[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Rot 911

I actually pondered this in relation to the two BMW's I have owned, a 2002 325i and a 2006 330i. They both had the inline 6 cylinder. Neither engine or transmission (one 5 speed and other an automatic) ever gave me a bit of trouble and I ran those cars hard. It was everything else that would fail long before you would expect. Water pumps at 60K miles (for which it is recommended you go ahead and change out the entire cooling system). Electrical components (to this day BMW's still use the same crappy switches and window regulators). The list goes on and on. Maybe this is how they cut costs? I don't know.

Now consider my 2004 Toyota 4Runner which now has 115K miles and has seen lots of around town, highway and off road use, including towing a boat. Other than the timing belt change at 100K miles (not broken, just the time required for change) all it has seen is just your ordinary maintenance.

Yup. I always tell non-enthusiast non-DIY friends to never buy a European car, because they're all like that and will eat you alive if you don't DIY. My other knock on BMW is material quality, I've never seen plastic that fades that fast or leather that wears that badly on any other car. At 100k most BMWs (excepting those that are OCD maintained) are simply worn out inside).

Frankly I've found modern Porsches to be the most reliable of the bunch.