Why???

Because BMW now shares many electronic components accross their entire line-up. The 5 & 6 share exactly the same electronics. And the 3 & 1 series gets their electronics with slight changes.

This means (at least on the electronics front) that problems get worked out much sooner as the same testing schedule which was previously used to work on 5-6 different electrical systems now is spent working on one central system.

Also the iDrive based BMW's are easily updated. New releases of the software are quite common. Since new tech starts at the top and trickles down. So the E70 will have a lot of gremlins already worked out. The 3's are also very good in the electronics front.

BMW also has good cashflow. If you remember back into the late 90's with the E53 was being developed, BMW had to cut costs with the rover debacle. As a result, the testing phase of the E53 and other cars was compromised significantly = lower quality.

Not only this, but Panke has said repeatedly that BMW's new long-term goal is quality, quality, quality...

Makes sense. With shared software/firmware/electronics we may be able to hack some features that are disabled to differentiate the models. :D

If the new 3 series has better reliability on the electronics (news to me, but then lots of things are), great. I would put that down to most models being simpler, with fewer things to go wrong.

Check out the E60 reliability in terms of electronics. Sharing that pain with the E70 doesn't bode well, if in fact they are sharing components and systems.

And while I agree that BMWs are designed to be driven, too many warranty dollars are spent on components that don't get driven, but which are along for the ride. How would one drive (ride?) a window regulator or I-drive screen, anyway? :)

There was once a saying that the definition of a sports car is one that doesn't have anything on it that doesn't make it go faster. We have collectively moved a long ways away from that mentality. There was recently a discussion on this board about the ultimate driving machine, and what the BMW brand represented. A lot of posters used the word luxury. When did luxury get mixed up with sports and driving? Not necessarily a bad thing, but not a part of the BMW brand IMO. Time to get back to simpler, lighter, faster. Damn, now I sound like Colin Chapman. He didn't have much to do with reliability either....

Jeff

I'd still hate to buy the first year E70 and be a guinea pig. At least wait it out 6 months or so......

Lexus and Porsche has always been on the top of JD Powers test...

Correct me if i'm wrong, but I think Porsche fell enormously in the last ranking...

The good thing about the E70 is that most of the quirks will have been worked out with the E60. Now the platform is much more stable. There will still be first year production issues, but the number should be lower in comparison to the E60.

no they haven't, the last few years porsche has been close to the bottom:

http://www.jdpa.com/presspass/pr/images/2005069b.gif