General BMW reliability?
ry dogs asked:
I AM A TEENAGER and pretend its a race car! Can’t help it
I AM A TEENAGER and pretend its a race car! Can’t help it
As a shop owner and a former BMW owner here’s my 2 cents. In 98 I bought a brand new 7 series, I drove the car for 3 months before “returning” it.
The biggest issues we’re all electrical. I couldn’t go for more than day or 2 without the onboard diagnostics telling me that a headlight was out, a tailight was out, or that the engine was overheating (keep in mind this was a brand new car).
The performance was ok but for the $70k price tag I felt I should’ve gotten a lot more. The ride was also ok but nothing special. After 18 trips to the dealer to try and correct the diagnostic reporting failure (the lights were never out, the engine never overheated) we finally gave up.
My ownership experience is an anomaly, this is not normal…it was merely a lemon. From a shop owner’s perspective I can tell you to expect a reliable vehicle IF you drive it like an adult and not a teenager. A BMW that gets run hard for an extended period of time will develop serious issues. We just serviced a 95 3 series last week that had a steering box that had been grenaded and a severe engine damage caused by a lack of coolant.
The kid that owned it never checked the fluids and drove it like it was a race car….it’s not. The coolant got low causing the head to crack and the steering box grenaded due to extremely hard turning (impressing friends I guess??)
With all that said if you keep up on the scheduled maintenance and drive it responsibly you should be set. If you got one that old in mint condition give it the respect it deserves and keep it that way!
Good luck and happy BMWing!
For the past 7 years we have owned 3 different BMW.
One was a 2001 330Ci ( my favorite car ever).
Than a 2002 X5 ( very good SUV).
Now my husband has a 2003 BMW 540i and has been very happy with it.
Overall reliability has been good. The only thing I see defficient are the LED displays. We have also encountered problems with the air conditioning.
But the engines are top of the line, much better than other makes.
So if you want to keep it for long, invest in routine mantainence and that is all there is…
enjoy your car and love it, it will love you back
i have a 535i with over 250,000 miles on it, got it used back in 95 with 125,000 miles, i never had any problems with it, i change my own oil, and do my own tuneups on it, great running car. im from nj and drive to florida a lot, i also just got a another beemer 650i convertible just got it last week had only 2 miles on it and 45 miles later i love that car, i love both my beemers. i know a people family and friends who own beemers they have no trouble with them, so BMWs have great reliability, if you treat your BMW the right way it will in return will treat you good. remember that…. change your oil do your tuneups all on time… i’m a captain of a major airline company so when i go to the airport i just take my new beemer to have it serviced, because i do a lot of international flights which requires me to stay over nights a lot.
I have had four Bimmers and I have loved them all. The reliability is better than you would expect. If you are looking at a used one, it really depends how the last owner took care of it. I would watch out for the previous generation 5 Series and the 7 Series in general. If you get an M Model. You can’t not feed it premium fuel.
on my 97 328 ..normal wear 106k miles. the really only time it gets work done is for normal stuff like new tires. oil change. they don’t break down after 100k miles like normal cars..plus they are fun to drive
if your father and his friends owned bmw’s with no issues then dont you think you already answered your own question?
Brake pads… for some reason all BMW’s (4 of mine, lots of others I’ve seen and lots on the forums) have a very quick wear and tear on break pads… Not a huge deal, just need to replace them probably every 18 months, which is excessive… and expensive…