[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Jrboulder

I thought the same thing about how they were just totally cheap alltogether. Coming from 80's Porsches you just expect things like stainless exhaust and nice interior materials. There were just a bunch of "what were that thinking??" things all over the car like putting vinyl on a concave surface. The E46's seem nicer but it will be interesting to see how they hold up down the road with even more computer junk and plastic stuff.

People were always telling me German cars were only designed to make it through the warranty period and when I owned Porsches I had no clue where they were coming from. Within the first week of E36 ownership I knew exactly what they were talking about.

I think the E36 was the first BMW really designed to a price point. As such, they were just learning how to cost cut and not every good at it. Having an E34 and then an E36, the E36 was significantly cheaper in materials and assembly. In my opinion (as well as many others) the E30 and E34 were the last of the well built classic BMWs. The rest are just mass produced cars, even though they do drive well.