What is happening to BMW

[Nanniepoo]

I do think the oil leak problems are pretty absurd. But if you buy cars used, like I do, fortunately all that info is already out there. And I was comfortable with the price (they depreciate like crazy!) and knowing I will have to address a bunch of gaskets/O-rings every ~8 years. We had the oil cooler gasket leak soon after we purchased it so don't need to worry about that for a while. Valve stem seals I don't think are bad at 147k so they've probably been done but may be coming around for round 2. But oh well, I'll spend a long long weekend doing that and not worry about it again until I'm well over 200k.

But I also DIY, I've gone through two E36s that I buy pretty abused and basically need to rebuild. So spending a couple weekends a year doing preventative maintenance and repairs is something I'm already used to. We also have a backup car and fairly short commutes so if a car is down for a while it's no biggie.

[seattle]

Nothing new is happening to BMW. They are still the same company that refuses to learn from its mistakes and improve. We are talking about a company who recently celebrated 100th birthday. This same company still to this day cannot figure out a reliable way to manage engine cooling.
To be fair, all of the above can also be applied to MB and VW. Maybe a German thing?

[Jarhed1964]

Originally Posted by seattle

This same company still to this day cannot figure out a reliable way to manage engine cooling.

I've noticed this too. Even my E32 7'er had to have my coolant reservoir and T-stat replaced twice in the five years I owned it. I'm not even going to go into the mess with the two E39's I owned. So far, my 2009 X5 has been good, except for the fact that the previous owner's shop put in a POS Indonesian made radiator, that sells for $89 on Ebay (and probably charged the owner for a BMW/Behr radiator). Nissens fixed that problem.

[ard]

^Solid strategy.