[markl53]

I started surfing the web forums about 6 years ago when I was buying my first German car, a '99 VW Passat. After reading a lot of negative threads I almost backed out of the deal. I spoke with a couple people I would run into in parking lots when I saw them driving VW's and asked them about service reliability. Most of them had no issues. I went ahead and bought the Passat and basically had no service problems in the 3 years I owned it. My next car was a Mercedes C240 and again, after surfing the MB boards I almost passed on it. I bought it and for 3 years, it also was one of the best cars I've ever owned. So, when I started browsing the BMW forums before my 330i purchase I wasn't surprised to see all the horror stories. I've only had it 4 months so I don't know what it's long term (3-4 years) reliability will be, but I don't expect it will be much different from the VW and MB.

What I've learned is the people (including myself) who participate on the car forums are only a tiny fraction of the population who own the model in question, and are typically very picky with car performance and service issues. So, I think you get a much higher concentration of "bad" stories on these forums than the true picture across all the owners. There are problems with particular vehicles of all car manufacturers but I think the overall number is small.

So, in the end, be happy with the car and hope you got a good one -- good luck!

 

[markl53]

Come on guys, the Consumer Reports owner surveys show merely OK reliability (or worse) for Bimmers of late. J.D. Power shows the same thing. There was an article in Road & track a few months back about the lagging quality of German cars, especially Mercs. It focused on beyond state-of-the-art electronics that German engineers seem facinated by but can't seem to build reliably. They also quoted a report by the German AAA who surveyed their members and found poor reliability among German brands vs. Japanese, but higher prestige. (I'll take reliability over prestige any day, myself.)

There is a problem and one hopes that BMW and the other German name-plates are addressing it. As for me: 2003 330i zhp with 20,000 miles. Bought it a few months ago, so far she is going to the dealer for: paint peeling from center console trim, alcantara steering wheel cover pilling badly, driver's seat "creaks" on entry/exit. Nothing huge, I grant you, but I submit that none of this should have happened on a 1.5 year old $42,000 car.

I haven't really checked, but I would bet the Lexus, Honda and other so-called "low problem" cars have forums full of issues too -- anyone know for sure?

What part of your console trim is peeling? Isn't it either aluminum or molded plastic parts? Sounds like maybe it was replaced before with a dealer-painted piece? The seat creak would be annoying but is not a mechanical problem -- a little lube will probably fix it right up. I'm not really trying to be defensive, I just think all the JD Power, etc. surveys need to be taken with a grain of salt. There may be a higher incidence of trouble on some car makes but the overall number is probably still very low. When I had my '02 C240 there were so many reports of problems, but I had only one unscheduled service visit in 39 months, and that was for the "advanced" electronic lock setup for the steering wheel.