have time out to fix the car.

[Guest skycaptain]

My mom has a 2006 325i... and for the past almost 4 years, the only time it's at the dealer is when it needs the usual scheduled maintenance/oil change/brake pads replacement/cracked leatherette. But, after going on a few bmw forums, I'm beginning to think that she's one of the lucky ones with a problem-free car (knock on wood). Last week, when I was at the service department with her, this guy took his 3 series in complaining how it's been to the auto-shop every other month. And then another fellow took his 5 series in, saying how when he hits 60 mph, the car would make all sorts of noises.

^If you're iffy about the run-flat tires, just purchase tire insurance...but since it's a 3rd party insurance, many people are also 'ehhh' about that. haha. At our dealer, the 5-year IAS tire warranty plan was only 895$. My mum ran over something on the freeway last week, she took the car in, they replaced it, no questions asked.

Have fun looking at bimmers, those things are beautiful, especially the coupes.

[Guest mikez]

Okay reliability.

A lot of their reputation comes from the car enthusiast like me who get anal about every tiny thing. I've brought my Lexus back to the dealer for so many small crap you wouldnt care about such as seat fan dont cool me enough, headlights are not pointed high enough to me, steering making clicking noise at slow turn, brake dust leaving marks on the rims etc

However, BMW aren't as well thought out in their designs as Japanese cars, which is why they are slightly more prone to issues. They don't really use more complicated technology, but they use technology without thoroughly testing them through, and they design a car for the purpose of being a car, where toyota design their car in a way thats easy to fix. So if your BMW breaks, they will have to take apart most of your car to fix it where as it would be an hour job for a Lexus etc.

But they aren't as bad as you've heard. Nor are they as good as Lexus or whatever.

[Guest bettzie]

im not sure if this help but i have the 335i, and didnt have much problem with it tho. this is the 2nd yr i had the car, the problem i had was... the engine didnt start once, and the engine overheated once. that were the only major problem i had, nth else. so far im fine with the car + service from my dealer.

i never heard about the tire problem tho. mayb i should b aware of it too.

but you should consider... the after sales service + gas that the 3series will be consuming.

if you're looking for a luxury car... lexus IS might be nice too. i personally would like that, but its kinna late now lol.

i find lotsa youngster drives it. very hip ~ lol.

[Guest mroh]

well i would like to think any car can be reliable if taken care of properly. any company has horror stories about how something went wrong, at any rate it seems like BMW has progressed quite a bit in terms of reliability and such as other companies have. if it were me i would opt for the 328i instead, im aware that the 335i engine is an award winner, but you can never be too sure of how a twin turbo car will hold up compared to an n.a. engine. and im sure that the engine in the 328i is enough for most people with sense not to speed. and yea i would think that the main thing to watch out for is electronic bits in BMW's as they are likely the first thing to go, while Bmw engines seems to hold up well if taken car or properly.

[Guest Hax]

My friend's BMW has been in the shop two weeks ago because of a check engine light. They took 3 days to fix it and when he got it back, he had to send it back because for some reason his power locks stopped working. He just got it back a few days. His car is about 1.5 years old.

He had a friend who had constant trouble with their 5 series and just gave it up and bought a Denali. His mom's bmw had some problem but I dont recall it at this point. These two cases happened within the first 4 years.

I think you are more likely to hear horror stories over people who have nothing going on.

Relatively speaking, is it a reliable car? Not when compared to Civic or Toyota, but you do have nothing to worry about for at least 4yrs/50k miles. It will probably be fine.

[Guest Chisuo]

Since we're on the subject of BMWs...can anyone tell me this:

Is it me or does the 328i series have a heavy feeling? I asked the dealer why it was so heavy (when I turn the wheel it doesn't turn back very fast+ turning) and he said "German cars are made like that" but Ive driven a mercedes and its not that heavy plus my Dad had a bmw before and he told me his car wasn't as heavy as this one. (He had a 535 2003[?]0 model

[OMGHIyori2U]

Since we're on the subject of BMWs...can anyone tell me this:

Is it me or does the 328i series have a heavy feeling? I asked the dealer why it was so heavy (when I turn the wheel it doesn't turn back very fast+ turning) and he said "German cars are made like that" but Ive driven a mercedes and its not that heavy plus my Dad had a bmw before and he told me his car wasn't as heavy as this one. (He had a 535 2003[?]0 model

no power steering maybe?

[Guest Gofishus]

no power steering maybe?

I'm pretty sure power steering comes standard on all modern vehicles. It's otherwise quite difficult to manually steer them. As for the subject, I agree with others... better reliability than old American cars but not as good as Japanese cars. I also think Bimmers are more reliable than Benz in general...

[Guest ChingGoo]

Since we're on the subject of BMWs...can anyone tell me this:

Is it me or does the 328i series have a heavy feeling? I asked the dealer why it was so heavy (when I turn the wheel it doesn't turn back very fast+ turning) and he said "German cars are made like that" but Ive driven a mercedes and its not that heavy plus my Dad had a bmw before and he told me his car wasn't as heavy as this one. (He had a 535 2003[?]0 model

my G35 was like that. but i think it has to do with sport suspension. like turning the wheel would be pretty rough and it doesnt counter steer for me easily unless i gas it.

[BoAFriend]

So OP, just curious - what did you end up getting?

[Guest MPowerKai]

BMW's are very reliable if you maintain them correctly. It will have a couple issues when it gets older but not too many. Usually just speed sensors. Change the oil with full synthetic.

[Guest JagermeisteR]

i have an x5, 4 years old. never had a serious problem.