Actually I think that the BMW business model, which is mostly a function of the entire way the global auto industry has gone in the past 20 years, does not account for people outside warranty or not in a lease. Of course this the far end of the spectrum, but if you think about it, a less than ideal PCV system is accounted for in the warranty. They expect you to want the newer, cooler model. They expect you to pay for it willingly, even when your old vehicle is serviceable. This is just as much a function of consumer behavior as it is the manufacturer's business. At which point, the PCV system failing sporadically after 45k is doable.

If you expect your customers to buy new, keep for 3 years and trade in...then problems at or beyond 60k miles (where many of these problems happen) are outside of the model, and before 60k miles are very much out of the model, as they are under original warranty. This allows them to engineer for short term performance. I keep coming back to this over and over. If you expect your consumer to keep your car for 100k miles, you engineer to 100k miles, and you make compromises in performance to do it. If you expect less, you design for less. And it costs less to do that. If you anticipate your typical X5 driver will never turn a wrench, and hand it over to your dealership again plus cash for a new one every few years, you do not have to design for durability, and can concentrate on performance and looks.

Thinking about that though, any company in the business of building cars does better to sell you a new car every 3 years than to have you hold onto one of their products for a decade and have minimal service issues. That's logic.

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2001 E53 3.0 5pd