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BMW 3-Series (E90 E92) Forum > BMW E90/E92/E93 3-series General Forums > General E90 Sedan / E91 Wagon / E92 Coupe / E93 Cabrio > Reliability of the E46 3 Series?



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      04-15-2005, 01:50 AM   #1
mduchesne
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Reliability of the E46 3 Series?

Anybody have any comments on the E46's reliability. This will be my first BMW and I would like to hear the pros and cons the 3 Series reliability.
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      04-15-2005, 08:26 AM   #2
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As far as reliability, I think the reviews from magazines like Car & Driver and Road & Track say Lexus (toyota) is the most reliable car company in the world (it was, but I haven't seen any recent reviews). Everywhere I read though, BMW had really high ratings for performance and safety. But the last I heard, BMW reliablity ratings were slightly less than Lexus.
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      04-15-2005, 10:19 AM   #3
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My 5 year old 323 has held up very well (fingers crossed). I've had to bring it in for more minor repairs but everything was well covered by warranty. Like sharp said it won't have the reliability of some japanese makes (like Lexus and Subaru which is now #1 in reliability), but it's really not so bad. Anyways since you're buying a new car it will be warranty covered for a long time to come. Just drive it and enjoy and don't let what might happen take away from the experience of the ultimate driving machine
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      04-15-2005, 08:12 PM   #4
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I'd like to chime in with a couple of things.

1) Although anything that goes wrong with the car should be covered by warranty, you really can't say that it will not be an inconvenience even though it might not hit your wallet. You might have to go into work late or leave early, or it might have to wait until the weekend if your car is still drivable. If not, that's a whole other issue.

2) Here are the 2004 results for long term (3 yr) dependability study done by JD Power, broken down by brand/make.

http://www.jdpower.com/news/releases...asp?ID=2004055

I would really love to see some more detailed information regarding reliability numbers for the E46 3 Series, such as those that are provided by Consumer Reports on each car model or series as opposed to the above results generalized to manufacturer.

If anybody has access to such results please post them here. Thanks.
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      04-15-2005, 09:26 PM   #5
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I've put 46,000 miles on my 2002 325i and have had only one problem: the passenger seat's air bag sensor had a short which caused the warning light to come on intermittently. This was fixed free of charge during a scheduled oil change appointment. Otherwise the car has performed flawlessly. Since I put about 15000 miles per year on a car and that's the oil change interval, I've only had 3 trips to the dealer in 3 years. I'm in love.
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      04-16-2005, 06:03 AM   #6
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I've owned 2 e46s, one was a 2000, the other a 2002, both owned for 3 years, and bothwere absolutly perfect. Any little problems were taken care of free of charge with no headaches by BMW. Imextremly happy with both of those E46s and have no doubt BMW quality will continue with the E90, or even improve (wishful thinking ?)
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