Also keep in mind that BMWs are notoriously expensive on maintenance compared to many other cars.[0] Around where I live, it's easy to find some relatively inexpensive used BMWs when people want to unload them due to high maintenance costs.
The article we're discussing is talking about BMW in the UK. Your link is to US-based consumer reports.
I wouldn't trust anything about BMW or other premium German brands from a US source as an EU customer, because:
1) US (and Canadian, Australian, Malaysian) fuel is of much lower quality, and BMW engines are notoriously sensitive to this. As an example, the BMW I own wasn't ever sold in North America or these other markets because of the high sulfur content in the fuel.
2) US consumers who buy BMW are going to have a selection bias towards people buying muscle cars. You're not just looking at reliability numbers, but numbers skewed by Americans who'd buy a foreign luxury vehicle with a powerful engine.
3) BMW is fickle about its maintenance requirements, and generally the further you get away from Germany the worse your quality of maintenance and ability to source genuine parts easily is going to be.
> US (and Canadian, Australian, Malaysian) fuel is of much lower quality, and BMW engines are notoriously sensitive to this. As an example, the BMW I own wasn't ever sold in North America or these other markets because of the high sulfur content in the fuel.
This hasnt been true in a long time, at least with regards to sulfur. Current US regulations limit sulfur to 15 ppm [0], EU limits to 10 ppm [1]. Compared to the 1990s and earlier, when it could be as much as several thousand ppm in both the US and Europe, sulfur has been nearly eliminated in current diesel fuels (for road use, at least).
Interesting, I didn't know that. Your first link pertains to diesel, as far as I can tell the EPA instituted the 10 ppm limit for gasoline in 2017
The limit was 50 ppm and 10 ppm in the EU in 2005 and 2009, respectively according to your [1].
I've got an N53 engine[1] which was introduced in 2006. This[1] page shows it and a few other BMW engines weren't sold in North America for fuel quality reasons.
As far as comparing long-term reliability numbers it amounts to the same thing. US numbers can't be trusted for EU consumers. We've got 10 years of data at 10 ppm, the US just 2 years.
But the main reason I'd distrust it is consumer bias. As shown in [2][3] BMW is as common in Germany as Nissan and Honda in the US. I live in The Netherlands where it's about as common to see a BMW (5% market share, 2% in the US).
I wouldn't trust anything about BMW or other premium German brands from a US source as an EU customer, because:
1) US (and Canadian, Australian, Malaysian) fuel is of much lower quality, and BMW engines are notoriously sensitive to this. As an example, the BMW I own wasn't ever sold in North America or these other markets because of the high sulfur content in the fuel.
2) US consumers who buy BMW are going to have a selection bias towards people buying muscle cars. You're not just looking at reliability numbers, but numbers skewed by Americans who'd buy a foreign luxury vehicle with a powerful engine.
3) BMW is fickle about its maintenance requirements, and generally the further you get away from Germany the worse your quality of maintenance and ability to source genuine parts easily is going to be.
BMW is still pretty bad when it comes to total cost of ownership, but this German study of vehicles on EU roads shows it isn't quite that bad: https://europe.jdpower.com/de/press-releases/2019-germany-ve...