[ac29]

> 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).

[0] https://www.epa.gov/diesel-fuel-standards/diesel-fuel-standa...

[1] https://www.transportpolicy.net/standard/eu-fuels-diesel-and...

[avar]

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).

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_in_the_United_States#Engin...

2. http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2019/01/u-s-auto-sales-brand-ra...

3. https://www.best-selling-cars.com/germany/2019-q1-germany-be...