You are right, research involving millions of data points gathered from 330K vehicles over the course of a year is completely wrong because you saw a couple of broken BMWs on the road on your way to work.

You can do research but I will reject it out of hand if it contradicts my preconceptions. Ok, why bother with the research then?

People doing the research are the ones rolling the dice millions of times. The above commenter rolled it twice, got 6 both times, and concluded that it was flawed.

BMWs are actually pretty reliable these days. the b58 is very solid and used all across their lineup.

of course, they are still expensive to maintain.

You have the data in front of you. As someone else too mentioned, the B58 engine is considered pretty reliable by BMW mechanics and on various Reddit forums where car enthusiasts hangout.

> No way BMW is that high.

AFAICT certain models have been highly problematic but overall they're very reliable things as shown by these numbers in TFA!?

Wife's BMW 3-series: it only started having electrical issues once it got very old and it was nothing too bad (heck, some I even fixed myself). Then she got a Toyota CHR hybrid: great car, but not for highway driving (at least not at speeds on european highways). She now bought a 4-series, used, five years old. One year and absolutely zero issue. A friend of mine at the same time bought a used 5-series (24 months old): zero issues.

I don't hear many people around me complaining about reliability issues on their BMWs (in the country where I used to live, Belgium, it's literally the brand the most sold, before Volkswagen and then Mercedes [1] and in the country where I live now it's the 3rd most sold brand).

> I remember because I was joking yesterday with my partner that we should never buy a Beamer.

They're good cars however I'm not sure I'd buy a german car if I was living in the US again. I did it and, well, it's my experience that german cars are easier to service/fix in europe (especially when you live in germany or close to germany) than in the US.

I'd probably go for a japanese car.

[1] Numbers for 2023: https://www.focus2move.com/belgium-auto-sales

Anecdata.

But as a long time BMW fan I too feel the cars have really taken a nosedive in just about every metric. Reliability, design, quality, you name it.

Very surprised to also see Mini as high as it is.

What I've seen with friends who drive BMW and with the Mini that the business leased for an employee: the engines are reliable, bodywork and interior is ok, electronics gizmos are unreliable and required multiple updates for various problems. One friend's very fancy 5 series was more in the shop than that he drove it to the point that he got attached to the loaner.

That's not counting just how many working X7 and X5's you passed.

No, by how many working X7's and X5's they were passed.

There's no IQ test to afford a Beemer. The things I did to my 323i I would never dream of doing to my Toyota (and guess which one has lasted 20 years).

They only measure 3 year reliability, and BMWs are well known to reliably go to shit after 3 years.

They are probably suffering of user abuse more than any other brand in the market.

Yet, you didn't bat at eye at Mini... the wholly owned Bavarian budget brand.

That said, as an owner of all three German fancy-pants brands and a meh shade-tree mechanic, I'm also really surprised by how high the BMW family is.

Times they are a changing I guess.