Originally Posted by AC1DD
Originally Posted by rooflessVW
I still think BMW has conservative styling and is The Ultimate Driving Machine when compared to its contemporaries.
There is a lot of garishly styled, horrible to drive stuff out there right now.
Most of what they sell today is over priced, over complicated, and over engineered junk. The typical BMW of the late 80s and 90s runs circles around the current cars in terms of durability and reliability, I was around for their "golden days" and can tell you that the cars they produce today with a rare exception are no where near as good an all around product as they were back then. I will say the 2 is still very good, but the reliability of that isn't great and servicing is expensive.
I owned 80's BMW, I owned 90's BMW, and 2000' BMW. They set a trend that everyone fallows. What BMW has now will find its way in Hyundai in 10 years or more.
You are oversimplifying this. The North American market is unique due to very, very cheap gas. That allows a lot of manufacturers to offer very simple cars that are by shear nature of the beast very reliable. BMW could do same. Put M54 engine in 3 series, improve some stuff and there you go. Problem is that BMW is trend setter, and domestic market and biggest market is not the US. If you are going to compare BMW reliability with other, compare it where other offer complex engines, and that is European market where gas is $6-8 per gallon. You will see that Germans still rule the market, reliability wise and by sale. By the way, my 2013 BMW X5 35d was far more reliable than my Toyota Land Cruiser 3.0 D-4D I have in Europe.
I would agree though that BMW with introduction of F series tried to please customers of Lexus, Audi, Mercedes etc. They wanted too much, instead of doing what they are really good at. However, F30 3 series, regardless as being probably worst driving 3 series ever built, is far better driving machine in that class than anything else with an exception of Alfa Romeo Gulia. And F30 actually proved to be reliable, with some known issues on N55 (water pump) or N20 (chain tensioner in early years).
I think that BMW is trying now to get back on the trck with more driving focused machines.