The 2017 Consumer Reports reliability ratings just came out. BMW is the fifth most reliable brand. Maintenance is the high cost after sale or lease, followed by repairs. It seems to me the high cost is pats and labor as opposed to reliability issues.
Back in the first Gulf War, we were told Saddam had the fifth largest army in the world. I remember a comedian pointing out that after the first three armies (us, Russia, and China), the size numbers dropped significantly and therefore it wasnât as scary as it sounded. For some reason the CR statement reminds me of that routine. 
If statistics like CRâs annual reliability survey donât jibe with our own opinions, we find ways to knock them. CR asks their customers about the reliability of their vehicles, they get responses, and publish the results. Note that Range Rover is not on the survey, nor is Maserati. I picked them because total sales levels might be comparable to Tesla, which is in the survey. Apparently enough CR subscribers own Teslas but not Range Rovers or Maseratis to be included.
Top five: Toyota, Lexus, Kia, Audi, and BMW. Oddly, Hyundai is tenth. Given that Hyundai and Kia are so similar, it is curious to see such a difference.
Iâll knock CR whether they agree with my opinion or not. Ever since they bought Consumerist theyâve been more interested in click-baity articles than in good, solid consumer journalism. Theyâre a sad shadow of what they used to be.
At any rate, the point is that BMW very well may be the 5th most reliable brand out there, but that doesnât mean that it is reliable. It only means that it is more reliable than the 6th most reliable brand. Kind of like being the 5th tallest person in the room. As long as the 6th tallest is shorter than you, you can be 4 feet tall and still qualify.
Yes, I find that very odd, and I find it odd that Hyundai would be below BMW in reliability unless theyâre including data from many years ago. Iâll put the current crop of Hyundais up against the electrical system nightmare that is BMW any day of the week.
Put me on the list that does not care for Consumer Reports. If one to look at a Toyota based forum they would wonder how Toyota could be rated that high.
@jtsanders I would like to see Consumer Reports publish the demographics of the respondents to its automotive survey. Years ago, I owned a Ford Maverick. It had a poor record, but the Mercury Comet, essentially the same car with a different nameplate had a much better repair record. I wrote to CR about the discrepancy between the repair records of two cars which were identical except for nameplate. The answer I received was âThatâs the way the data came outâ. The question then becomes âWhy did the data come out that way?â I think I know the answer. I remembered that Popular Mechanics used to survey owners of new cars. One article that was published reported on the Ford Granada/Mercury Monarch twins. The average age of the Monarch owners was over seven years higher than that of the Granada owners. I suspect a similar age difference was true for Maverick owners vs Comet owners. I suspect the younger drivers drive their cars harder and perhaps do less frequent maintenance.
There is also a âhaloâ effect. If I paid for a high priced BMW, I would hate to admit that anything could go wrong with my precious car.
Finally, many people donât keep accurate records of problems with their vehicles. When I hastily fill out the CR survey, I do it for memory and donât pull out my file of records of maintenance and repairs done to my vehicles.
Thatâs like trying to get a survey of Toyotaâs that have problems by surveying the people getting service at the Toyota dealer.
Manufacturer Forums are NOT a good place to get an idea of how reliable a particular manufacturer is. A great number of these people go to these forums asking for help for some problem they haveâŠwhile the VAST majority of the owners of these vehicles donât have problems and donât go to the forums. Lexus and Toyota are still 1 and 2 in reliability by several independent surveys and reports.
I agree. I think the major takeaway from the CR survey is that Kia, Hyundai, Audi and BMW have improved reliability and that GM reliability is lower. As the article I read in USA Today said, some of that might be due to new model introduction, but Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC have some work to do if they want to make customers happy and gain sales based on improved reliability.