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Comment by tallanvor | Hacker News Reader

I rented a BMW (not a luxury model, the cheapest automatic available from Sixt in Denmark), and the experience was much better than any car I've driven before. The touch screen worked fine, and having a big map on the center console and a small map on the panel behind the steering wheel was really impressive to me. Adaptive cruise control, lane assist, and proximity warnings made driving much less stressful than it used to be.

But I also have owned a car in 12 years, have only rented 4 cars in that time, and borrowed a parent's car occasionally when visiting them, so I don't really know if BMW's work is really ahead of many others or if they're more standard features you see in all cars.

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How much of that BMW will still be working after five years?

Personal anecdote: I'm still driving the 2011 BMW 335i that I bought in 2014. It now has 265,000+ miles.

The key with owning a BMW is to do all of the maintenance yourself. That brings the cost of ownership back down to planet Earth.

I've replaced the water pump twice, high pressure fuel pump once, and the radiator. Plus a few odds and ends.

If I had paid the dealer for this work, I'd be totally in the hole.

One thing I will give BMW is that they know how to design a chassis. The car has all of the original suspension components and the steering is still as tight as the day I got it. No clunking, no rattles, no bouncing, etc.

Did BMW learn a lot from the nine production years where their chassis cracked so badly that the wheel supports reliably tore away from the rear subframe? Or the control arms bearings that would disintegrate every 50k? The rear differential bushings and the GUIBO flex disc that both require regular replacement to prevent the car destroying itself?

Not to mention the little stuff, like the window regulators and sunroof self-destructing, the ignition tumbler corroding and disabling the car's internal bus so the lights freaked out, or the headlight mountings disintegrating.

As the owner of an E46 that I purchased used at 100k and now sits defunct at 155k I'm baffled by your comment. I'd fix everything on that car and four unrelated things would break the next month. "Preventive maintenance" wasn't oil changes and brake pads... it consisted of half-replacing major systems at regular intervals.

Maybe they just got their shit together on the newer models, but yeesh.

The E46 is pretty easy to work on, and the subframe thing they fixed for free (after some lengthy lawsuits). I took mine to 200k and never really had any big problems, just the usual stuff (DISA, water pump, oil filter housing leaks, a/c relay, one window regulator). I think the 325 might have had it worse though.

Or you could instead own a Toyota/Lexus that needs basically nothing except oil over 200k miles. Mine have been indestructible.

Everything. Why do you think it would not?

from what i understand they are somewhat notorious for being fickle / needing lots of maintenance. which is certainly the experience my father has had with his, haha. still loves it, though.

BMWs have taken a big leap forward in reliability since the E36 and E46.

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