Sorry to hear about your E70 issues but congrats on the new ride.

Initial model year issues seem to plague each car company. Early on when the E70 was being discussed I said I would avoid it til at least year 3 because of issues like you mentioned as well as two friends and a neighbor who all are experiencing similar problems.

The bad thing is if you want a good quality car, BMW is NOT the way to go, but if you want a fun car, then BMW all the way. Toyota, Honda etc are much better cars and cost a lot less, but you give up some of the fun factor.

I'm not sure if American built cars are better or worse than others in general, but I do know that Toyota quality has diminished (but still much better than BMW) as they have expanded manufacturing in the U.S. Japan built cars have less issues than U.S. built (same models). Someone told me that GM cars built in China have better quality than the US built ones. Now, this could be due to new facilities in China or to the workers themselves. But IF it is true that China built cars are better quality with the new factories, then the argument that the US built Toyota's are experiencing more problems due to new factories would not make since.

In any event, congrats on the new ride and I hope it goes better for you than the E70 did. For all the folks with the E70 and no problems, I hope you continue to have problem free driving.