[NoTempoLimitN54]

Originally Posted by Mardio

Not sure if this is the case with your car, but I would never buy a lease return. People don't break them in properly and drive them very hard. What do they care?

Don't mean to pile on, but I think the above is a factor. My CPO '09 335i is just about to hit equivalent of 80k km [50k mi]. It's a 6MT which means it's a special order car. It had two owners so it's not likely a lease (CarFax did not show a lease).

During the two PO's ownership, it had a bad fuel temp sensor and HPFP replacement and waste gate rattle fix.

While I've owned it (6 months and 6k miles) It's had the bank 1 fuel injectors changed and the seat belt assist fix. It ran fine, but I took it in for the MIL light and they changed out the injectors.

I had the intake valves cleaned at my expense at 49k miles. There were no obvious drivability problems, I just wanted to have it done. Of course the car runs better now.

That's about it [knock on aluminum]

[Fitz335]

I bought this car for performance not reliability, I would have bought a Camry if I just needed something to go from A to B.

I'm not excusing the problems that you're having, I think BMW obviously spent more time on the engine itself with these cars and less on the support equipment.

[techwhiz]

I don't know about reliability of my e90 335i, but my previous 4 BMWs were fine.
I spent more on maint. for my stupid Dodge Caravan when I had it than any other car I've owned. Don't get me started about my wife's Dodge Magnum and the $800 major service; and that was at an indy. The dealer wanted $1200.

I'll keep my 335i thank you. Definitely not a mistake.

[jzxi]

LOL.....A M.E. upset over reliabilty. A little due diligence would have revealed the compromise when making the twin-turbo, direct injection choice over proven N/A inline six tech.

Welcome to the party pal!

[See5]

Yeah, I haven't been impressed with the reliability either. I knew it would maintenance intensive but its making me want to dump the car right before the CPO warranty runs out.

Overall, the car is great but I can't see myself buying another BMW.

[John 070]

I think it's understandable to become incoherent and rant when your car is not reliable, I know I was angry with my car when I couldn't drive it for 6 mos. But again, I remind everybody, it's a car, not a rocketship. It can be fixed, but there is a pricetag. My car has been 100% reliable for 2 1/2 yrs. now. it's 6 yrs. old, and spent 6 mos. of its life stalling randomly--no, that's not acceptable, but it's over and done.

imho if you buy a vehicle with 60k on it, either you're trying to save money, or you don't have the money to begin with. Granted, yes, Japanese tend to be more reliable, I have a 15 y.o. Nissan on which one thing has broken in its life--the starter. And that's to be expected. But there's no comparison between the 335 and Nissan as far as how they drive.

There's a reason why people get new cars. Only a moron would complain about a 10k repair on a 7 series that's known ahead of time--there's a reason the original owner no longer drives that 7. Water leak on 7 series = $10,000, nobody has hidden that fact, so it is in fact caveat emptor.

[John 070]

Originally Posted by jzxi

LOL.....A M.E. upset over reliabilty. A little due diligence would have revealed the compromise when making the twin-turbo, direct injection choice over proven N/A inline six tech.

Welcome to the party pal!

LOL until you have a $1800 EVAP job on a N52/N53

[cultr3]

Why not just man up and buy a new car instead of sloppy seconds that someone else already screwed up and then bitch about it? This stuff comes with the territory of buying used, and you should expect it. Doesn't take a UBC grad to figure that out...

Originally Posted by greye90

I just wanted to rant a bit about this car. First of all, kind of a POS-only has 60K on it. I purchased it from a BMW dealer as a Certified lease return and was excited that I could get into what I thought was a better car than my Honda's or VW in my past. I have owned the car for about a year and purchased it with 36K KM, and had all of its regular things done to it by that time: HPFP, turbos and injectors. Okay, so I understand this was an early car and there are teething problems. I have owned it for about 24K km now, and its been back in for clutch(because rear main seal leak) and water pump was all covered under warranty. Valve cover gasket is leaking now and not covered under extended warranty because it is wear/tear. Wouldn't complain, but it is a 1000K job-yes, I could do it myself for cheaper, but realistically buying a premium car shouldn't require me to do so.
I was complaining to the dealer about the relative unreliability of this car and I regretted not leasing so I can give the car back when I was done with it. He told me that this was a very rewarding car to drive, and many owners stretch themselves getting into the car and cant afford to maintain them. Sure I agree a little, but fact is that a Hyundai is not this unreliable. It infers that BMW owners have more money than brains to accept this unreliability because of the BMW logo.
I am a mechanical engineer, and was a licensed mechanic for 10 years before becoming so, and am appalled at the reliability of this car. Why are simple things as water pumps, or valve cover gaskets failing at 60K? My Toyota 4Runner had 380K km on it and only required a water pump because I changed the timing belt and was cost efficient to replace at that time.
Anyways, I'm gonna replace the valve cover gasket shortly, and hope nothing else explodes or breaks down on me. I luckily opted for the finance plan with a balloon payment at the end so I think I can just give them car back and walk away. From now on, I will remove any of my pre-conceived notions on what makes a "cool" car and just buy Japanese. They are somewhat soul less machines, but I wont be stopping off at the dealer on my free time to drop it off to get it fixed.

[Vegetable]

Originally Posted by cultr3

Why not just man up and buy a new car instead of sloppy seconds that someone else already screwed up and then bitch about it? This stuff comes with the territory of buying used, and you should expect it. Doesn't take a UBC grad to figure that out...

Why don't you man up and buy OP a new car instead of bitching about his bitching?

[rteichman]

Originally Posted by Mardio

Not sure if this is the case with your car, but I would never buy a lease return. People don't break them in properly and drive them very hard. What do they care?

Sorry but I disagree. Every car I have bought (as my daily driver) in the past 20 years has been a lease return. That includes my current 328 and 3 previous ones, along with a couple Mercs, Audis, and Saabs. I only once had a problem (my second and last Merc). I buy them at about 35k miles and get rid of them at 100K miles when the CPO warranty expires. For me that is about 2 years per car.

Granted the 328 engine is "old faithful", but the water pump, valve cover and stuff like that is not specific to the 335. I think sometimes you just get a lemon. My '96 Merc E320 certainly fit that bill. It was in the shop every month I owned it, having the transmission replaced, struts, brake cylinders, seats, windows, headlights, etc.

[KwlAznKid]

i had more money than brains when i got all of my previous cars (thanks mom n dad), then they cut me off and i got more brains than money which is why i'm in a 328i now

[John 070]

Originally Posted by KwlAznKid

i had more money than brains when i got all of my previous cars (thanks mom n dad), then they cut me off and i got more brains than money which is why i'm in a 328i now

They're doing you a real favor imho. I have a buddy who lives in a house well let's just say a former NBA player had it built. He drives a 2006 Audi. imho when you really have money, there's no need to get a new car every 2 years. At the same time, these folks are driven to increase their balances, not reduce it through wasteful spending.

[BMWs4ever]

A bad water pump at 60K is what I call bad luck. It's unfortunate it happened so get the repairs done and hopefully everything will be good :-)

[Chris_506]

[cultr3]

Why should I pay to fix others mistakes, unless the post and any possibly defective arguments it has were offered to me in the as-is condition and i agree to take it with understanding that I will get a significant discount (or rebate in this case since the amount i owe is already 0)

He's the one bashing a whole BMW brand based on the condition of a heavily used second-hand car. It's not BMW's fault, or even the previous owner's fault since we can all do what we want to the cars we paid for. The responsibility falls to the buyer and the mechanic that inspected it...

Originally Posted by Vegetable

Why don't you man up and buy OP a new car instead of bitching about his bitching?

[The Wildcard]

I feel your frustation on comparing reliablity of BMW versus Japanese brands. But as many in this thread of commented, it comes with the terrority.

Nothing is perfect. Japanese cars are reliable, yes. But the driving experience does not compare to the BMW in the price range of the E90. The drive with the E90 is just fantastic.

[Mavus]

Originally Posted by greye90

I just wanted to rant a bit about this car. First of all, kind of a POS-only has 60K on it. I purchased it from a BMW dealer as a Certified lease return and was excited that I could get into what I thought was a better car than my Honda's or VW in my past. I have owned the car for about a year and purchased it with 36K KM, and had all of its regular things done to it by that time: HPFP, turbos and injectors. Okay, so I understand this was an early car and there are teething problems. I have owned it for about 24K km now, and its been back in for clutch(because rear main seal leak) and water pump was all covered under warranty. Valve cover gasket is leaking now and not covered under extended warranty because it is wear/tear. Wouldn't complain, but it is a 1000K job-yes, I could do it myself for cheaper, but realistically buying a premium car shouldn't require me to do so.
I was complaining to the dealer about the relative unreliability of this car and I regretted not leasing so I can give the car back when I was done with it. He told me that this was a very rewarding car to drive, and many owners stretch themselves getting into the car and cant afford to maintain them. Sure I agree a little, but fact is that a Hyundai is not this unreliable. It infers that BMW owners have more money than brains to accept this unreliability because of the BMW logo.
I am a mechanical engineer, and was a licensed mechanic for 10 years before becoming so, and am appalled at the reliability of this car. Why are simple things as water pumps, or valve cover gaskets failing at 60K? My Toyota 4Runner had 380K km on it and only required a water pump because I changed the timing belt and was cost efficient to replace at that time.
Anyways, I'm gonna replace the valve cover gasket shortly, and hope nothing else explodes or breaks down on me. I luckily opted for the finance plan with a balloon payment at the end so I think I can just give them car back and walk away. From now on, I will remove any of my pre-conceived notions on what makes a "cool" car and just buy Japanese. They are somewhat soul less machines, but I wont be stopping off at the dealer on my free time to drop it off to get it fixed.

I am an elec engineer and know how you feel. Before I bought my 330i I talked to my BMW Indy and they simply recommended non-turbo I6, any of them e36-e90. They race BMW cars and non of them are N54 or N55, they have two e36 and just picked up e46 M3 to mod. He also said that N54 and N55 are engineering gems on paper and for the first 60K mi but they should have been built in Japan. They also have three loaners (all BMW) and one of them is '91 525i with 218K mi. I drove it several times and everything still works. Those were the days when BMW built cars to last. So far 330i has been rock solid but I take care of it very well and buy quality parts.

[rbtamms]

I have owned Toyota, Lexus, Honda & Acura in the past before I switch to BMW. I trusted japanese cars because of their realibility & cheaper to maintain. I never had any issues with any of the cars & then I finally decided to pull the trigger to try BMW because I heard so much about how fun to drive it. After owning my 2011 E90 for a year, I bought another one for my wife which is a 2013 X3. We both enjoy driving our ultimate machines so much that I paid off my E90 & planning to paid off the X3 next year as well. We definitely want to keep our BMW's for life.

Since I joined this forum I've read a lot of realibility issues & the cost of maintenance. Our car is still pretty new & I hope that german cars will exceed our expectations regarding reliability. If both our cars will give us some headaches before 5 years of owning it. I will definitely go back to japanese cars & will forget about BMW even though it's fun to drive.

[fireline43]

I have a feeling that in a year or 2, seeing a e90 335i on the road will be rare. Warranties will be ending and everyone will just get a new one. except a select few enthusiasts

[VMRWheels]

I understand what the OP means. Why should 'simple' things like water/fuel pumps go bad so often? After all the years of R&D, small things like this should be ironed out.

Gotta pay to play.

[thecadman99]

Originally Posted by fireline43

I have a feeling that in a year or 2, seeing a e90 335i on the road will be rare. Warranties will be ending and everyone will just get a new one. except a select few enthusiasts

+1

[Fitz335]

Originally Posted by fireline43

I have a feeling that in a year or 2, seeing a e90 335i on the road will be rare. Warranties will be ending and everyone will just get a new one. except a select few enthusiasts

You won't see less, you will just see a younger crowd driving them.