[RichReg]

Originally Posted by shivaswrath

Look at motortrend...most 5 year values for the C class, A4, and 3-series are about 45-50% less.

+1. You have to look at the 5 year number. People buy vs lease because they plan to keep the car and take care of it. I doubt BMW, MB, Audi are below average when it comes to 5 year resale.

And try getting a discount when you buy a car brand spankin' new....then compare that 25K to a realistic initial outlay, and not MSRP.

[Sedan_Clan]

Originally Posted by drob23

JD measures initial satisfaction, not reliability. They use the things gone wrong (TGW) metric (complaints that require dealership action), like not being able to pair the Bluetooth. It's accurate and useful information, mostly from a marketing and business point of view - which trickles down to engineering. But that metric says nothing about how your cam chain will be doing at 70k miles.

I think the problem unique to BMW and other German manufactures are the cost of repairs (parts mostly) and complexity of the systems themselves. The suspensions are generally tighter and thus have more wear parts, along with more advanced powertrains and much more complex CAN networks and the associated electronics. If you have a problem with your power steering pump on an e46, you have to still order super expensive OEM parts while a Honda can use cheap knock-offs or salvage parts from the millions of interchangeable models.

Excellent point!

[rallybull]

Originally Posted by asuh1991

I like new car smell.

cheaper solution: smell