This is nothing new. I've posted CR ratings here a while back. I think CR is an excellent publication, whether it's vaccum cleaners or vehicles. Unlike other ratings and surveys, they do not accept advertising, nor do they allow their articles and reviews to be used in advertising. So they are more objective.

Having a few friends and colleagues who rave about their X5s reliability is a far cry from surveys of thousands of owners. When one looks objectively at the data from year to year the way CR does, it's pretty clear that BMW as a brand has "average" reliability, much lower than Honda and Toyota. Of course, there are always exceptions. Toyota has had a couple of reliability "duds" over the years. As has Honda.

But by and large, if I was taking bets on which will last longer for a non-enthusiast consumer before encountering major problems: a 2010 Honda Accord V6 or a 2010 BMW X5 6-cyl?? My money is squarely on the Accord. Again, we are assuming the bare minimum recommended maintenance, not the TLC that most of us Forum guys are pouring onto our X5s. In our case, all bets are off.

I think CR is great for an overall feel of what to stay away from (e.g. the Range Rover has horrible year-to-year reliability, ditto for Suzuki). At the same time, CR ratings and impressions are geared towards the general American public and not towards auto enthusiasts specifically. So they will obviously not dissect the nitty-gritty and will not get into extensive discussions about driving dynamics, 1/4-mile times, and steering input the way Car and Driver or Motor Trend do. They are more concerned about having a reliable ride from point A to point B for the average non-enthusiast soccer mom. So they will never steer me from buying another BMW, regardless of who finishes ahead in some reliability categories.