They won many awards for engine of the year due to good emission standard, fantastic power-to-cc, torque-to-cc, light weight which improves weight-to-power of the engine, smoothness/civilised power delivery, fuel efficiency, but reliability was never measured. Many of the above features which lead them to win awards actually are a trade-off for reliability. To achieve them, BMW had to use plastic over metal, magnesium over aluminum, make component smaller so more component can squeeze in and doesn't upset the equal chassis balance, run the engine with higher compression, hence more stressful, more sensors to alert driver as feedback to ECU.. All these are contributing factors to reliability issues.
It's parts also more expensive than Merc parts which I don't understand why.. The same Bilstein absorber model for Merc is cheaper by over 10%. Many in this forum has spent more in maintaining and repair than the price they pay for the car, of course, mostly they bought 2nd hand and these folks loves to hang out at workshops, and always look for things to replace in the car and they prefer to call it preventive maintenance than repair.. They are even among us who replace windscreen every year just because of stone chips.. :4:
But seriously, if you like the driving dynamic of the car, no other car can come close, not to mention coming from a 4-door saloon. Tell me which car in the market has 50/50 chassis weight distribution.. ?! NONE!!
BMW.....Better Maintained Well (new words from friends)
